Rogue Devil (The Rourkes #11) - Kylie Gilmore Page 0,34

through me. I should stop touching her. Our eyes lock, and her lips part. Everything in me screams to close the distance.

She stands abruptly. “I’ll help clean up.”

I keep my focus on my plate. I don’t need to check her out every time she moves. She’s permanently stuck in my brain.

Man, I am psyched. My brothers and I are having a Monday lunch meeting at a pizzeria near our latest job. We’re doing some work in Queens on a shopping mall. Pays the bills, but it’s not what I like best. I like the projects that are developed from the ground up by us, Rourke Management. Is it weird how much I like our name on the company? My whole life I always worked under the Byrne name. Finally, we have something of our own. All of my brothers are here, except Sean, who’s still in Vancouver with his wife. We’ve got him on speakerphone. Me and Beast are on one side of a booth by the front window, Connor and Jack across from us, and Dylan, our CEO, is on a chair at the side.

I wait until everyone’s finished their first slice of pizza, letting them take the edge off their hunger before jumping in with my pitch. “I found our next property, the old Finerman’s department store. It’s historic, from eighteen ninety-three, tons of cool architectural touches you just don’t find in modern construction.” I pass around the spec sheet my dad gave me. He works in real estate and was able to get me in yesterday to check out the place. I turn to the phone at the center of the table. “Did you get your spec sheet okay, Sean?” I emailed it to him last night.

“Got it.”

I continue. “It’s seven stories, right downtown, and there’s a café next door for sale too. I’m thinking loft apartments, attract some of the hipsters with bucks and a craving for caffeine. We buy the café too. In fact, I’d like to buy up the whole block and make a more cohesive development plan, but that’s all we’ve got available for now.”

I’m on the edge of my seat while my brothers look over the specs.

“Elevator?” Dylan asks, lifting tired blue eyes to mine. He’s a new dad and says the baby is keen on the four a.m. screaming wake-up call.

“Yes.”

“Prewar construction,” Connor says with a smile. “Becca would love it. She should be here too.” That’s his fiancée and our chief strategy officer, which is not a partnership position. I have to be firm about this now that my older brothers are mushballs for their women. Seriously, they’ll do anything for them. The four of them—Dylan, Connor, Jack, Sean—have to be reminded of blood ties. It’s us brothers who are co-owners, whether they’re married or engaged.

“She’ll get in on it when it’s time,” I say. “Purchase decisions rest on the owners. Us.”

“Josie says it’s pretty,” Sean says through the phone. “She loved the atrium with the huge skylight when I showed her the specs last night.”

I bite my tongue. Yes, as long as everyone’s woman thinks it’s “pretty,” let’s go full steam ahead.

Jack lifts his head and pushes a lock of dark brown hair out of his eyes. He grows it long on top, styling it with some product that makes him look more hipster than he is. “Lots of convenient subway lines nearby.”

“Five-minute commute to downtown Manhattan,” I say. “With this square footage, I’m thinking we can get a minimum of one hundred apartments. If we want, we could keep the first two floors as retail space.”

“I do like mixed-use development,” Dylan says, rubbing his scruffy jaw. “You think they’re flexible on price?”

“Only one way to find out,” I say with a smile. Triumph rockets through me. If Dylan’s on board, the others will fall in place. “We can apply for historic landmark status too. It’ll add another credit to that part of our portfolio.” Our last project at an old marine rope factory had landmark status too. “And we can still do some of the environmentally friendly, energy-efficient stuff. I think it’ll attract high-end tenants.”

Dylan leans back in his seat and taps the table. “We should set aside some low-rent space for a nonprofit to work out of. Like one of those groups that tutors disadvantaged kids. It could be a good fit with working professional residential tenants.”

We all agree on that point. It’s part of our mission to give back to neighborhoods.

Dylan rubs the back of his