Page 104 of After You Returned

“You’ve been moping around the distillery for the past three days.”

“I don’t mope.”

“Really?” Rhett lifts his eyebrow. “Dakota threatened to transfer all incoming calls to your number and you told her to go ahead.”

I shrug. “I was trying to help.”

Zane barks out a laugh. “You didn’t realize what she said until the first call came in.”

Kai shakes his head. “Some poor woman searching for a job and you told her there was no sense working since life was over.”

I scowl. “I never said anything of the sort.”

“But you are depressed,” Jaxon declares.

“I’m not depressed.”

He fiddles with his glasses. “You haven’t been surfing all week. You yelled at Zane when he asked to borrow your stapler.”

“It’s a good stapler,” I mutter.

“And I found you listening to sad songs when I left last night.”

Kai laughs. “Was he listening to Taylor Swift again?”

I glare at him. “Do not make fun of Taylor Swift. She’s a goddess who has more talent in her little pinkie than you do in your entire body.”

“Whoa!” He throws up his hands and backs away. “He really is depressed.”

I stomp toward him. “I’ll show you depressed.”

Rhett steps in front of me. “No beating up your brother.”

“Why not? We’re outside. We’re not at work. And he deserves it.”

“Because violence isn’t the answer.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Really? And you didn’t throw a bowling shoe at my head because I was, quote, ‘being a little shit and you were over it’?”

“You little shit. Do you have my missing bowling shoe?”

I debate lying. I’ve been hiding his bowling shoe from him since he was in high school. It hasn’t been easy since we lived in the same house for years but I can be tricky if the occasion calls for it. And even when the occasion doesn’t.

“Maybe.”

Rhett dives for me but Eli shackles his wrist to stop him. “No beating up your brother.”

Rhett’s nostrils flare. “He stole my bowling shoe and kept it hidden for a decade. He deserves it.”

I feign buffing my nails on my t-shirt. “Personally, I think I deserve to be crowned the king of the prank wars.”

“King of the pain in my ass,” Rhett mutters.

Jaxon clears his throat. “Less than ten minutes until we were reduced to name calling. Can I go home now?”

“Nope. We’re going surfing.”

My mouth gapes open at Eli’s announcement. My brothers have never wanted to surf with me. And, trust me, I’ve tried to get them interested. The closest anyone’s come is Jaxon, who rowed every morning while I surfed when we were in high school.