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He nods. “Pretty much. Bryce lives and breathes that place. I hope, once I get there, he’ll be able to relinquish some responsibilities and finally have a life.” He runs his thumb along his lips. “My mom started the company before I was born. My entire life, our family values have been based on the hard work and perseverance of her. She was told a woman would never be able to succeed in the magazine business. They said she’d get swallowed by the big dogs. They were right. She had doors slammed in her face. One of my first memories is of her cursing out a guy in the bank. I don’t remember the details, but Austin told me she was turned down for a loan. That didn’t stop her. She sold our house, downsized, and took that money to invest in herself.”

“I think I’m in love with your mother.”

He laughs. “She always said everything was for her boys.”

“I get it. My dad is a mechanic. He owns his own shop in Queens, and if he asked me to run it tomorrow, I’d be pretty tempted.”

“You know about cars?” His brows rise.

I raise a shoulder. “I know a thing or two.”

“What I wouldn’t give to see you under the hood of a car. Austin is a huge car enthusiast. If he finds out I’m seeing a girl whose family owns an auto body shop, he’ll try to steal you for himself.”

I bite my lip. “I’d like to meet this Austin.”

“Hell no,” he says. “You’re all mine.”

I briefly turn away to hide my reaction. “So, what about your dad? Is he still in the picture?”

He shakes his head, dropping it while rubbing his eyes with one hand. “That’s a totally different story. He’s, um … hmm … how to explain good ole Dad.”

“That bad?”

He barks out a laugh. “Well, he married Austin’s high school fling—”

“Wait, what?”

“Yep. There’s more to that story, but I’ll save the crazy details for maybe our third date.” He winks, sending chills down my spine. “So, even though he still acts like he’s part of the company, I hear from Bryce that he’s never actually there.”

“And you guys are okay with this?”

He quickly brings his shoulders up and down. “Bryce and Austin are at odds with it. I’m kind of indifferent. It’s funny how all us brothers look at our upbringing differently. Bryce is eight years older than me, and being the oldest, he’s always been the more cynical one, always feeling like he got the short end of the stick, especially with our dad. Austin is the crazy one. I remember my mom always saying, if she had her second kid first, she wouldn’t have had her second kid.”

I laugh.

“I guess it’s true. Austin was a handful. Still is. But Dad understood his kind of crazy, so they did a lot of things together.”

“They still had you, so he couldn’t have been that bad.”

“I was a surprise. The best surprise, I might add.” He puts his hand to his chest. “I can do no wrong; you know this.” He has a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Oh, I’m sure.”

The grin that covers his face makes my heart beat faster.

“Our mom treated us as fair as she could with our age gaps. I spent a lot of time just tagging along when I was younger. I have my own memories, too. Sometimes, that’s all we get, you know?”

I nod. “I know.”

“Then, let’s read, completely relive your memory while we’re here.”

I curl up next to him and open my book, and we read for the next hour.

I glance at my phone and look at the time. “The library is about to close. We should get out of here before we turn into a Ben Stiller movie.”

“You mean the one about the museum?”

“Maybe. Oh, that makes me think of the time Ross rented out the planetarium for Rachel, so he could show her the stars.”