“Oh.” I blinked twice, looking from him to Roland, then back at him again. “Okay?”
“I offered him a job,” Roland said.
I looked up. “You did?”
“Yeah. He’s going to be my new caddy.”
“But what about Freddie?”
“I already let him go.” Roland shrugged. “He’s not much of a mentor and I need someone who can help me bring my A-game—someone who gets me. Dylan has always been that person for me.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll also be helping out around your house, be a groundskeeper and all that,” Dylan said, and I turned my head to look at him.
“You will?”
“Yeah.” He hesitated, looking between Roland and me. “It would be beneficial to both of you guys,” he went on. “I’d fix things around the house, run some errands for you, drive you anyplace you need to be if you don’t ever feel like driving. I’ll make sure Roland’s golfing facility is maintained and that nothing around here goes awry. Caddy for him if he needs me to. Basically, I’d be the guy you two call if you ever need anything.”
“Oh. I see. So how much is the pay?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” said Roland. “I wouldn’t exactly pay him, just take care of his bills and whatnot. He’d also get a room here.”
“A room?” I blinked twice at my husband, stunned. “Roland—I . . . um.” I had to think carefully before speaking. Who was I to reject this? This was Roland’s mansion. He’d built it for us, yes, but it was the home he’d bought with his hard-earned money and though I was his wife, I was really just another occupant. My name wasn’t on the mortgage or the bills. His was.
But still, I was his wife and I’d only just met his cousin and knew nothing about him. I didn’t even want my own sister moving in with us, mostly for privacy reasons, but now this guy was? I understood they’d grown up together, but this was the first I was hearing about any of it. My eyes shifted over to Miley, who I thought would be upset, but she was amused by the conversation, smiling and sipping her espresso, waiting for me to speak again too.
“That sounds great,” I said, and then I put on a smile that I hoped would show that I was okay with it. The men fell for it and Roland went straight into how excited he was to have Dylan be his new golf caddy, but as I sipped my wine and looked at my sister again, I recall her simply shaking her head and smirking.
* * *
Roland ran off with Dylan to one of the garages, which had been converted to Roland’s entertainment room, where he played pool, watched sports, and other things. I was left with Miley, so I took her outside by the firepit. Since we were so far away from the city and on several acres of land, there weren’t many lights around, which made the sky appear pitch-black, minus the twinkling stars and distant crescent moon. A slight chill was in the fall air so we wrapped up in thick sweaters and sipped more wine by the fire, sitting in silence.
For sisters, we often didn’t have much to talk about. We were opposite in a lot of ways . . . and in the ways we were the same, well, they weren’t exactly healthy, so we never discussed them.
“You don’t want that guy to move in, do you?” Miley asked.
“No, I don’t.”
“So why not just tell Roland that?”
“I don’t know. It’s his house and that’s his cousin. I don’t think he has much.”
“I didn’t have much either.”
“Yeah, but I gave you your own apartment.”
“True.” She shrugged, like she always does. “Roland should pick up some pointers and buy Dylan his own place too. Don’t tell me he’s one of those cheap-ass rich people.”
I laughed. “He can be frugal. But I don’t think that has anything to do with his cousin. He probably just wants him here so they can be close, especially if he’s going to caddy for him.”
“How long is he even going to stay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hmm.” Miley sipped from her glass. “Well, if Roland’s cousin ever feels like he needs another place to live, I should probably tell him there’s space at my apartment.”
“What?” I laughed.
“Come on, Mel. You can’t say he’s not sexy.”
I focused on the flames again, refusing to look at her. “I wasn’t looking at him in that way.”
“Yeah, fucking right. I mean, Roland is nice looking in the handsome, gentlemanly way, but his cousin is legit sexy. Like fuck me right now sexy.”
I rolled my eyes. “You shouldn’t even be worrying about that right now,” I said, pointing at her.
“I’m just saying.” She threw her hands in the air. “Hopefully he’s single.”
I wanted to laugh as she did, but I couldn’t. Because once Miley showed interest in someone, she didn’t leave it alone until she had the person. And this was Roland’s cousin. He was going to be living with us, which meant Miley would try and come around more often than she needed to, just to find ways to bump into him.