The Buy-In (Graham Brothers #1)(26)

“What is he thinking?” Collin asks.

“He’s been watching too much HGTV,” I answer. “That and his baby girl went and got married.”

“Don’t blame me,” Harper says. “What are you thinking?”

That’s a loaded question. I’m thinking about how to win back my woman, but no way am I telling them that yet.

I choose my words carefully. “That it sounds like a viable option. Viable-ish. And I don’t have a job or focus right now. Why not hop on board?”

I don’t know how to read Harper’s stare, but it’s definitely the kind that comes before something I won’t want to hear. “What happens if it fails?”

“Who says it will? And if it does, I’ll just move on.” I shrug. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I just don’t want to see you going dark again,” Harper says.

“Going dark? Doesn’t sound like me.” I pull at the collar of my shirt. “What is it y’all always say—I’m a big ball of sunshine?”

“You usually are,” Harper says. “But when you’re not, that’s when you go dark. Which can actually be something that goes along with ADHD and—”

I hold up a hand. “That’s enough of the therapy session. I’m fine. Let’s swing this focus back to Tank and his big idea.”

Harper is the reason I even got tested for ADHD. I got this niggling feeling when she talked to our family about her diagnosis, a feeling like I had questions that needed answers. But the answers I got would have helped me more as I struggled in classrooms for years. As an adult, I don’t really see it affecting much of my life, and there’s no need to psychoanalyze everything or attach my behaviors and actions to the label. It definitely doesn’t apply to this.

“I’ve got a thought.” Chase leans forward, glancing between the three of us before taking Harper’s hand.

“Just one thought?” Harper teases.

He smiles. “Maybe a few. Your dad has been kind of floating for a while. He has you guys, and don’t get me wrong, your family is amazing. But he hasn’t had anything that’s uniquely his. Not since I’ve known you.”

This observation rankles a bit coming from Chase. But he’s not an outsider since we basically adopted him when he and Harper first became friends. Often, he has insight into our family we can’t see because we’re too close. It’s only slightly irritating. It would be more irritating if he was wrong.

Chase shrugs. “Maybe taking on this project is his way of finding his own thing.”

“Yeah, but it’s still a family thing,” Collin says, shaking his head. “He bought the town for the brewery, which is something he’s doing with all of us.”

“Sure,” Chase says easily. He’s not arguing exactly, but he’s also not backing down. “It’s for the family, but it’s his idea, his initiative, his contribution.”

“What are you saying?” Collin asks, a little too antagonistically, earning him a dark look from Harper. He lightens his tone. “Sorry. I mean, what do you think we should do about this?”

“I don’t know,” Chase says. “But I’d say go easy on him. Open up your mind to the possibility.”

“Is that what you did?” Collin asks, swinging his gaze to meet mine. “You opened up your mind?”

I ignore his sarcasm. “Maybe I did. And I could really see Tank’s vision.” I also saw Lindy, but again, I’m keeping that to myself.

“Maybe you could see it because you don’t have a full-time job,” Collin says. “Or a business. Or more on your social calendar than movie nights with Tank.”

I’m not going to give into his needling. “Think what you want. I’m just giving my opinion. And my movie nights with Tank are an enviable social engagement.”

Collin sighs. “Where is this town he bought?”

I start giggling again. Collin huffs out an annoyed breath, while Chase looks amused. Harper rolls her eyes.

“Forty minutes or so away,” I answer. “It’s … it’s …”

The giggles take over, shifting into tear-inducing, gut-cramping laughter. I have to scoot back from the table and bend over, holding my stomach. Smoky, trying to fix whatever’s wrong with me, bounds over and puts his tongue in my ear.

“Spit it out, Patty,” Collin says.

I pet Smoky, wipe the tears from my eyes and look from Collin to Chase to Harper. “Drum roll, please.” None of them oblige so I start drumming on my thigh until they all look ready to toss me in the pool. “Tank purchased a town called … Sheet Cake, Texas.”

Chase, who didn’t grow up in Texas like the rest of us, looks as though his eyes are going to bug out of his head. The thing about living in this state is you just expect … strange.

Not all strange the way Austin is strange—which it totally is, like weird, hippy artist strange—but Texans do things that are bigger and often quirkier than other places. And then we fully commit. If there’s a town named after a classic cake recipe—the Texas sheet cake—of course it’s here. And proud of it!

“They have a festival, don’t they?” Harper asks, tilting her head.