“What do you think I do in the operating room?”
“No idea. Make eyes at Venus?”
“She’s a neurologist. She doesn’t work in the operating room.” Sean helped himself to an apple from the bowl. “If I’m going to be staying, you need to get more fruit in your house. And vegetables. There are no vegetables in your fridge. Whatever happened to your five a day?”
“If you want to find vegetables when you open the fridge then you can put them there yourself. And if you’re staying you need to go home and pack some clothes. I’m sick of you stealing my shirts.” Jackson finished his toast and topped up his coffee. “So you’re staying for Gramps.”
“That and the view.”
His brother sent him a look. “Just as long as the reason you’re hanging around here has nothing to do with my chef.”
“It’s because of her I agreed to help with the damn Boathouse in the first place. She’s obsessed with opening on time so she doesn’t let you down. What’s that about? Have you suddenly started beating the staff?” Sean finished the apple. “Or is this intense loyalty more personal than that?”
“It’s the way she is. She cares deeply about her work. She’s loyal. She knows our financial situation is far from stable and she values her job.”
“We both know that with Chez Laroche on her résumé, she could get a job anywhere. You’re lucky to have her.”
“She’s worked for me for a long time.” Jackson’s expression revealed nothing. “We’ve been friends for years.”
“Just friends? You first met her in Paris. So did you...?”
“No.” His brother’s voice hardened. “We didn’t. And you’re not going to, either. This is her home. I won’t let you threaten that.”
“Why would I threaten it?”
“Because you mess with women’s heads,” Jackson said irritably. “For some reason I’ve never managed to understand, they fall in love with you and go a little crazy when you don’t love them back. I cleared up that mess plenty growing up, I’m not doing it again.”
“I don’t create mess. You’re mixing me up with Tyler.”
“No, I’m not. Tyler is like a bear. You see him coming. A smart woman will step out of the way. But you? You’re different. You’re all smooth charm and slick words. I see their eyes cross and then they start walking funny and the next moment they’re crying on my shoulder because you’re too focused on your work to notice them. I don’t have enough shirts left to take it.”
“I still don’t understand why you describe this as Élise’s home. Sure, she’s living and working here now but she’s talented. One day she’ll move on. That’s inevitable.”
“If she moves on it will be because she’s made that choice, not because she was left with no alternative because my twin brother fucked it up and made it awkward for her to stay.”
She’d been in some sort of trouble.
It was the only thing that could explain such a fierce response from his protector brother.
“Maybe you don’t need to worry about her.” He thought about the night before. She’d shown more control than him. And then she’d walked away. “She doesn’t strike me as the sort of woman who falls in love easily. She’s very independent. Similar to me in many ways.”
“There isn’t a single way in which she’s similar to you.” Jackson thumped his empty mug onto the counter.
Yes, there was.
Sean thought of the way her hands had slid up his back, the way her mouth had burned against his. “Maybe I’m exactly what she needs.”
“No woman in her right mind needs you. And I’ve grown out of comforting girls who thought they w
ere in love with you.”
“Did you really do that?”
“All the time. They were lining up from eighth grade. I was the good twin, you were the bad twin. My shirt was permanently wet from all the tears.” Jackson picked up the milk and put it back in the fridge. “I don’t care how you run your love life, but stay away from Élise.”
Sean decided not to mention they were well past that.
Instead, he made his way to the Boathouse to start undoing the work he’d done the day before.