Page 37 of Room Service

13

Trent

“Damn, this is way too much,” I groaned to myself, leaning back in my chair, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples.

“Dude, you’re not the only one working here, so stop complaining,” Mason called out.

“Yeah,” Kevin added. “I only just got here, but you slave drivers are already putting me to work.”

“You should have been here to help out sooner,” Mason griped.

“I was pretty far out. It took a while to clear things up so I could get here,” Kevin retorted.

I let out a loud sigh that had the wonderful side effect of shutting both of them up.

“Could you both keep your mouths shut and keep working? I’ve been here working longer than the both of you. I was here alone yesterday going through meetings, so if anyone has the right to complain, it’s me!”

There were some quiet grumblings of complaint anyway, but it just made me smirk to myself.

I was caught up in work. The first few days there had barely been much to do compared to what we needed to complete today. Even with both my brothers there to help me, there was way too much on my plate, enough to start giving me a headache. It didn’t help that I’d been getting calls from my PA back in Nashville. Something had come up that needed my attention, and I didn’t have the time to deal with it on top of everything else.

My brothers were at least making themselves useful, but I still felt swamped.

I looked up at them. Mason looked the most like me, though he was the least like me. He had the same grey eyes that I did, his hair a darker blond than mine, and he was only an inch shorter. Kevin didn’t look as much like me, with the green eyes he’d gotten from his mother, and light brown hair, though he still had the same features as the rest of us. He was six foot three, a couple of inches shorter than me.

We all had the same physique as our Dad, so it wasn’t like I could intimidate them just because I was an inch or so taller. I saw and spoke to Mason a lot more than Kevin. Mason was the partier, and probably the one person in the family who had the most interest in me. Besides Dad, he was the family member I heard from most. He was the last person I’d seen before my decision to come back to Charlotte.

Kevin, though… he and I didn’t get along as well. I didn’t know how he got along with the rest of the family, but while he was pretty outgoing, he struck me as another isolated soul.

My little half-brother Kevin was what most people would call a free spirit. While I wouldn’t quite put it like that, I knew he liked traveling more than staying in one place. Even Mason the partier wasn’t quite as bad. And he didn’t necessarily go to all the luxurious locations. He'd sent me pictures of the places he visited, and there were about as many pictures of random mountains, forests, and obscure villages as there were cities, hotels, and beaches.

I had always suspected, that of all of us, he would be happy whether he was rich or poor. Kevin was good at finding the bright side of life. Most of his life was spent across the ocean, and he was different from both me and Mason.

“Can I leave you guys with more to do, or will you try to stage a revolt?” I asked.

Their heads jumped up and they sent twin glares at me. They looked a lot more like each other than they looked like me. Besides the slight differences in age, they could have been twins. And they had way more in common. They were both carefree spirits. The difference came in where Mason loved to party, and Kevin just loved to move around.

“You are not leaving us here to go slack off,” Mason said, pointing a finger at me. “I don’t care how much more you’ve had to deal with.”

“Yeah,” Kevin added. “If we’re finishing all of this by tonight, we all need to put the effort in.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you acting as if I’ll just drop everything I had on you both? I’m still here and working!”

I sighed and let the matter drop. There was no reason to reduce some of my load by giving it to them. Dad had taught all of us about running a business, but of the three of us, I was the only one who’d been doing it for the past few years. I was used to it so of course, I could work slightly faster.

The only good thing was that there weren’t as many documents for today. It was so much easier looking things up online, though it was a bit of a strain on my eyes. I grumbled to myself once more, remembering I’d left my reading glasses in my office back in Asheville. I’d have to call my PA back and have them sent over.

Or, I could just get a new set. If I could find the time to get out of the office.

I lifted my arms, stretching out. Then I got back down to work.

I wondered what Jessi was doing.

The thought slipped through my tight control, and I flattened my lips to keep it to myself, not to alert my brothers that something was wrong. My ensuing problem was that I’d thought her name, and more thoughts of her followed.

I’d been doing so well not to think about her…

I glanced at my brothers, wanting to keep my thoughts private. I kept it all in, pretending I was still paying attention to what I was supposed to be doing, even though I was barely half-interested at this point.