“Yeah. Can I borrow your truck? I need to head back to the house and change.”
“Yeah, sure.” Zach pulled his keys to his pickup out of his pocket and handed them over.
“Thanks,” Sam said. For some reason he sounded like one of their dogs had just died. He really needed to snap out of it.
“Man, you alright? Walk with me,” Zach said as he headed toward his new white pickup. “I won’t say you’ve been moping, but you should see your face right now.”
Sam turned the keys over in his hands, then looked up at his older brother. Nothing bothered Zach. As long as the ranch was up and running and his fiancée Evie was happy, the man didn’t have a bad day. He also didn’t have Sam’s artistic spirit. He knew he could talk to his brother, but he wasn’t sure he would understand.
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“What’s going on? Talk to me.”
“I don’t know! That’s the problem. I made the movie. I won the award. John has a ton of scripts for me to look at, directors want to talk to me. Majesty is in great health.”
“Hey, we always look after her when you’re gone. Evie takes her out every day she’s here.”
That was enough to make Sam smile. Evie hated his horse and Majesty hated most humans, but somehow they’d come to an understanding. If only the happiness and well-being of his beloved horse was enough. “You know I appreciate that. Evie’s a real one.”
“She is, but you? Sounds like you’re just overwhelmed.”
“Maybe that’s it. I don’t know why I’m complaining.”
“’Cause you’re human. You set a goal and you reached it. You also have the rest of your life ahead of you. Ask Miss Leona. You think winning an Oscar instantly solved her problems? Shit, she had to help raise the three of us. We turned her gray under those custom wigs.”
Sam laughed for real this time. “True.”
“Listen, you got some time off. Hang around here as long as you like. I know Jesse loves having you around.”
“I don’t know about that.”
The whole family was spread out over three fairly large houses on their own private cul-de-sac. He had an apartment in LA, and now that Evie’s restaurant was up and running in New York, he was welcome to crash in the family town house in Harlem, but Pleasant Lane was always home. That was until Zach kicked him out of their house and made him crash with Jesse. He loved Evie, but since the minute they’d gotten engaged and convinced their grandma it was okay for them to be living in sin, Sam had been playing musical houses around the cul de sac, switching between his brothers’ and grandmother’s homes. His cousins Lilah and Corie were already living in Miss Leona’s. He could sleep over there, but his grandmother had enough to deal with. He’d suck it up and stay with Jesse. Didn’t mean he had to like it.
“What happened?” Zach laughed.
“I got a forty-minute lecture about condiment placement last night. I accidentally moved the steak sauce onto the wrong shelf.”
“You can come stay at my place until Sunday night, but Evie’s back Monday morning.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“I was gonna say you could help Jesse with his dating profiles. Might help take your mind off things, but maybe not.”
“Wait, back it up. What dating profile?”
“Evie convinced him to try out a few dating apps.”
“There are, like, seven eligible women in this town. Why doesn’t he just go down to Claim Jumpers if he’s looking for local love?”
Zach shrugged. “She signed him up for one of those weird ones that matches moderately wealthy people.”
“Uh, I’m definitely going to talk to him about that. Speaking of dating, Walls said some shit about how I’ve been sulking since Natalie and I broke up. You think I’ve been sulking?”
Zach stepped back and looked Sam over for a second.
“I wouldn’t say sulking—”
“Wow. Really?”
“Listen, you two broke up and you only brought it up to me once in any official capacity, but there was a mood shift. I just thought you were stressed out about the movie. That script was heavy.”
“Yeah. I guess I did too.”
“But now?”
Sam almost told his brother about Cha-Cha. Days later and she was still hovering in the back of his mind. He thought about asking Helene if she knew anything about her, since they’d been together at the party, but it was her wedding week. Plus, he didn’t want to let it slip that he and Cha-Cha had slept together and Sam hadn’t even managed to catch her name.
“Nothing. It’s nothing. I just—Walls was giving me shit about ignoring all the women who’ve flooded my DMs this week. After the win.”
“You really taking relationship advice from Walls?” Zach’s eyebrow went up under his tan Stetson. “I know that’s your homie, but it’s Walls. That’s like going to Corie for a soft shoulder to cry on.” Their play cousin/Miss Leona’s assistant was a few degrees below cold-blooded.
“I just want a girl to love me for me,” he said dramatically.
Zach let out a hearty laugh. “You’re a Pleasant. That was never going to happen.”
“Oh? So what about Evie?”
“Do you see this face, man?”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“Ninety percent of what we got going on is because of this pretty-ass face.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Nah, I’m playin’, but Evie can’t stand my ass and everyone knows it. If she didn’t love the real me, there’s no way she would have agreed to marry me. So yeah, you’re onto something. But I don’t know how to help you or Jesse.”
“Is there any helping Jesse? Really? He needs a combination of Mom and Corie with the patience of a saint. I’m not sure a woman like that exists.”
“Well, what are you looking for?”
“I’m not sure,” Sam lied ’cause at the moment he knew exactly what he was looking for. He just had to figure out her name. He just knew what it would sound like if he said it out loud.
“Well, if you’re feeling lonely, man,
