Love Him Free (On the Market #1) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,66

Levi pointed out. “I was a grown adult with a culinary degree and a hand in this business, and you should have told me.”

“I know,” Simon said again. “You didn’t deserve to be left in the dark.”

Levi fixed him with a hard stare. “You didn’t deserve to hold the weight of this place on your shoulders alone. Not forever.”

Simon heard what Levi was saying—understood that it was more than just anger. Levi was never great with expressing his love in words—but he was good at this. He was good at showing it, Simon had just gotten so used to not watching.

Biting his lip, Simon swiped at his face again, finding his cheeks tacky but dry. His eyes ached, and his throat was sore from how much he’d been holding back. He wanted to fall apart—needed to, but not here. And not now.

“Where are you going to live when you sell?” Levi asked him, shattering the heavy silence between them.

Simon rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and tried to imagine not having this place. He had no job prospects after this was finished. He knew enough people in town he’d never be homeless, never be unemployed, but his entire life since the age of twenty-one had been decided for him by these walls.

“I don’t know.”

Levi cocked his head to the side. “Will you finish school?”

Simon didn’t mean to laugh. He knew the question was honest, but he couldn’t help it. “I’m an old man. There’s no place for me there.”

Levi scoffed. “That’s stupid. Anyone can go back to school.”

“The idea of sitting in a classroom full of toddlers all joining fraternities and sororities?” Simon shuddered, and it made Levi chuckle.

“Well, there’s online. There’s…there are options. We could get a new place together, you and me. I don’t plan on living at the Lodge forever. I mean, James only has to be there until June or something, and we’ve been talking about getting a place.”

Simon smiled at him, and he felt a hundred times lighter, even if the weight of his unknown future still pressed down on him. “You need that with him, not with your pathetic brother living like a third-wheel.”

He knew he saw some relief in Levi’s eyes, but also worry. “What will you do?”

“Well,” Simon said with a heavy breath. The buzzer for the cookies went off, so he grabbed the last batch out of the oven and placed them down to cool. “Today, I’m going to try and sell all of this shit. Tonight, I’m going to sleep in bed with my boyfriend and let him figure out how to make all of this feel better…”

“Boyfriend,” Levi echoed.

Simon blushed a little, but he didn’t duck Levi’s gaze. “Or something. It’s new.”

Levi chuckled and shook his head. “You are a fucking mess.”

“I know.” Simon took his apron off, then moved to wash his hands again. Ten minutes until Kyle arrived. “Tomorrow night, I’m going to set up my booth at the Farmer’s Market. I’m going to do that for the rest of the summer. Then I’m going to put this place on the market and see what happens.”

“You won’t be alone, you know,” Levi told him. “Even if I ever leave Cherry Creek, I’m not…I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know, Levi. And…me too.” Simon smiled at him, even if the thought of Levi packing up his things and moving made him ache in places so deep down, he could no longer reach. But he wanted that for him too, desperately. He just wanted his brother to be happy.

The only difference now—he wanted to be happy too.

Chapter Fifteen

Rocco did his best to avoid the bake shop, but he keenly felt the absence of Simon in the hours he was gone. Rocco hated waking up alone. He’d been with Eric for longer than he hadn’t by that point in his life, and even though they were barely acquaintances by the end, Rocco always woke to find him in bed.

Well, almost always. Sometimes he’d stay out late. Sometimes he’d text and say he was crashing with a friend, and Rocco never questioned it. He never thought to ask what friend—and what that meant. He wondered if Eric would have lied directly to his face, but Rocco was so caught up in himself, he didn’t consider Eric might have been looking elsewhere.

As he stared at himself in the mirror, combing through his freshly washed hair, he wondered when his vanity had turned into narcissism. Eric was to blame for cheating—there was no denying