“Right,” Grant said, crossing his arms. “You keep telling yourself whatever you need to, to avoid the guilt that’s written all over your ugly face right now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Seth replied as he turned his attention toward his computer screen, even though his brain refused to register any of the hundreds of emails in his inbox.
Grant ambled closer to the desk, his easy lope a contradiction to the ire on his face.
“Tell me that man wasn’t who I think he was,” Grant demanded.
Seth spread his hands to the side. “Hard to say. You’re the only aspiring mind reader in this room. Am I supposed to know what you’re rambling on about?”
Grant’s light brown eyes glinted angrily. “Don’t bullshit me, Seth.”
It was the seriousness in his usually lighthearted friend’s face that had Seth coming clean.
He met Grant’s eye steadily. “That was Tommy Franklin. He’s a private investigator I hired to look into Maya’s fiancé.”
“You son of a bitch,” Grant said, almost before Seth finished his sentence.
“I told you I was going to do it,” Seth said, hating the note of defensiveness in his tone.
“And I told you not to.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing you’re not the boss,” Seth said pointedly.
“I’m not talking to you as one of your subordinates right now, and you fucking know it. I’m talking to you as a friend, although right now I’m seriously debating whether you’re worthy of the word.”
Seth withheld the flinch, but barely.
There were very few people in this world capable of wounding him, but Grant Miller was definitely one of them. And because pain was an unfamiliar sensation he’d never quite learned how to deal with, Seth lashed back.
“This really isn’t any of your business, Grant.”
“The hell it isn’t.” Grant slammed his palms on the desk. “This isn’t right, and you know it. Maya deserves our trust.”
“There’s no ‘our,’ here, Grant. She’s my sister. You made your opinion clear and I noted it, but this is up to me. I’m the one that will have to call this man brother-in-law. I’m the one who will have to pick up the pieces if he hurts her. I’m the one who will have to sort out the financial aftermath if he’s after her money.”
“That’s what this is all about,” Grant said coldly. “The money.”
Okay, that was enough.
Seth slammed his own hands on the desk, standing and glaring up at his slightly taller friend. “That’s not fucking fair. I care about Maya more than anything in the world, and you know that.”
“Well, your brand of brotherly love sucks,” Grant snarled.
“Back off,” Seth said, taking a breath and trying to cool his temper. “This isn’t your call.”
“Well, it damn well should be.”
“Why, because you’re in love with her?” Seth challenged, the words out of his mouth before he could think better of them.
Grant’s chin knocked back as though Seth had dealt him a physical blow, and because Seth knew Grant every bit as well as Grant knew him, he knew what that reaction meant.
It meant that Brooke had been right. Grant was in love with Maya.
Seth swore softly, his head dipping forward. “You should have told me.”
“It wasn’t yours to know,” Grant said, his tone rougher than Seth had ever heard it.
“She’s my sister. You’re my best friend.”
“Exactly. You would have tried to fix it. You’d have gotten all up in there,” Grant said.
“And that would have been a bad thing?”
Grant’s laugh held no humor. “This may come as a shock to you, but there are some things you can’t control, Seth. Your sister’s heart is one of them.”
Seth met his friend’s eyes, hurting for him, even with the anger between them. “Does she know?”
Grant shook his head miserably.
“You know that my finding dirt on Garrett will work in your favor,” Seth said slowly. “If the man’s a fraud and she breaks up with him—”
Grant was already shaking his head. “My love for her isn’t like that.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning that that’s not how I love,” his friend said. “I don’t risk other people’s happiness for my own peace of mind.”
The quietly uttered statement was a direct hit, and this time it was Seth’s head that knocked back as though struck.
“Seth.” Grant rubbed a hand over his face. “I know it was hard for you when Hank died. I know it was hard learning that he kept his heart condition a secret from you.”