Page 9 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

I scowled at him. “Shut the fuck up.”

He started laughing and Wyatt shot me a grin. Off Avery and Hannah’s confused expressions, Emmett explained, “Holden had a little crush on her.”

I scowled harder. “I didn’t have a fucking crush on her.”

I had a crush on her. Her hair looked like it was threaded with gold when the sun hit it right.

Everyone stared at me. Hannah raised her eyebrows at my tone, Avery and Emmett exchanged a glance, Wyatt grinned to himself, my dad gave me a chiding look, and my mom narrowed her eyes at me.

Emmett winced at me. “Too bad she’s engaged.”

My gut rolled with irritation.

My mom made a noise under breath before lowering her voice. “Emmett, don’t bring up the engagement around her, please.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“They called it off.”

I froze. Katherine hadn’t mentioned that. That’s why she wasn’t wearing her ring today.

“That’s too bad,” my dad said. “Is that the guy Katherine didn’t like?”

My mom shushed him.

Possibility flickered in the back of my mind but I shoved it away as the old memory rang in my head.

“Ugh, why would anyone go for Holden when they could have one of his brothers?”

“Is she in town for long?” Hannah asked me. “I’d love to meet her.”

My shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I doubt it.” She couldn’t even stand this town for two days.

“That’s too bad,” my dad said. “Would have been nice to catch up after all this time. You boys always had so much fun all together.”

“Not all of us.” Emmett wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“Okay, that’s enough,” my mom said.

Emmett put his arm around Avery. “Adams and I are thinking about a weekend in Victoria at the end of September. Anyone interested?”

She smiled up at him and my heart gave a weird, yearning tug.

This gnawing emptiness in my chest started when commitment-phobe Emmett fell head over fucking heels for Avery a few years ago. The guy’s life changed when he met her. She was everything to him. After work, he either raced home to spend time with her or went to the restaurant she owned so he could watch her work. And those smiles she shot him, like she’d do anything for him?

Last year, Wyatt, who never wanted anything long term, agreed to help Hannah find a boyfriend but ended up keeping her for himself. They got married on the beach, and I watched my brother look at Hannah the same way Emmett looked at Avery.

I’d give anything to love someone like that.

I cleared my throat. “I can’t take the entire weekend off.”

Besides, the last thing I wanted was to watch Emmett and Avery stare into each other’s eyes and whisperI love youfor the fortieth time that day.

Avery raised an eyebrow in concern. “We hardly see you these days.”

After a decade, Rhodes Construction employed two hundred and twelve people. When Emmett became mayor two years ago, he stepped down and I took over both roles. Two hundred people depended on me to keep the work coming in. I worked long hours, longer than I’d admit to my family, and it only got worse once Emmett left, but I’d never want him to feel guilty for pursuing something he loved.

Besides, I’d learned a long time ago that thehappily married with a wife and kidspath wasn’t going to happen for me.

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