Brayden

The door has barely closed behind Molly, and I’m still thinking about the way her hips sway in that fitted black skirt, when my sister-in-law smacks me on the shoulder. “You jackass!”

I gape at Ava’s uncharacteristic outburst and look to Jake for some backup, but my brother just glares at me. “What the hell did I do?”

Jake’s brows shoot up into his hairline, and Ava mimes pulling out her hair.

Teagan hops off her barstool and shakes her head. “I’m staying out of this.” She swings her purse over her shoulder. “Have a good night.”

“Staying out of what?” I ask.

But she just whispers, “Good luck,” and heads out the door.

“Ugh.” Ava scowls at me, turns on her heel, and stomps back into the kitchen, growling, “I’m too hormonal for this crap!” as the swinging door swishes in her wake.

Jake cuts his eyes in the direction of his wife’s retreat before his sympathetic gaze turns to me. “I didn’t mean to corner you like that. I just assumed you’d agree.”

“Corner me?” I must be slow as shit today, because I finally realize why Ava’s mad at me. I drag a hand through my hair. “I don’t care if Molly and Noah stay with me.” It’s a moot point, isn’t it? The look on Molly’s face at the suggestion screamed that she’d rather eat glass. And hell, she’s made it clear where we stand. Our night together was a mistake. I’m her boss and nothing more. She wants to forget we ever crossed those lines. I’ve been working damn hard to check all those boxes for her.

“If you don’t care, then why didn’t you say something?” Jake asks.

I scowl at my brother. “Did it ever occur to you that you were putting her in an uncomfortable position? That maybe she doesn’t want to stay with me?”

Ava’s shout from the kitchen is loud enough to be heard through the whole bar. “You still could have said something.”

Jake bites back a smile at his wife’s outburst.

I roll my shoulders. Ava’s as sweet as they come, and I don’t like her ire directed at me. “I didn’t realize my silence was a problem when I knew she’d likely prefer a different solution.” I lower my voice so Ava can’t hear me in the back. “Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t see this as Ava’s blatant attempt to play matchmaker.” Never mind the ideas such an arrangement would put in Mom’s head. Jesus—Molly and Noah living with me. Mom would love that.

Ava returns from the kitchen with a plate of fries, but her pout tells me I’m not forgiven.

Jake shrugs. “Maybe, but I’m not sure there’s a better solution. She and Noah would have to camp in the nursery if they moved in with Ava and me. She could stay with Levi, I guess.”

Ava smacks her husband on the arm. “Seriously? Ellie and Molly are only recently on friendly terms after the whole ordeal with Colton. There’s no way Molly would move in with Levi when it would raise brows, and people would gossip about Molly and Levi being together.”

Jake frowns. “Everyone knows Levi’s in love with Ellie.”

Ava shrugs. “People can be assholes who are much more interested in a juicy story than they are in the truth. Molly knows that better than anyone. And anyway, let’s not put any obstacles between Ellie and Levi reuniting.”

“Agreed,” I mutter. Ellie and Levi are taking some time apart after a messy ordeal that involved Ellie losing her memory and Levi falling hard for his best friend’s girl. We all know it’s only a matter of time before she lets herself be with him, but he’s giving her the space she asked for. Inserting Molly into that is a terrible idea.

“Shay would happily take her, but the three of them in that little apartment?” Jake shakes his head. “I guess Nic and Ethan could move Mom to the guest room upstairs and let Molly and Noah have her apartment behind Ethan’s garage.”

Ava squeaks in protest, and I glare at Jake. “Mom isn’t moving anywhere. That’s unnecessary.” I don’t have to say the rest out loud—that I don’t like the idea of her climbing the steps at Ethan’s all the time, that even though she’s recovered from chemo and is officially in remission, she’s still weaker than she was before and wears out easily. She broke her ankle in a fall last summer and gave us all a scare. No way I’d risk adding a broken hip to our worries.

Jake nods. “I guess Carter might be able to—”

“Shut the fuck up before I knock you out.”

Jake presses a hand to his chest, feigning innocence. “I’m so sorry. Is there a reason you don’t want your beautiful employee living with your flirt of a single brother?” He makes a face as he scratches the back of his neck. “Because I could have sworn you told me you weren’t interested in her like that anymore.”

I said I didn’t intend to pursue anything with Molly. Never that I wasn’t interested. But I’m not about to point out the difference to Jake when he’s dead set on making me feel like an ass. “I’ll make it clear she’s welcome to stay with me, but I’m telling you now she’d probably rather risk the rats at that Crawford Street rental than have to sleep in the same house as me.”

Jake’s lips twitch. “If you say so.”

Molly

“With the ice festival, it’s considered peak season. You’d be surprised how many people want to spend their holiday in Jackson Harbor.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and count to five. I’ve had this conversation half a dozen times today in my attempts to negotiate better rates on vacation properties. “I understand. I just thought that if I were staying a month or two . . .”

“If you pay two months upfront, I can offer a ten percent discount,” the woman says. “But that’s the best I can do.”

Two months at these rates would be like a wrecking ball to the meager savings I’ve scraped together since moving here. I have a good job, but too many months living in New York unemployed put me in a hole I haven’t fully climbed out of. “Let me think on it. I’ll call you back tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I don’t have better news, but the owners don’t mind it being vacant over the holiday. They enjoy hopping over from the city for a night or two when they can, so they’re not very motivated to lower the price.”

“I understand.” I swallow. Spending Christmas in a hotel room is looking more and more inevitable. “I’ll be in touch.”

We end the call, and I close my eyes and take two deep breaths. Maybe Jackson Harbor has made me soft. I’ve dealt with much bigger blows than pre-holiday relocation. I can certainly handle this.

But I’m far too aware that I haven’t broken the news to Noah yet, and maybe I should have. Instead, I’ve decided I’ll wait until I know exactly where we’re heading at the end of the week. I don’t want to make any more promises I can’t keep.

I shut down my computer, grab my purse, and head out. I have an appointment with a guy who’s trying to sell his house on contract. It’s the last possibility between me and Christmas in either a hotel or on Mom’s couch.

As I step out into the back lot, I tug my peacoat closed against the sharp chill in the air. Winter never waits to hit Jackson Harbor. It likes to visit in November to remind us what it can do, and then settles in for good by early December. This year is true to form, and Noah has been so excited about building a snowman in our own front yard that the white powder covering my car is just another reminder of what’s on the line.

“Molly.” Brayden’s deep voice stops me right as I reach my car.

I turn slowly. “Hey, what’s up?”

I keep my eyes on his face. Not on that strong chest that I remember feeling so warm beneath my cheek, and not on the hands that took me by surprise when they first touched me—rougher than I’d have guessed for a man who spends the majority of his workday behind a desk.

“I just wanted to extend the invitation myself—for you to stay with me. Ava’s right. I have more than enough room, and it’s a reasonable solution.”

Reasonable solution. Hardly a glowing invitation.

I can see it in his eyes. He’s as wary about this as I am. “Thanks, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

“You’ve found a better option?”

“I have some promising leads.”

He arches a brow, then whispers, “Liar.”

The word throws me back to our night in New York together when I called him a liar for pretending the text from Ethan didn’t mean anything.

“Okay, so the leads aren’t promising, but I do have some leads.” Maybe it’s irrational, but I resent Tom for making me deal with this now instead of a month ago. Christmas as a single mom means wearing a cape and doing all the things, and this year, the holiday is happening right alongside the grand opening of the banquet center and my public debut in my new role with Jackson Brews. I’m determined not to screw any of it up, but I’m feeling more than a little overwhelmed. “It’s too much to ask, Brayden.”

“It’s not. Not at all. I do have the room.”

I swallow. I know he does. He lives in the big house where his parents raised him and his five siblings. When his mother moved out to live in the apartment behind Ethan’s garage, no one was ready to see her sell the house. Apparently, Brayden moved in as a temporary solution, but the family continues to gather there every Sunday and for any major holiday that they can’t celebrate at their family cabin.

“You’re looking at me like I’m offering you a room in my dungeon.”

I shake my head. “Sorry. No. I mean, this is incredibly kind of you.” I want to be the woman who can hold his gaze through what I need to say next. But I’m not. So I study a crack in the pavement at my feet instead. “I was thinking that after our ill-advised night in New York—”

“Christ.” Something like anger flashes over his features, and he looks toward the traffic inching down Lakeshore Drive. “Despite what you might think about our night and my ulterior motives for hiring you, this isn’t about getting you in my bed.”

I am the world’s biggest bitch. “Brayden—”

“I regret how I handled everything. And that my decisions that night made you feel—”

“Stop!” I desperately want to go back to being the Molly and Brayden who don’t talk about that night and who never, ever mention the shitty accusation I made. “Please. Can we just . . .”

When he turns back to me, his expression is guarded. “Just what, Molly?”

“Pretend I didn’t say that?” I swallow, but the shame doesn’t go away. “I never believed you would hire me just to sleep with me, and I promise there’s no part of me that thinks you’re offering space in your home just to get in my pants.”

“Good.” He nods, but this conversation pulled that old hurt to the surface—pain that I am responsible for—and the sight of it makes me feel so small and unworthy of everything he’s given me. “So you’ll consider it?”

“I’m worried that sleeping under the same roof might end up more complicated than either of us wants.”

He stuffs his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels, and when I drag my gaze back to his face, the corner of his mouth twitches in amusement. “Am I that irresistible?”

I snort. “Oh, fuck off.”

“No, I totally get it. If having me around would distract you from your work or prove to be a bigger temptation than you can handle—”

“I can handle it just fine.” I handle it every freaking day, thankyouverymuch.

He holds my gaze. “Then move in. You and Noah can have the second floor all to yourselves for as long as you need. I never go up there, so you don’t need to worry about any accidental seduction.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not worried about accidental seduction.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

I search for a reasonable objection but come up empty. The only reason not to stay with Brayden is because I’m attracted to him and don’t want to make the same mistake I did in New York. Then, it was a mistake because he was my boss. Now he’s more than that. He’s . . . my friend. The label might scare me, but it’s true. As a single mom, I need his friendship far more than any bedroom chemistry that simmers between us. “I’m worried about taking too much from you.”

“It’s not too much. Not at all.”

“Then I’ll consider it. Thank you.”

He grins—really grins that rare, full smile that transforms his whole face. Warmth spreads from my tummy all the way out to my fingers and toes. This guy doesn’t smile enough. “You’re welcome.” He looks at my car. “Where are you headed?”

“I’m looking at another house. This one’s a rent-to-own kind of thing just outside of town. The commute wouldn’t be too bad, and we could move in right away.”

“Want me to go with you?”

For a flash, I imagine it—what it would be like to have Brayden in my life as more than my boss and friend, what it would be like to have a partner who helped me make decisions when they overwhelmed me . . . What it would be like to have him look at me the way his brothers look at their women. “No, that’s unnecessary.” I force a smile. “I’ve been picking places to live on my own since I finished undergrad. I’ve got this.”

“Do you need any help packing?”

I shake my head. “I don’t have much, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll rent a truck for the move, though, and I could use some help loading the furniture if you think you could talk your brothers into it.”

He shakes his head. “Save your money on the truck. Between Jake’s and Levi’s, we can get you taken care of.”

“Thank you,” I say. But it doesn’t feel like enough. I know it’s not enough.

“Whatever you need, Molly,” he says softly. “I mean that.”

Despite the chill nipping at my cheeks, I melt.