Just Want Somebody to Love. Keri Ford
tomorrow meant his brother wouldn’t be working. They could stay up for the rest of the night if they wanted and sleep all day.
Justin grabbed his folder with the papers in it, snatched a pen in case there wasn’t one handy, and hurried down. Light spilled in the entryway by the back door, and he followed it as it got brighter. Brandon sat at a small wooden table that had three chairs around it. The glass of water he’d fixed had two sips left. He slouched in the high back, eyes closed. The deep yawn signaled he wasn’t asleep.
Justin sat across from him. “Can’t fall asleep on me now.”
“Getting close.”
“I think I have something that will wake you up.” Justin slid the papers across the table. “We did it.”
Brandon scrubbed over his face. His brows buckled as he stared. He didn’t flip through the small stack or so much as touch even the top page. “What am I looking at? You know I hate legal terms.”
A bit of a smile touched Justin. Brandon had never been a fan of legal. Which suited Justin fine because he wasn’t a fan of working in a hot kitchen, where Brandon liked to be. Or where he used to like being. “Those fifteen pages say our dreams are coming true. It’s happening. We have an offer that’s going to branch us out as far as we want to go.”
Brandon still looked, and still didn’t touch the papers. “To where?”
Where? He thought he’d come to him this excited over another city in Texas? “To anywhere. Hell, everywhere. They’re starting in Florida, then Georgia, and working their way west to meet us in Texas. I don’t know where from there. This is our big dream.”
Brandon lifted a shoulder and leaned back. “Dreams change.”
Goals changed. Plans changed. Dreams? Those never changed. Justin tapped the papers. “Not this one.”
“Does for me.”
Justin sat back and studied his brother. Brandon did the same back. He must have misunderstood. “We’ve waited for this day since we were teenagers.” He sat on the edge of his seat. “Billboards across the country advertising us. Nationwide commercials. We talked about this for hours and now it’s here. You’re not happy about that?”
“It’s not what’s important to me anymore.”
Justin looked around at the shack of a kitchen. There wasn’t even a dishwasher. Upstairs sucked even more. Money clearly didn’t hit a top priority of his brother’s anymore. But still. “I’ve worked for this. I’m ready to see it happen.”
“I’m not interested in it.”
Justin just stared at the man across from him and tried to figure out who was sitting there. As much as a hermit Brandon that had become, this couldn’t be the same brother that Justin had shared “one day” dreams with for hours. “You do realize what I’m talking about, right? Branching out and becoming a nationwide chain? We’ll be a household name.”
“I understand fine. What you’re not getting is that I don’t want it.”
Justin stared at him a little longer. He had a decent poker face, but not over this. Surely not over this. Right? “How could you not want it?”
No smile hinted he might be joking. “Too much work. Too much time away. It’s too much.”
Lifelong plans crumbled, and Justin grasped at anything he could to hold it all together. If his brother didn’t agree and wouldn’t sign…Justin refused to even think of that option. He and Brandon had grown into different people over the last few years, but he wouldn’t do this to him. He couldn’t do this to him. “I’ve been handling everything for several years now. It wouldn’t change anything for you. You can stay here, keep on like you want. Get your TV and don’t hire any help. Nothing changes for you. Except your bank balance.”
Finally Brandon took a moment to think. It didn’t last long before he pushed out a heavy breath. “You know what you said earlier? About meaning to get by here, but you don’t? If I sign this, then I’ll never see you.”
Ice ran through his blood and Justin sat forward. “Are you saying you won’t sign?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Brandon crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not signing. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of everyone.”
Justin’s throat tightened, and he was tempted to grab the last of Brandon’s water. He couldn’t decide if he needed a drink it to clear his throat or break it over his brother’s head in hopes to knock sense into him. For that, he left the water alone. “But if you refuse, then this deal falls through. We’re fifty-fifty partners.”
“I know.” Brandon’s words were filled with so much calm.
Justin was about to come out of his skin. “I don’t think you understand. You have to agree.”
“I understand perfectly.” Brandon tapped the stack of sheets holding their future. “I don’t sign. This doesn’t happen. That’s how we started this restaurant. Either we both agree or it doesn’t happen. I don’t agree.”
Justin waited to try and gather words that didn’t involve shouting them. Shouting would get him nowhere. “I’ve worked hard. I want this.”
“I know you’ve worked hard.” Brandon nodded. “You’ve pored your life into it, and you’ve done a great job running it by yourself. I never doubted that you couldn’t. That’s why I’m not signing.”
“You’re not making any sense.” He admitted Justin was capable, and that’s why he wasn’t signing?
Brandon started to lean on the table, but stopped and pushed the papers out of the way as though they were disgusting. With the offending items out of his way, he leaned on the table and clasped his hands together. “All you’ve done is work. You don’t have anything to show for yourself besides work.”
“Oh you mean like having an ex-wife, like you?” Damn it. He regretted that the moment it popped out.
Brandon’s gaze narrowed, and he pushed from the table. “Is there anything else? I work hard too and I’m exhausted.”
Was there anything else? Yeah. There damn sure was a lot more. He was just at a loss on what to say as Brandon grabbed his glass and pushed his chair in. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Justin watched him as he headed for the door. “That’s it?”
“What?”
Justin lifted his papers. “I come to you with this, and all you say is no because I work too hard?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe if you were holding up your end of the partnership, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.” He pushed out of his chair. Brandon was not walking away from this. He couldn’t. Not after everything.
“Even if I was there, you’d work just as hard. All you know is trying to make that restaurant a success when there’s so much more to life.”
“How would you know? You’re in here six days a week, and you don’t have a single employee. You work just as hard as I do. If not more because I can at least take a sick day.”
Brandon looked down, his temper still intact, and that damnable calm tone of his voice remained. “Because I discovered there’s more and then lost it.”
Justin stared at the floor as anger bundled to a tight wad pounding through his veins. “That’s not my problem.”
“It needs to be a problem for you. You’re throwing your life away. There’s more than just that business out there.”
“This is my life’s work. I’m not throwing it anywhere. You are. I’m happy. I like my life. You’re the one trying to ruin it because you didn’t work hard enough for your marriage,