Zach cocked his head. “That would be hard, Brandy. I’ve seen too many of your clothes to be intimidated.” He eyed today’s suit. “Doing much better today, though. Open at the collar suits you. One more button and we might see some silver hair.”
“Silver!”
Zach raised his brow, and Brandy popped not one, not two, but three buttons. A wealth of dark hairs matted his chest. With a bit more style, the man could really pull. “Are we doing the skinny dipping now?”
“Not now, Zach. I haven’t eaten in six hours.”
“Me neither!”
Brandy frowned. “Why not? I told you John would put—”
Zach spotted Brandy’s satchel and jacket and grabbed them. “I was out here, wasn’t I? Watching you.”
“Watching me.” Brandy slipped on the jacket Zach held open for him, and slung his satchel on. “For how long?”
“Four hours? Hey, one of the extras forgot their hat.”
Brandy doubled over for the hat and dusted it of sand. He cleared his throat. “You were watching me all day?”
“Put that way, I sound like a love-struck stalker.”
“How would you put it?”
Zach hauled out his phone. “I wanted your number. Then I got mesmerised. Should we eat together? Also, is there any chance you’ll crash at your bach again tonight? The bus makes me sick.”
A hat landed on his head and Zach was face to face with a charmed smile. “Let me pick up a few things from my apartment—food, pyjamas—and I’ll make us dinner.”
“I love you.”
Zach found his brother curled up on the couch, staring at his phone.
“Brandy’s cooking. You want?”
Noah looked up and smiled slowly. “I, ah . . . not tonight. I ate out after my injection.”
“Are you okay?”
“Four times a year, Zach. I’m used to them.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
Noah looked toward the windows. “I’m fine. Not hungry is all.”
Zach planted his bum on the arm of the chair and peered at Noah’s screen. He caught a flash of Wade’s name before Noah whipped the phone out of sight. “Okay, I get it. You want to sext with your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“But he very soon will be!”
A wan smile. “Just because we had a moment doesn’t mean we’re an item. Besides, he’s heading back to New Plymouth for a week. Helping a friend move.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“And he’s not here, spending all the time he can with you first?” It was a wriggling effort to free his phone from his jeans.
“What are you doing?” Noah rested his head against Zach’s hip.
“Telling Brandy I’m eating here.”
“What? Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not. You need me.”
Noah clasped a hand over his screen and stole the phone. “Go. I—I’d prefer a few hours to myself.”
“Alone?”
“To hear my thoughts.”
“Are you sure?”
Noah stood and tugged Zach to his feet. “Brandon seems like a very nice man, Zach.”
“He super is.”
“Good-looking, too.”
Zach paused. Cocked his head. “I see where you’re going with this.”
Noah smiled him out the front door.
Zach bounded into a cloud of sautéing onion and garlic, brandishing his Very Exciting Idea. “You and me, we’re gonna find love.”
Across the kitchen island, vegetables tumbled off Brandy’s chopping board, completely missing the pan.
He set down the board down and scrambled to collect his mushrooms and red peppers. “We are?”
“Yes. You’ll help me, and I’ll help you.”
A frown quirked Brandy’s brow; he turned it towards the pan.
“So. Tell me,” Zach said, pacing the length of the wooden island. Everything was wooden in here. Except for the shell-themed ceiling wallpaper. “What’s your story?”
“My . . . story?”
“Have you ever wildly loved, or been loved?”
Brandy prodded the colours in his pan. “I’ve never been loved, no.” He turned and grabbed a bottle from under the island. “Wine?”
“I’d love to say yes. But I have this whole no drinking, no fucking thing going on right now.”
Eyebrows arched.
“I’m tired of being disappointed, Brandy. I have huge expectations of falling in love, and the hope stays until they inevitably kick me out of bed.”
“You’re looking for more romance?”
“Romance that turns into lasting love.”
The cork popped free and Brandy poured himself a generous glass. “Lasting love? You’re in your early twenties.”
“I’m determined to reach a golden anniversary.”
“You don’t seem the type who’d be satisfied settling down.”
“Settling? There’s no settling involved in this. There’ll be only mad, passionate love that burns for decades.”
“Are you sure that exists?”
“When I fall in love, there will be no other man for me. Ever. I am an albatross.”
“An albatross?”
“I may go where the wind takes me, but I will always return to my nest. To my mate.”
The wine was already casting a flush up Brandy’s still-exposed chest and neck. “Well.”
Zach palmed his breast. “Brandy, give me more than ‘well’.”
“The man you end up with won’t know what hit him.”
“Much better. Now you.”
“I work too hard, and I have an atrocious sense of fashion. It’s looking like I’m a lost cause, Zach.”
“I’m fond of lost causes.”
Brandon took a very long drink.
