Brandon (Anderson Billionaires #3) - Melody Anne Page 0,14
pretty dang boring. Brandon didn’t allow himself to get bored.
“What are you sitting here smiling all goofily about?” Noah asked as he took a seat next to Brandon.
“I’m just feeling good today,” Brandon told him. Noah popped the cap off the soda he’d grabbed. “You must be working.” Otherwise, he’d most likely have grabbed a beer.
“Yeah. We’ve had delays and any number of other things going wrong, and I’ve been back to the drawing board over and over again. I have to keep my mind sharp, or Sarah takes too much pleasure in showing me up,” he said with a laugh.
Noah and Sarah were the head architects for the veterans center, and it was their only project together. They loved each other immensely and said they didn’t want to risk fighting over work. They’d done enough of that while designing the facility. “One and done together” was their motto for a happy marriage. Brandon thought that might be a smart rule to follow.
That was if he could even get Chloe to work on this one project with him. He sure hoped so, because right now he wasn’t feeling too optimistic about that. He’d been confident, but she was great at avoiding both him and Joseph, which wasn’t easy in a town the size of Cranston.
“I hate all the delays,” Brandon said. “It’s taking too long to get this up and running for all of those who really can use it right now.”
“I agree. But that’s why I love doing it with Joseph, too. At the end of this, it’s going to be the gold standard of facilities others will need to follow. So the first one has to be just right. The rest will go more smoothly,” Noah said. “But enough talk about work and delays. How are things going with Chloe?”
Brandon sighed. He almost lost his smile, but he kept it in place. There was no way he was giving any of his siblings room to mock him.
“She’s being difficult—won’t talk to me.”
“Is that why you’re slacking on the kitchen?” Noah asked.
“There’s no kitchen yet, so it’s not up to me. But I don’t want anyone else to do it. I want her, and so does Joseph, so we’re being patient.”
“She’s worth waiting on. I had a nice chat with her the other day,” Noah said.
That wiped the smile off Brandon’s face.
“What do you mean you talked to her?” It seemed she was talking to everyone but him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t get it.
“I’m easy to talk to. Lots of people like to do it,” Noah said with a chuckle. “But since I am married to one of Chloe’s two best friends, I see her often. She’s a pleasure to have over.”
“Ugh. She isn’t as much of a pleasure around me. I somehow got on her bad side, and I haven’t figured out how to change her image of me.”
“What did you do?” Noah asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question, but Brandon wasn’t sure how to answer it. He didn’t want to kiss and tell when it came to Chloe, but he also needed some help, and that meant he’d have to give something.
“We had some time the night of your wedding,” he said. He figured that wasn’t telling too much.
“What kind of time did you have?” Noah pushed.
“I don’t want to get into details. But I just know I want more time with her.” It wasn’t often that Brandon was serious. But the rare times he was, his siblings usually listened. That was the nice thing. They could joke around a hell of a lot, but when it came down to it, they were there for each other when it counted most.
“If this is more than lust, then you need to show her.”
“How will I know it’s more than that if I don’t get the chance to find out?” Brandon honestly asked.
Noah was quiet for several moments as he thought about the question.
“I’m not an expert in the area of dating. You know that Sarah and I went through our own personal hell, but in the end it all worked out. I just know that when I stopped playing games and let her know how I truly felt, she responded to it.”
“I don’t know exactly how I feel. I haven’t been playing with her, but I have been cautious. You can’t blame me for that when she keeps me at a nice distance.”