How to Love Your Neighbour(12)

His phone buzzed. Moving away from the window, he swiped his thumb across to answer.

“Hey,” he said to Wes.

“Hey, back. How’s it going?”

Noah shrugged, even though his brother couldn’t see him. “Fine. The house next door? Someone moved in.”

“Someone like an owner?”

Forcing himself not to look back out the window, he walked toward the master bedroom. He didn’t have much furniture, but he’d bought a kick-ass California king bed. Sitting down on it now, he rolled his shoulders. “Inherited, I think.”

“So, now you can make an offer face-to-face.”

Straight to the point. That was Wes. The thoughtful, optimistic one. Chris was analytical, serious. Noah was the fun one. The fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, carefree one. Supposedly. No one knew how much thought, planning, and work went into choosing his deals, seeing them through, and fighting for what he wanted. Not much of that was carefree. He just didn’t bitch about it. They had a sister as well, but Ari was in a world all her own. She was the princess of the family, not held to the same expectations as the others. Which was likely why she was the only one who could put up with their father.

“Already did. She dug her heels in but from what I can tell, she’s a paycheck-to-paycheck girl. Once she sees how much work owning a total fixer-upper is, she might change her mind. Pretty sure her roof needs to be redone. Her siding is shot. That’s just the outside.” She had a hell of a yard, though. He could picture a pool, cabana, maybe a small guesthouse for his mother when she was stateside. He could see himself flipping burgers while his brothers hung out, conversation and laughter surrounding him. Like when Gramps was alive.

“Maybe you have enough to focus on just with your place.”

Noah gripped the phone, smoothing out his frown. “I am. I’m focusing on making that part of it. You wait, man, it’s going to be awesome. Remember when Gramps used to rent out that property upstate? We’d all hang out and swim, eat until we couldn’t breathe?”

He heard Wes’s sigh in the background. “Of course I remember. I loved those summers. Before everything went to shit.” His brother laughed, but it didn’t feel funny. “You okay, man?”

“Just lots on my mind. Lots to do. We need to have a meeting about the corporate acquisitions I just made for Squishy Cat.” Their youngest brother had named their company. “Demo crew is coming tomorrow. We’re taking the wall down between the living room and kitchen. Open it up. I’m trying to get ahold of some press contacts, see if I can get a spotlight on this which will build my credibility out here. Maybe back East, too, since I heard Dad’s trashing me.”

“Ignore that. It’s a tantrum. He’ll get over it. He knows he lost a huge moneymaker when you said you weren’t coming back.”

“Well then, he should have let me actually do something while I was there.”

“I know. So? You’re going to swing a hammer on this one?”

Irritation bubbled inside of him. His brothers liked to give him a hard time, but he worked his ass off. Maybe he didn’t literally sweat when he was making a buck, but neither did they. “It’ll be a good way to get my aggression out seeing as beating up you or Chris would be like picking on a toddler.”

Wes chuckled. “Whatever, man. You’re all talk.”

Not this time. This time, he was all action. From start to finish. He was hiring people because he knew his limits, but he was all in on this one. He was going to grow old here while he built an empire around him and showed his dad, himself, that he could stick. That he could succeed without any hand-holding. Like his grandfather, he’d build a legacy of his own. One day, maybe he’d have a son and that kid wouldn’t rip apart his work piece by piece while simultaneously destroying his family.

He rolled his shoulders again, rose from the bed. He needed to get going.

“I gotta go. I’m meeting up with Rob. Then I have some landscapers coming to rip out the hedges between our yards.” He hadn’t told his brothers about the kids or the three-on-three tournament. He wasn’t sure why.

“That’s a nice gesture,” Wes said.

Noah glanced out his bedroom window at the crooked freaking hedging. “They’re a nightmare, man. It’s a necessity.”

“Maybe, but it might look like an olive branch to the owner next door. You know what they say, good fences make good neighbors.”

An idea sparked quick in his head, making Noah smile. “Fences. Yeah. They do say that, don’t they? Talk soon, bro.”

He hung up, got ready to go out, and left the house, heading toward Grace’s front door.

When she answered, his brain went momentarily blank. Sweaty tendrils of hair stuck to her forehead. Her tank top was damp and she held a glass of something ice cold in her hand. She looked tired but happy. Weird. He hadn’t felt happy trimming the hedges. Nor had he felt any great thrill pulling out the mower last week.

“Hey, neighbor,” she said, taking a long drink.

His brain fritzed as he watched a droplet of water fall from the glass onto her skin. Jesus. Focus, man. “Hey. I’m just headed out.”

She lowered the glass. “Big meeting?” Her smile was cheeky.

He didn’t smile. It would be false advertising, and he knew she was joking, since he was in gym shorts. “I’ve got someone coming to fix the fence. I was thinking in addition to reinforcing it, it should be repainted.”