I thought I found it with Brandon, the guy I was seeing when I inherited Moonlight. Overnight, though, he started to see dollar signs instead of me.
Jeremy was so wonderfully unexpected. He was nothing like I first believed and everything I’d ever imagined for myself. He was smart, sweet, gorgeous, and so fucking talented. I was in awe of him. I loved him.
The craziest part of all was that he loved me right back. Not for the first time, I wished I was with him in Paris right now.
“Two more weeks,” I muttered. It was becoming my mantra. Maybe if I repeated it enough, it would make the time go faster.
A knock sounded on my office door just before Liam poked his head in. “Hey, Sean. You got a minute?”
“Sure,” I said with a smile. It was good to see him out and about. He had put on some weight and his color was much better than it had been. The combination of therapy and the right medications was working for him.
“You look good, little brother.”
“Thanks,” Liam said with a quick smile. He took the seat across from me and began, “I need to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me.”
“O…kay?” I replied in confusion.
“Are you supposed to be in Paris with Jeremy right now?”
I froze for a second. How did he know about that? I was sure I never mentioned it to him. I didn’t want him to feel bad. I wondered if Mom had said something to him about it. I hedged a little. “We made plans in July, but nothing was set in stone.”
Liam rolled his eyes and scowled at me. “I call bullshit. I overheard Mom tell Robert you had plans to meet Jeremy at a few of his stops, and you were supposed to spend the last two weeks of his tour with him.”
I sighed. “Liam, I couldn’t leave you when you needed me. Jeremy will have other tours.”
Liam shook his head. “I get why you did it in the beginning when things were really bad. And I love you for that. I love that you care enough to put everything aside to take care of me.”
His gaze traveled around my office until it stopped on a picture of him and me outside the hotel after we’d inherited it. “Moonlight was always your dream, not mine. And you never once tried to make me feel bad for pursuing my own dreams. For the past two years, you’ve run this place without a break except for a few nights out with Jeremy.”
He smiled sadly. “I love you, Sean, but you’re a bit of a control freak. You have a hard time letting go and letting someone else take the reins for a while.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he glared at me, daring me to contradict him. I couldn’t. He smirked in satisfaction. “The same goes for taking care of me. You think you need to be around me all the time to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“You almost died!” I retorted. My throat felt tight. “I can’t lose you.”
Liam got up from his chair and came around the desk to kneel beside me. “I know you’re scared, and so is Mom. But I’m better now. A lot better. In fact, I’m going to start a part-time job on Monday at the VNA clinic in Asbury Park.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “Really? Are you ready for that? What does your therapist think about it?”
He growled in annoyance. “It was my therapist’s idea. She thought it would be good for me to ease my way back into doing what I love. I can still help the underserved without, you know, being in a war zone.”
A myriad of emotions flooded me. Relief, joy, fear. It was overwhelming, and a sob burst from my throat before I could stop it.
“Liam,” I croaked.
My brother rose to his feet and pulled me up with him. His arms went around me, and he held me tightly while I wept.
“I’m okay,” he said softly. After a while, he stepped back and grabbed a tissue from the box on my desk. I wiped my face and blew my nose.
“All right,” he said, his tone resolute. He put his hands on my shoulders. “Have a seat while I tell you what’s going to happen next.”
“What?”
Liam pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a couple of times. My own phone pinged with a notification. I looked up at him in confusion. “Check your airline app,” he said.
I opened the app I’d downloaded when I was going to travel with Jeremy. There was a notification telling me to view my boarding pass. “What is going on right now?”
Liam raised a mocking brow. “Did you forget how to use your phone?”
