“Why in the world would you quit your job? Your dad was basically giving you money. All you had to do was show up.”
Aaron scrubbed his face with his hands. Sometimes he questioned how he’d ever become friends with Mitch in the first place. “You are the one who gets paid for doing nothing. I am the one who actually had to work long hours and was miserable.”
“But you were making money.”
“And now I make people happy by designing their dream home,” he said with a flourish.
“So you hire people to fix up these houses and then sell them off for big bucks? I could do that.”
“No, I actually do the work.” He had the sore muscles and the cuts and scrapes to prove it. “I hired Bonnie’s dad after my father fired him because you made everyone believe Bonnie knew you were in love with her.”
Mitch didn’t respond to the part where Aaron tried to hold him accountable. “You’ve got to be kidding. You do manual labor? That sounds horrible.”
“I enjoy it. It’s a million times better than sitting in a boardroom all day.”
“Nope. I could sit in a boardroom all day for the rest of my life as long as I had Wi-Fi and my computer and the administrative assistants kept bringing snacks and drinks in.”
Aaron was certain that Mitch had never actually worked a day in his life. “You better pray your father’s business never goes under.”
“Speaking of food and drinks, you got any?” He got up and helped himself to what was in the refrigerator. “So where is this house you’re flipping?”
“Over on Greenbriar. It’s this ranch on a big lot. Lots of trees. It’s nice.”
“And Bonnie is helping you?”
Aaron didn’t want to talk about Bonnie. Not with Mitch. “She helped design the interior.”
Mitch nodded. “Okay, now that we’ve caught up on what you’ve been doing, how about you tell me how to win your sister’s forgiveness.”
Aaron had no ideas. If he had, he would have shared them with Bonnie, not Mitch. Mitch deserved whatever Lauren was going to do to him. He wondered if now was a good time to mention he was going on a date with Bonnie this Friday or not. He wondered how Mitch would take that. He hadn’t said anything about how he felt about Bonnie.
“I went to her house tonight, and she wouldn’t even answer the door.”
Aaron shrugged. “Lauren does what Lauren wants. She doesn’t care what you want.”
“I don’t want her to hurt Bonnie anymore. Do you have any bread? I want to make a sandwich.”
He pointed Mitch in the direction of the bread and then picked up his phone to send Bonnie a text. He wondered if she had seen him show up at Lauren’s and if she’d tried to talk to Lauren as well.
“Who are you texting? You have the most serious look on your face.” Mitch laughed as he took a bite of his sandwich.
If he told Mitch he was texting Bonnie, how would he respond? Aaron wasn’t sure he wanted to know. If he told Mitch that they were kind of dating, everyone would know in a matter of hours. He wasn’t sure how Bonnie felt about that information getting out just yet. It was better to let Mitch believe he was just a concerned older brother. “I was checking on Lauren.”
His front door opened, and before he could process what was happening, Lauren stormed in. “I need to talk to you,” she said before stopping dead in her tracks.
Mitch froze midbite.
Without a word, she spun around and marched right back out the door. Aaron chased after her. “Lauren, hold up.”
Red-faced, she turned back to him. “You are the worst brother in the entire world!” she shouted. “Every time I need you, there you are being buddy-buddy with my mortal enemies. You have made it perfectly clear that my feelings mean nothing to you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Ha! When it comes to family loyalty, you have none. You are completely disloyal. You put everyone ahead of me. All I needed tonight was my big brother to talk to about how I’m feeling, and instead you’re hanging out with Mitch. I guess I should be surprised it wasn’t Bonnie, because all you do these days is align yourself with the people who hurt me.”
Aaron felt like a complete heel. Even though Bonnie hadn’t done anything, the same couldn’t be said for Mitch. Aaron was currently being quite hospitable to the person who broke his sister’s heart. “I’m sorry. He came over here to talk about how to make things better. I’m seriously trying to find a way to make peace. I can’t do that if I leave him to his own devices.”
“I’ll never find peace as long as you keep allowing them to be part of your life. I can’t do it anymore, Aaron.”
“I totally understand why you feel that way about Mitch, but things are different with Bonnie. I know you and Bonnie are going to find a way to get past this misunderstanding.”
Apparently that was the wrong choice of words. “Misunderstanding? I don’t think anyone would call cheating with your best friend’s fiancé a misunderstanding.”
“She didn’t cheat with him! Would you please stop saying that? You are the only one who thinks that’s true. Go back in there and ask Mitch yourself. He’ll tell you he didn’t cheat.”
Lauren had tears running down her face, making Aaron feel like an even bigger jerk. “Of course he’s going to tell me he didn’t cheat. He’s a liar. That’s what liars do. They lie.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you by not agreeing with you. I am trying to get things back to normal. All I want is for everyone to
