Page 10 of Starry Skies, Stolen Kisses, and My Best Friend's Brother

“It’s not your house, idiot.It’s mine,” Levi says, glaring at Mark.

“I pay rent.And I’m tired of having to go to the office to message people.”

This might be a way to get on their good sides.“Look, I’ll have people out here tomorrow.It won’t cost that much more to run a line to your house as well.”

Mark waves a hand at me.“See, he gets it.”

“What if I don’t want a line to my house?”Levi is just like Dad, something I didn’t know.

“Then I won’t do it.It’s up to you.”I need to start doing things that show my brothers I’ll listen to them.I need their trust if this is going to work.

Mark and Noah both glare at him.“I want internet,” Noah says.“Ethan and Isaac will as well.You’re the only one who doesn’t.”

“And I own the house.You two moved in without even asking.Build your own damn house if you want it.”Levi folds his arms and leans back in his chair.

“You guys talk it over and let me know tomorrow.”I don’t want to cause a fight.Not now.

Levi nods and changes the subject back to fishing.Several minutes later, or maybe it’s hours—it’s hard to say because I’m bored to tears—Abi and Mae collapse in a fit of giggles into chairs across from us, and I use them to change the subject.

“What’s the story with the lemurs?”I ask, trying not to notice how pretty Mae looks with her long blonde hair going wild.

She stifles her laughter.“Abi wanted to impress one of the river boys and thought she’d take him out to meet the lemurs, but those suckers are sneaky.Before she knew it, the lemurs had scattered everywhere.”

Noah scowls at them.“Did you get them back?”

Abi smiles sweetly.“Mae’s got the magic touch with Sissy.The rest followed her.Please don’t tell Isaac.”

“Explain to me why we have lemurs.”I’m not sure I’m hearing this all correctly.Lemurs?They’ve got to be kidding.

Mark shakes his head.“Isaac’s got all kinds of weird-ass animals out in the barn.He has a friend in Wildlife Services who asked him to take care of a monkey they rescued once, and his reputation got out for being able to handle exotic animals.Most animals don’t stay long, but they keep bringing him lemurs and macaques, so he has a permanent setup for them.He refuses to take any kind of predator though.No big cats or reptiles.And he usually says no to any extremely large animals as well.But we have a baby giraffe right now.”

The campground is a wildlife rescue as well?No wonder it’s a mess.I have no earthly idea how I’m going to fix this.I do know one thing.If we even have a prayer of making this work, we have to bring it into the twenty-first century.

I ask a few more questions about the rescue, but Levi mentions something about fish, and the conversation goes back to their previous discussion.

Mae meets my eyes, and I fix my gaze somewhere else.I can’t look at her.I cannot afford distractions right now, and if I get involved with her, who knows what’ll happen?

“I’m going to bed.See y’all tomorrow.”

As I make my way toward the door, the old wooden planks creaking beneath my feet, Mae catches up to me and takes my hand.I forcefully shake it off, ignoring the hurt in her eyes.The moon casts a pale light over us as we stand outside the rustic lodge in the middle of the dense forest.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter, avoiding her gaze.“I’m just tired.We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

Mae furrows her brows and nods silently as I turn away and retreat to the path to my dimly lit cabin, the sounds of crickets and rustling leaves following me.

THREE

Seth

It takes me a week to assess the whole situation on the property.It’s funny to me that Dad still calls this a farm when it’s more of a river resort, but I get how it happened.Grandpa had a produce farm and sold pumpkins and Christmas trees for extra money.When Mom and Dad got married, they moved out here, and Mom put her own spin on things.She loves events, but that wasn’t consistent enough to raise a family on, so Dad started the campground, which took several years to turn a profit.For the first eight years of my life, we lived on whatever we could grow in our garden and rice.Having meat at a meal was a special occasion, and all my clothes were bought secondhand.

I’m surprised they made it as far as they did.The resort is too chaotic, and nothing fits—from Mom hosting weddings to families camping to my brother’s monkeys—and no one quite knows what to do with the place.

My brothers are understandably skeptical about me being here, but talking to all of them has made one thing clear.They all want to work here full-time.But the campground is bleeding money, so that is the last thing they can do.Dad’s even having trouble now making payments on that mortgage he took out a few years ago.Aside from Noah, who does his books, I’m not sure anyone else knows how bad it really is.

They will today.

My brothers haven’t changed a bit.The same boys who played practical jokes on each other as children still do as adults.They’ve put lemurs in my office, they’ve painted the chairs I sit on, and this morning I found condoms blown up like balloons all over the conference room.I sure as hell hope they didn’t mess with my presentation, or I’ll kill them.It took me a good ten minutes (that I did not have) to clean up the room.

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