“Are you sure you don’t need me to bring you anything?” Blair asked. “I have some wonderful healing crystals, and I’m sure I can find a few things in the shop that I can use to cleanse your apartment of negative energies.”

“No, Mom, I don’t need any of that,” I said as I picked at some sticker residue on one of my glass cases. “I’m just going to take it easy today. Things are always slow on Sundays.”

That was an understatement. I only opened every other Sunday, and the hours were always shorter. Today was different though. Today, I needed to pretend that I was doing something worthwhile or I’d be tempted to spend the day in my pajamas, drinking hot chocolate, and reading the same page, repeatedly. That meant I’d opened at my usual weekday time, and I planned on staying open until my weekday closing time, even though I wasn’t supposed to be open at all.

“Kevin and I don’t mind keeping the shop closed if you want Lamb to come back to help you,” she offered. “She’s a darling, but I don’t think the young men here are very interested in homeopathic remedies. One of them came down to the shop while I was talking to Lamb, and he barely said a word to either of us. When I offered him some suggestions to promote relaxation and mental stimulation, he just smiled and excused himself.”

For a moment, I’d thought she’d been talking about Blake, but then she’d said he smiled and I knew that wasn’t the case. He hadn’t come looking for me. Why would he? I’d given him a chance to put all that he’d done behind us. I would’ve let it all go if he’d simply opened up to me.

“I’m fine, Blair,” I said. “I’d rather have her there just in case you need her for something. I’ll be back out in a couple days.”

As soon as I was sure the Hunter brothers were gone.

“All right,” she said reluctantly. “If that’s what you think is best.”

I smiled. Blair had never been the mothering type, but occasionally, she’d do something that almost made our relationship seem normal. I loved her, and most of the time, I appreciated the independence I’d always had, but I still liked these little moments of normalcy.

“I promise I’ll call if I need anything.”

“Thank you,” she said. After a moment’s pause, she added, “I just sometimes worry about you, not having anyone to ease some of your burdens.”

“That’s why I hired Lamb.” I purposefully misunderstood her. Before she could correct me, I said, “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later, all right?”

“Okay.”

I breathed a sigh of relief when I ended the call. Neither of my parents ever made me feel like I was defective for not being in a relationship, but they also didn’t understand how I could tolerate being alone so much of the time. They’d never said anything, but I’d always suspected that part of the reason they’d never gotten married and had always kept the relationship open was because they never wanted to risk being alone. If they always had a couple people on the fringes, they’d always have someone to turn to, to spend time with.

If that’s what they wanted in their lives, I supported their choice, but I could never do it. Sometimes I needed the silence, but more than that, I preferred to be alone rather than be involved in a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere.

I picked up my all-natural glass cleaner and went back to cleaning off the new case Lamb had brought out from the back room. I’d completely forgotten I’d had it, but when I’d called her early this morning to ask her to cover for me at the retreat, she’d told me that she’d found something to replace the display case she’d broken. She was right. It was exactly what we needed.

If only it was that easy to replace people. Some people liked to pretend they could swap friends and lovers, but even my parents – who’d had more partners than I ever wanted to think about – didn’t act like the others were interchangeable. Maybe there were people who didn’t need that deep, individual connection, or they had some other way of making it so that when one person left, they had another one waiting. All I knew for certain was that I wasn’t that sort of person. If I had been, I would’ve replaced Blake with Steve, and I wouldn’t have even blinked.

But I couldn’t do that.

Even worse was the fact that Blake’s rejection hadn’t made anything I felt go away. He’d behaved like a total and complete ass, hadn’t apologized, and then he hadn’t even had the courage to tell me that he didn’t want me. He’d simply let the seconds drag out until I’d been the one to walk away.

I should’ve been pissed at him.

I was pissed at him.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

I finished wiping down the outside of the display, but my mind was remembering how it’d felt to run my hands over all that firm flesh. The cleaner made me sneeze, but all I could think about was how amazing he smelled, even when he’d been sweaty from working. When I bent over to brush away some cobwebs, I could almost imagine him coming up behind me to grab my hips, pull up my skirt, and take me right there in the middle of the store…

The light ringing of the bell above my door startled me out of my daydream. Flushed, but grateful, I turned to greet my unexpected customer.

“Welcome to Grow ‘n…” The words died as quickly as my smile when I realized I knew the man standing in front of me.

Well, not knew, but I recognized him and knew his name, and that was enough. Jax Hunter. One of Blake’s brothers.

I bit back a curse and waited for him to tell me why he was here.

“Brea, right?” He gave me one of those smiles that I knew was supposed to be overly charming, but I wasn’t in the mood today.

“Brea Chaise,” I said. “How can I help you?”

“I want to talk to you about Blake.”

Yeah, that’s what I’d been afraid of. I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Let me rephrase. I need to talk to you about Blake.” Jax’s expression changed, but I couldn’t doubt the sincerity I saw there. “How much do you know about my brother?”

I sighed. I needed to just get this over with. “A lot of superficial stuff that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Has he talked about our family?”

“No.” I tried not to let myself feel the hurt that came with that honest admission.

Jax nodded like that didn’t surprise him. “Blake should’ve been the one to tell you this, but he doesn’t talk about it, and you need to know.”

I didn’t know why I needed to know. It wasn’t like the two of us were anything anymore. If we even had been to begin with.

“Our parents and our sister died in a car crash twenty-four years ago,” he continued. “Aimee was Blake’s twin.”

My stomach sank. He’d been an ass, but I wouldn’t wish that sort of thing on my worst enemy.

“Blake was in the car.”

Fuck.

Jax leaned on the counter. “He was barely four, and he doesn’t remember anything, but everything changed for us when it happened. We went to live with our grandparents, and they tried their best, but after Grandma Olive died, we fell apart. Grandfather worked all the time, and the rest of us, we were just kids. We made a lot of mistakes, and Blake, he suffered the most for them. He’s felt alone all this time.”

Dammit. I didn’t want to feel anything for Blake. It didn’t matter that he’d had a shitty childhood. He was an adult and how he behaved was a choice. I couldn’t excuse him just because he’d lost everyone. Maybe that made me a horrible person, but I just couldn’t do it. Not when he refused to try.

“I’m sorry for your losses,” I said, struggling to keep my voice even. “But some people are alone because they want to be. I can’t help him anymore. I gave him a choice, and he didn’t choose me.”

“You’ve gotten through to him,” Jax said. “And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few months, it’s that a good woman can always get through to a Hunter man.”

“He doesn’t want me,” I repeated the information more bluntly. “We aren’t looking for the same things. I don’t want a casual fuck-buddy, and he doesn’t want to talk to me.”

I had a moment to regret my word choice, but then I saw that Jax was smiling. “He can positively be an ass.”

“That he can,” I agreed. “So, you see why none of what you’ve told me matters?”

“I think that’s why it matters more than ever,” he said, his voice softening. He reached out and put his hand on my arm. “Just tell me one thing. Are you in love with him?”

I thought about denying it, especially since it was a question I’d worked very hard to keep from asking myself. I also thought about telling him that it was none of his damn business. Except Jax had come to me because he was concerned about Blake, and he’d told me something that had to be painful to even think about. I owed him something in return. I couldn’t give him what he wanted, but I could give him the truth.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I love him.”