Page 85 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

I hand it to her, and watch as she makes a little plate, with a few crackers, carrot sticks, pre-cut cubes of cheese, and a handful of nuts. She settles back into my lap, her back against my chest and sets the plate into her lap, alternately popping some into her mouth and feeding me some.

It's the picture of utter contentment.

And I wonder how I can make this night last forever.

"Ooh, I forgot." She braces her hand on my thigh as if she's about to move away again, but I stop her.

"No, don't leave. What do you need?"

She points to the bag. "I got you some beer."

"I'm good. You stay."

A little growl escapes her lips. "No! It's that Belgian beer you guys— um, the one you like. It's refrigerated. Hope it's still cold."

With my arm around her stomach keep her tight against me, I hook my foot into the handle of the bag and drag it towards us, then when it's within reach, I grab it with my hand then hold it open to her.

"So resourceful," she laughs.

"It comes with a decade of experience of forgetting something on the ground when we're five floors up on scaffolding," I admit.

She pulls out the bottle of beer. Using my shirt, she twists off the top and hands it to me.

"How did you know I like this brand of Belgian beer?" I say, taking it with a thanks.

"It takes up half the drinks fridge, it's hard not to notice when I want one single slot for my iced tea," she grumbles.

"No," I say, before taking a long drink, "you notice on purpose. You liiiike me."

"Shush, it's not that deep," she says, but the colour in her cheeks says otherwise. And then, before I can stop her, she's sliding off my lap again reaching for the baguette.

"So," she says, settling down on the blanket across from me, tucking her legs up under her, tugging my shirt down over her knees. "Tell me about tonight. In detail. How do you think it went?"

"I told you everything already. The during version."

"But I want the after version now. The behind the scenes version. How did this even start? You and Hunter both just one day deciding to become property tycoons?"

I shrug. "I mean, that's essentially the short version, honestly."

"Okay, then I want the long version."

So I tell her, tell her how Hunter and I had met at an interschool rugby competition. As much as I loved my friends, they were not really the rough play type, and they made me sign up after I'd given Zachary a split lip in a bout of overly enthusiastic roughhousing. "We were on opposite teams and he tackled me so hard, I saw stars, and then helped me up and apologised. I thought, this bloke's either an idiot or he's going to be one of my best mates. Turned out to be both," I say, chest filling with the warmth I always feel when I think of him.

Out of high school, we kept ending up at the same job sites. One time we both worked under a foreman who was a complete dick, borderline abusive, but I took it. I guess I was used to it, too scared to rock the boat. But Hunter wasn't having any of that shit. He stood up for me and we both got kicked off the job. From that day, we were done working for other people. That same day, we went to talk to his older brother Elliot, who helped us register our own businesses.

From that day, we've always helped each other. We bid jointly on the big jobs, feed each other work when one company's slammed and the other's got capacity. I've got blokes who've worked a Hunter Monroe build and then rolled straight onto one of mine the next week. It shouldn't work. Every business book would tell you it shouldn't. You're supposed to be competitors." I shrug. "But it does."

"So how does my brother and the other guys fit into it all?" she asks, after taking a moment to think.

"Well, if you've seen how the Monroe brothers do it, then you'd understand. They're all as different as night and day, but they found a way, an avenue for it to work, and so we copied them. We know real estate, we know bars, so we own entertainment venues. It just works." I hold out my hand and she drops a cube of cheese into it. "But most importantly, we never let the business take priority over the friendship. We'll burn it all down before we'll let that happen."

A shadow falls over her face.

"What?" I ask, instantly needing to know what's on her mind.

She swallows. "It's nothing. You guys have really done an amazing job." She chuckles. "Considering you guys could barely read a bus schedule when I first met you."

"Could too!"