Chapter 3

Timothy bit back the frown that was forming on his lips. It was proving difficult to gauge exactly what was going through Derek’s mind right now. He had hoped that time and experience would have made him better equipped to deal with the notorious alpha’s behavior, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

In college, Timothy had been well aware of Derek’s reputation. The rumor among their friends was that Derek never let an available omega go unbedded. Which was why he had always kept his guard up when dealing with him. Every friendly interaction had been backed by Timothy’s careful and conscious decision not to allow himself to become just another trophy on Derek’s wall. That shared history had bled into their present.

It was clear just from the few minutes they had spent together that Derek hadn’t changed much. He was still flirtatious and full of himself. The only real change was that he was actually opening up about his past and his family. In the two years they’d been friends Timothy couldn’t remember Derek sharing anywhere near as much information as he was sharing now. That fact alone gave Timothy pause.

This could have been just another tactic to get him to lower his guard. While he didn’t want to believe that Derek would stoop to something as low as using a sob story to get sex, he couldn’t rule out the possibility. They had been friends, some might say good friends, but Derek’s pursuit of Timothy had colored all of their interactions in a sort of cat-and-mouse game.

Derek always flirting, Timothy always evading.

The problem was, Timothy wasn’t sure the game was over.

“That’s not really out of character for you,” Timothy said as he looked down at his soda. It was a nice neutral response. Something that he hoped would sound sympathetic but not emotional.

“That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel bad about it though,” said Derek hastily. The tone of his voice made him sound almost desperate to make Timothy understand.

Timothy tried to fight back that smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. He really had missed Derek. The two years since he’d disappeared had been boring and empty by comparison.

“Fine, so your parents made you leave and you didn’t want us to distract you. I understand.” Timothy looked up at Derek and nodded in affirmation. He offered a sweet smile that he hoped conveyed his acceptance of the explanation. “So then, what have you been doing all this time? I’m guessing you got a job with some big company back in New York?”

Derek looked sheepish and half turned away from the table. “Um, well…” his voice trailed off and he avoided meeting Timothy’s gaze.

“Wait, so you just gave me that whole long explanation about your family and why you didn’t talk to any of us after you left, but you didn’t even end up doing what you said you were going to do?” Timothy let his hands fall to the table and slumped back in his chair in mock defeat. Somehow, he really wasn’t surprised by this revelation.

“It’s not like that. I just…” Derek sat up straight and seemed to be trying to gather his thoughts. Timothy had never seen him quite so flustered before. Maybe he wasn’t making all of this up. “After I left school I didn’t want to think about it anymore. Do you remember the photography class we took together as an elective?”

“I remember you were terrible at it.” Timothy frowned.

“Yeah, well I was better than you were.”

“That’s not hard considering I had the flu and missed half of my classes that semester. I barely managed to get a passing grade,” Timothy retorted. That had been a truly miserable period in his life and one of the few times that he had actually been truly homesick while he was away. His friends had done their best to take care of him, but it still made him realize how much he had missed his family.

Especially Andrew. When Timothy caught the chicken pox as a child, Andrew had sat next to him and read him stories in order to distract him from his misery. When Andrew had eventually come down with the same illness, Timothy had returned the favor. It was one of the earliest instances of the bond they had developed.

“Yeah, well…I told my parents that I’d discovered my calling with it. I talked them into a few more classes and some nice equipment. Then they set me up with a professional mentor that was supposed to teach me the trade,” Derek continued his story.

“If I remember right, you spent that entire class taking pictures of cute guys and convincing them to give you their phone number.” Timothy shoved aside the memories of his childhood and dragged himself back to the present. He still wasn’t certain that Derek wasn’t trying an angle here and that alone was reason enough for him to be on guard.

“It was a legitimate tactic,” said Derek defensively. “Since someone was playing hard to get I had to do something. Alphas have needs you know.” He grinned playfully.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Timothy feigned ignorance, but Derek’s comment made him more certain now that their cat-and-mouse game was still in full swing. He would have to be careful not to relax too much. It didn’t help that Derek’s glittering green eyes were still just as mesmerizing as they had been back then. As much as he wanted to lose himself in that emerald gaze, he wasn’t going to risk it. He wouldn’t become just another one of Derek’s conquests.

It wasn’t just a matter of preserving his own dignity, however. Their friendship wouldn’t survive an encounter like that. Now that they’d reunited, Timothy didn’t want to lose that friendship again.

“Anyway, so you got the mentee position I assume?” prompted Timothy, trying to move the conversation along.

“Yeah, well. The guy they set me up with is the one that handled all of my cousin’s photoshoots. I’m sure you’re aware that Luke was a model.”

Timothy nodded in confirmation.

“Well, we worked together for a while, but the guy never actually taught me anything. He treated me like a slave, made me fetch stuff, it was frustrating and degrading. He never took me seriously and after more than a year of that stuff I finally snapped and told him I was tired of it.” Derek’s expression had darkened and he looked upset by the memory of what he’d gone through during that mentorship.

“The bastard then had the audacity to tell me that this is why I was never going to make it as a photographer. He seemed to think he’d been subtly teaching me things all along like some kind of Mr. Miyagi of photography or something. So either he’s worse than he thinks he is or I’m more stupid than I thought.” Derek seemed deflated as he sat back his chair and let his gaze settle on the table in front of him.

“You’re not stupid,” Timothy protested before he could stop himself. “I saw your transcripts, remember? You had excellent grades. Photography just wasn’t your thing. That’s all.”

“Well, my parents didn’t see it that way.” Derek shook his head slowly. “Once Vince, the photographer, cut me loose they decided that the only thing left to do was show me some ‘tough love.’ They told me that I was an adult and I needed to act like one. They were cutting me off completely, just like they had promised to do. That happened what…like two months ago now? Thankfully Luke and your brother were nice enough to let me stay with them, but after today I’m pretty sure those days are numbered.”

Timothy had to physically bite his lip to keep from speaking. His initial reaction was to immediately offer the spare room in his condo to Derek. It was just sitting there, empty. There was no reason for it to go to waste. His friend was here, in need. Giving him a place to stay for a few weeks wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Would it? Except, that sort of proximity would be dangerous. It would be impossible for him to remain on guard against Derek’s charms all the time.

No. For now, at least, there had to be another way to solve Derek’s problem.

“Okay, so I’m assuming you’ve been looking for a job?” Timothy tried to steer the conversation away from the topic of living arrangements. He wasn’t sure what he would do if Derek asked to stay with him. He wouldn’t be able to deny him outright.

“Of course I have. I’ve applied pretty much everywhere there is in town and I’ve gotten zero response.” Derek threw up his hands in exasperation and let them fall limply back to his lap. “As far as I can tell, I’m unemployable. No job experience, so no one is hiring but I can’t get job experience because no one will hire me.”

Timothy peered out the window and down at the lobby below. There were a few people milling about, but it was still mostly deserted. He caught sight of Peter walking towards his office with their brother Eli. The two of them seemed embroiled in some intense conversation.

“Have you tried to see if there’s something you can do around here?” Timothy asked, looking back up at Derek. He really didn’t have any suggestions beyond that. It was true that Derek’s skillset was mostly limited to pick-up lines and beer pong. He did have a bachelors degree, but if Timothy remembered right it was something weird and not very useful.

“Not really.” Derek shook his head, but his expression was thoughtful. “I mean, I guess I could always try manual labor. There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of that. I just…” Derek sighed before continuing, “I just don’t want to ruin things for Luke, you know? He’s really happy here with Peter. They’ve got a kid. I don’t want to put him in the awkward position of getting me a job here and then I fail and let everyone down. He’s pretty much the only family I’ve got left and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Then Derek, the solution is staring you right in the face.” Timothy grinned playfully. “Don’t fail.”

***

“Tim, I really don’t think you understand what I’m trying to tell you here.” Peter looked exhausted as he sat behind the large desk in his office. His dark hair was ruffled and there was a three-day stubble sprouting across his chin.

“I do understand,” insisted Timothy. He sat in the swivel chair across from Peter. “The thing is, I don’t know what I can do about it. If he doesn’t want my help then what am I supposed to do?”

The conversation with Derek had wrapped up rather neatly in the end. The alpha seemed somewhat heartened by Timothy’s words and he had left with a spring in his step.

Unfortunately for Timothy, however, that meant that it was time to finally follow up on the sour morning he’d had with Andrew.

“I think the more important question here is, ‘do you think that restaurant has any chance of being profitable?’” Eli asked from where he sat on the sofa near the exterior window. Apparently, he’d taken to wearing slacks and suit jackets while Timothy had been away. While it definitely added a sense of put-togetherness that probably went over well with the guests, it still seemed out of place in a family as casual as theirs usually was.

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Timothy shook his head. “I looked over the budget, but he won’t even let me in the kitchen. I have no idea how much is going to waste, though I imagine it’s a lot, and without a good idea of what’s being ordered every night I’m not sure if the menu can be tightened up. I noticed he’d ordered a new set of monogrammed napkins, but he bought way more than he’s ever going to need.

“I get the feeling that a lot of the issues with the budget can probably be sorted out by just trimming the fat. If he’s simply ordering too much because he thinks he needs more than he actually does, that’s something that can be fixed relatively easily. Sure, it doesn’t solve the main problem but it goes a long way towards helping.”

“So, there you go. You’ve already got a plan to get started.” Peter was scribbling down some notes on a pad by his computer. “Just tell him you’re going to tighten things up without changing anything.”

Timothy couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t being listened to. “Peter, he kicked me out. He wants to do this all himself. It’s not that he’s resistant to making a profit, he’s resistant to having any help.”

“If that’s the case then it’s more troublesome than I thought,” Eli commented, directing his gaze out the window at the forested mountainside. “He’s always been stubborn.”

Peter sighed and tossed his pen on the desk. “Right now, I don’t really have a lot of suggestions for you. I could give him a deadline, but I have a feeling that that’s only going to make things worse. You’re not kids anymore so I can’t force him to let you work with him. The fact is that all I can really do at the moment is make idle threats while trying to find a solution to the problem behind the scenes.”

Timothy noted the look of resignation in his older brother’s eyes. Peter had aged quite a bit over the last few years. He had just taken over as head of operations when Timothy went away for college. Leadership had definitely worn him down a bit. Yet, beneath his weathered expression, there was a hint of something more. The desire to run Snowed Inn as effectively as possible was strong in him. That much was certain.

“Can you get me a list of his suppliers? Maybe I can intercept his orders and change them up a bit.” Timothy didn’t like the idea of going behind Andrew’s back, but damned if he wasn’t going to do his part to balance the budget and keep their home afloat.

“Won’t he notice if you start messing with things?” asked Eli as Peter turned to the computer and began pulling up the relevant files.

“Not if I do it right.”