“Brandy?”
He almost choked again and fisted his chest. “Uh.”
“Did you think this through?”
“Of course I did! It’s Brandy. Always has been. Always will be.”
“Okay, Brandy.”
Brandy took a long, winding lick of the ice cream trickling down his forearm. He didn’t look like he enjoyed it at all.
“Knock-knock.”
Brandy halted. “What?”
“You look like you need cheering up.”
“Like you after your call?”
Zach sighed. “Don’t remind me. Oh great. The sky’s darkened to match our moods. Quick, make me happy.”
Brandy licked his ice-cream again. “Not only can I get you a job, Zachary. I can get you a flat.”
The determination sparking in his eyes was . . . appealing. Zach shrugged off a little shiver. “You can?”
“If you and your brother don’t mind living out on the peninsula, my bach has a guest cottage at the back. It’s quite private.”
Zach dropped his ice cream. He flung his arms around Brandy’s neck, their chests thumping, and more ice-cream hit the ground with a wet thunk. “I told you. Serendipitous. Good grief, the sky is actually lightening again.”
“That’s because the clouds are moving.”
“The peninsula is perfect, Noah works there.” Zach jerked back. “Wait. You’re not a serial killer are you? Noah wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if you were.”
“No. Not a serial killer.”
“Or a regular killer?”
“Or a regular killer.”
“Anything else I should worry about?”
Brandy turned the pink of an unripe watermelon. “Only my urge to eat you, apparently.”
“Easily solved. We’ll go shopping after we’ve moved. Let’s get started.”
“Come again?”
Zach wasn’t sure Brandy could pull off that hoity-toity air with his shiny shoes on and his suit legs folded around his calves. Or maybe he could?
“What do you mean, get started?”
Zach snapped his head up. “I don’t often get to be the one who helps. Imagine if Noah gets back and we’ve moved all our stuff to your guest cottage already?”
“Shouldn’t you talk to him?”
“And ruin the surprise of his life? Are you kidding?”
“Moving sounds like it might take some time.”
“All our boxes will fit in your car. Three trips max.”
“Do you think I have all day to—”
“Yes.” Zach reached back. Brandy’s hand might be larger, but Zach’s fingers were long, slender. He wrapped those fingers easily and squeezed. “You’ll love it.”
The cottage was in top shape, which was more than Zach could say for Brandy. The man staggered with the last box and set it down on the fluffy rug with the rest.
“How many books do you own?”
“Never counted, but nowhere is home without books! Ohh, let’s unpack them into these empty shelves. They look miserable all bare and lonely.”
Brandy palmed his thighs, breathing hard. Zach had felt that way after the first climb from the road. Then he’d gotten distracted by the pretty sort of wildness of the garden. Brandy’s beach house was a solid beaut of its own, but the guest cottage, shrouded with delicate flowers on creeping vines, looking over the cliffs . . .
His breath fogged the window.
Books! Shelving them.
He whisked around. Brandy was sitting on the floor by the books, hands hooked between parted knees. His eyes were on the view too, although how much of it he could see from this angle was questionable. Especially with the fogged up glass. “It’s beautiful.”
“Captured my heart too.”
“You’ve got excellent taste.”
“Right.” Brandy started picking himself up. “Unpacking.”
Zach skidded across hardwood in his socks and tripped a little onto the rug. He pressed his palms on Brandy’s shoulders, steering him down again. He sank to the floor with a relieved groan. “Rest. Absorb the view. Can I use your phone again?”
Brandy passed it over, and Zach paced the stretch of hardwood between the rug and the windows. Noah and Wade were on their way back.
“I’ll send you a message with an address. I need you to come here first. No stopping, straight here.”
Noah’s voice stiffened. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“No, no! I—” He couldn’t hold it in anymore. He blurted it all out. Everything. How Brandy had a cottage and how they could rent it and that they’d moved all their things there already. “Your sanctuary is just down the road. You can walk there every morning!”
Silence.
Did Noah not hear him? “Did you not hear me?”
“You moved us into a cottage.”
“Not just any cottage, this is like, the picture-book of cottages.”
From the floor, Brandy shielded his eyes from the evening sunshine pouring into the room. Zach found the spot that stretched his shadow over him.
Noah still wasn’t saying much.
“I wish you’d consulted me, Zach.”
“It’s a surprise!”
“A surprise, by the sounds of the place, we cannot afford. Have you signed a contract? How much is the rent?”
Zach’s stomach did some funky flipping. “Just a minute.” He pulled the phone down. “Brandy, how much is rent?”
“What is your budget?”
“Noah, what is our budget?”
“This is why I like to handle the financial side of things, Zach.” Noah told him the budget.
