"What now, another problem?"
"There always is." The handsome yet equally as jerky stranger spoke dryly and my brother groaned loudly, walking around the guy and over to the desk, taking a cookie out the container stressfully and biting into it before sighing.
"Why can't I just live off the cookies you bake, Dylan?"
"She is Dylan?" The guy practically spat out my name and I blinked in realization. He knew me as Dylan, not as Calliope, of course he did, Ambrose rarely ever even used my first name aloud.
My brother looked back to the guy and nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, Calliope."
"You never told me you had a sister."
Ambrose looked a little confused at that and admittedly, I was too. "Huh? Man i've talked about her numerous times, its her- she's Dylan."
"Wait, so is her name Calliope or Dylan?" Why were they talking about me like I wasn't in this very same room?
"Both." Ambrose and I spoke in unison and the stranger, who wasn't a stranger to my brother, I suppose, blinked between Ambrose and I.
"You just said you had a sibling."
My brother exhaled harshly but I was the one who spoke, "Yes, and thats me, Calliope Dylan Sweeney, are you dense?" I asked him with a tilt of my head and he glared at me not so discreetly which I grinned at.
I was only teasing, but he glared back at my grin like he'd wanted to wack me upside the head right about now.
It admittedly made me stir in my seat a little, my grin faltering at the ends and I look away because wow, grumpy much?
"I thought you meant a brother." He says as he redirected his attention to my brother too, thankfully, because I'm sure as hell he'd burn a hole through me if he kept glaring at me.
"Dylan is a unisex name."
"Like Jesse." I chipped in and Ambrose nodded, taking another cookie and eating it in two bites once again.
"Im so hungry, can we go eat?"
I rose a brow at that, mentally saying, when are you not hungry?
"Uh yeah sure, you're the one who said I should come here, Jes."
It looked like a lightbulb lit at the top of his head because he nodded very enthusiastically, almost looking animated in this moment. "Oh shit that, we'll go now I just need to get something, Rhys leave the papers here and we'll talk about whatever the fuck its about man, i'll be back later."
The guy who i'd placed his name as Rhys now- nodded slowly, running a hand through his thick brown curls causing a few strands to fall back down near his eyebrows, sweeping over it and I watched, completely enthralled by just how attractive he was.
He looked handsome, but not rugged, more like a freaking male model since he too never smiled, but it never took away from how he looked, which was fairly distracting.
My brother quickly left the room and I stood up, feeling tense, shifting in place as I took my phone from the desk and walked to the side where Rhys was, looking over and up to him and he looked down and over to me.
Fuck, he was really tall, like probably six foot four or something, I hadn't noticed it when I was sitting down but now standing to my full grown five foot seven, I did definitely take a note of it.
"Uh... so, who are you exactly?"
He rose a brow in my direction, this time he looked like I had to know who he was which made me almost want to snort at the irony, wondering if his ego was bruised.
"I thought you'd know of the guy your brother had lived with since he was fifteen."
I hummed, so he is the guy Ambrose considered like his own brother, I heard Jes talk about him to my uncle, talk kindly about this jerk. "Oh, so you're Emrhys."
A grimace crossed his handsome features for a second before he recovered just as quickly. "Just Rhys is fine."
My lips quirked upward, he didn't like his full name. "I'll be sure to make a mental note of it, Emrhys." I spoke cheekily, watching as he eyed me up and down once again.
I couldn't not have eyed him a little too. Was it obvious that I thought he was unbearably attractive, but still bearable enough that I wanted to look at him?
"I like your accent."
My grin fell from just how surprised I was and lips parted involuntarily, and im pretty sure.. I freaking blushed too. I was mostly just taken aback by the randomness of the compliment, because it was kind of endearing too.
Before I could even think about what to say to him my brother came back and I looked away from Rhys and to him.
"We can go now Dyl."
✶ ✶ ✶
After what felt like hours we got to whatever place my brother wanted to take me to, which was actually not too far but sometimes I can be overly dramatic.
We parked near the beach parking and began to walk till we got over to the boardwalk, people staring at us, probably more at my brother who was in a suit in the heat, plus another small fact that we were at the beach this way, it made me smile, restraining a laugh but he wasn't bothered by the looks.
Luckily he'd taken his suit jacket off in the car and so he rolled his white sleeves up till it was near his elbows, yawning lightly and I noticed the dark noticeable hued circles on his tan skin beneath his eyes.
I knew Ambrose worked hard.
He was the COO of Burns Inc, which I now knew had twenty two other office buildings around the US from what I'd researched discreetly in the car after we'd left the building.
So yes, my brother had definitely been overworking himself and from what Rhys had said in the office, it seems like they were the only two overworking themselves.
I'd also noted the circles beneath Rhys's eyes against his pale skin, but I was too captivated by his eye color to even take them into consideration, plus, it kinda made him look hotter, which really annoyed me.
"You need to sleep." I told my brother casually, hoping he'd listen to me if I didn't scold him for it but he just hummed, sounding like he'd took my advice through one ear and let it out the other.
"Im serious Ambrose."
"I do sleep."
"Hardly, and sometimes you fall asleep in your bloody home office." I poked his arm, scolding him lightly and he rolled his eyes, palming his eyelids before he looked over to his left side where the sand was leading down to the beach, the sound of the waves sounding oddly comforting.
"You don't need to take surveillance on me, im a grown man Calliope."
"Twenty five years old but you act like a teenager staying awake at night to talk to their crush." I hissed and he snorted out a chuckle, letting his head fall back a little and I smiled, happy he wasn't holding on to too much of the work tension when he was not there.
I wondered if Rhys's siblings worked there too, if they cared about his well being the way I cared about Ambrose's, hopefully one of the many did.
"Don't worry, i'll sleep." He assured me with a tap on my head, turning the direction of my head at the top and I looked to the empty building space he directed my attention to with a raise of my brow.
"What's this?"
"I thought maybe you'd want to open a restaurant or something."
My jaw actually freaking dropped.
I whipped around to look at Ambrose beside me before I shrieked out a quiet yet squeaky, "What?!"
He smiled and shrugged like it was nothing when in reality it was absolutely everything, well to me it was more than everything.
"But I won't take all the credit, it was actually Rhys's idea, I told him you had nothing else to do at home and he suggested well- this." He gestured to the space, quite a big space too.
Most of the places here on the pier were smaller sized shops like galleries and a sweet story, even a diner and soon, i'd also be here?
I couldn't help but smile like a bloody goofball.
I've always wanted to own a bakery, not a restaurant, a bakery, to bake for peoples weddings, walk in customers like a cafe too, parties and all of that stuff.
It was my dream.
"I can't believe this." But the longer I thought of it the quicker the realization of how much a place like this would cost came to mind, and my smile dropped.
"I can't afford this."
He snorted. "I wasn't gonna make you pay."
I knew exactly what that meant. "No."
"Yes."
"Ambrose!" I hissed and turned back, glaring and he shrugged. "I don't mind, it's not even much since we know the people."
"You should mind, what if it fails?"
"It won't, I know you, come on Calliope stop worrying, okay?" He said with another quick tap to my head as he turned around, completely ignoring me.
"Plus, I already signed a twelve month lease."