Ethan. “Ethan, you’re supposed to be the nice guy of the three brothers. If you turn cranky or irritating like these two, I might just have to start cracking some heads around here.”
He lifted his head and stared across the office at Tori. She tapped her pencil against the corner of her desk and gave him one of her trademark don’t-screw-with-me looks.
“You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry,” Brody teased.
“Shut. Up. Brody.” Tori’s jaw was clenched. It was clear she was reaching the boiling point.
“Sorry. Have a lot on my mind.” Ethan fished his keys out of his pocket and tossed them to her. “I’m pretty sure the contract is laying in the seat.”
She caught the keys and stood. “Thanks. And what made you so bitchy today?”
“Nothing. I don’t know. Not much sleep last night.”
“Oh, a date?” She stopped at his desk and leaned against it, obviously eager for some good gossip.
Too bad he had none for her. “No.”
The place went silent. Good. Until he felt eyes on him. He lifted his gaze and Tori was still there, leaning over his desk to give him her X-ray vision, as if she could see into his brain.
“What?”
“You know that’s not good enough.”
“And you’re not my mother.”
“And you know I’m going to continue to stare at you until you tell me where you were last night.”
Jesus, she was like a dog with a bone. “Why?”
“Because it obviously has something to do with your less-than-stellar mood today.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Then you should have no problem telling us where you were last night.”
Shit.
“She’s got you now, Ethan,” Brody said, propping his feet up on his desk and no doubt grateful he wasn’t the one under Tori’s microscope this morning.
It was clear she wasn’t going to give up. “I went to Riley’s concert.”
Tori made a face and stood. “Glutton for punishment, aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
But Tori was already out the door.
Brody stood and came over to his desk, leaned against it and folded his arms. “What the hell possessed you to go to Riley’s concert?”
Ethan was already nose down in blueprints again. “Zoey likes her.”
“Uh huh. And you sat in the back row and sucked it up?”
“No. We had backstage passes.”
“Oh. Extra-strength pain and humiliation.”
“It wasn’t bad. It’s been ten years. She doesn’t hold a grudge.”
Wyatt snorted. “Bullshit. All women hold a grudge.”
“Yeah, and you don’t?” His brother held a deep grudge against his ex-wife, and it was affecting everything about his life.
Wyatt shrugged and took up his pencil again, effectively tuning them out.
Brody, unfortunately, didn’t. “Seriously, man, what’s up with you seeing Riley?”
“I’m not ‘seeing’ Riley. I took Zoey to her concert. Then I came home. Now I’m at work. Trying to work.” He motioned his head toward the blueprints.
“But you can’t deny there’s some serious history between you two. And unfinished business.”
“Brody’s right.” Tori came back in and shut the door to the office, laying the folder she’d retrieved on her desk. “You should settle it or you’ll end up a grumpy old man like Wyatt.”
“Again, I’m in the room,” Wyatt grumbled.
“Oh, like you care what we say about you, Wyatt,” Tori said as she took her seat and opened the folder. “You ignore us all anyway like you’ve been doing for the past two years. Go back to brooding. I’ll pick on you another day.”
Wyatt had no comment.
Maybe Ethan needed to try the silent approach in the future, because arguing with them was getting him nowhere. There was no business to finish with Riley.
***
“So they want to interview Ethan.”
Riley’s head shot up from the page where she’d been jotting down notes for a song and gaped at Joann.
“No. Absolutely not.”
“He’s part of your past, Riley. A big part. You’ve written like twenty-five songs about him.”
“And no one knows that but
Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade