Not that Nico was admiring the man. Not even a little.
Okay. Maybe a little.
Where Donovan held an air of professionalism, Stone exuded a bad-boy charm. That swagger, the smirk, and the way he wore his ball cap backward were just a few things that hadn’t changed.
“Nico, I’m not sure if you remember my brother, Stone. He’s in the process of movin’ back. Stone, Nico Daugherty. ”
Oh, yeah. Nico definitely remembered him. If he lived to be two hundred, he wouldn’t forget Stone Jameson.
“You used to date Chelsea,” Stone said in that raspy grumble that Nico found eerily sexy.
Used to date Chelsea?Thatwas the memory he was going to draw from?
Stone looked at Donovan. “Or am I thinkin’ of someone else?”
“No, same one,” Donovan said.
Thatwas how they were gonna play it, huh? All right then. Nico would play. “And you punched me in the face because she broke up with me.”
Donovan glanced between them and barked a laugh. “Priceless.”
“I punched him for makin’ her cry,” Stone countered.
Donovan’s head tilted. “In that case, you probably deserved it.”
“Probably,” Nico agreed, grinning from the memory. At the time, he damn sure hadn’t been smiling because Stone Jameson had a mean right hook back then. Looking at him now, there was a good chance he’d perfected those punches.
“Semantics,” Stone muttered, glancing around him toward his truck. “You’re a landscaper now?”
“You could say that.” Nico figured it would come across as arrogant if he told the guy he was a landscape architect and that, technically, he owned the company and employed people who did the hard work. Based on the moue of Stone’s lips, he found landscaping beneath him.
Nico turned his attention to Donovan. “Deborah left me a message last night. Said she’d be out of town, but to give you what I’ve come up with. Have time for me to walk you through it?”
“Actually…” Donovan pulled out his phone and frowned. “I’ve got somethin’ I need to take care of.” He looked at Stone, then back to Nico. “Mind walkin’ my brother through it?”
Nico might’ve spent a good majority of his life playing in the dirt, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew a set-up when he heard one.
“I can do that,” he said, keeping his tone professional. He was here on official business, after all. It didn’t matter to him who he gave the information to. As long as it made it back to Owen and Deborah, he could outline it for the family dog for all he cared.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Donovan told Stone.
“I want pepperoni on mine,” Stone grumbled.
Nico wasn’t sure if that was an inside joke, but he plowed right over it by pulling out the iPad he had tucked under his arm. He tapped the screen and brought up the design he’d created for Deborah when she first approached him to redesign her front yard. Due to the amount of work he’d been doing in some of the neighboring towns, Nico hadn’t had much time to spend in Coyote Ridge.
Standing beside Stone, Nico showed him the 3D design he’d created that displayed all the work he intended to do. He’d been going on for about five minutes when he realized Stone wasn’t listening to a word he said.
“You know, maybe it’d be best if I try to get by here when Deborah’s back.”
Stone glanced over, his hazel eyes rimmed in red, as though he was either hungover or running on little to no sleep.
“You told me you and my sister were done,” Stone said.
Well, apparently, his brain was functioning even if he wasn’t paying attention.
“She dumped me,” he corrected.
Stone took a step closer, eyes narrowed, voice low. “I heard y’all were back together a week later.”
