Wrong to Love You (Strong Brothers 3)

"I'm just a numbers cruncher,” I said. Math always came easy to me, so it was no big deal that my natural talent helped the company.

"A number cruncher who surfs through Asia."

I laughed. "Just the number cruncher part. I don't surf. It's dad's thing. I'm not even a very good swimmer."

Her lips twitched up in amusement. "That's right. I remember when we were at the beach in Mexico and the waves kept knocking you over."

As she said the words, she looked out toward the water, probably wanting to make sure the waves weren’t going to knock over my father.

I was just pleased that she did remember me and our time together, including how I embarrassed myself on the beach.

"How is my dad's progress going? I asked. I had the sense that she was uncomfortable talking about our past and since I wanted to keep her here as long as possible, I would go into territory that she was more comfortable with; my father's treatment.

"He's making very good progress. We’re at the part where he feels he can do more than he can, which is a good sign, yet, at the same time we need to make sure he doesn't overdo it."

"How much longer do you think you'll need to work with him?" In truth, I was asking how much time I had to get to know her again, because I really did want to get to know her again.

"I expect to work with him another four or five weeks," she said.

I fell in love with her in one week four years ago, so four or five weeks was plenty of time to find out if what we had b

efore could be built again. I surprised myself with that thought because I wasn't a man actively looking for happily ever after like my brothers Ryan and Hunter apparently had been. But there'd been something about Jess that week in Mexico that I wanted to feel again.

We made more small talk, avoiding any discussion about our time together before until finally Noah and my dad came back up from the beach.

Jess stood up and went to my father. "You look worn out, Alex. Why don’t I help you get settled in for some rest."

She was right that my father looked exhausted, and at the same time deliriously happy. The ocean did that for him.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Carter?" Noah asked me with a nod toward the door inside.

I didn’t want to leave Jess’s side just yet, but I couldn’t give a good excuse not to go talk to him. We went inside the house and around the corner into the kitchen where we were alone.

"What are you doing?" Noah asked me.

I frowned at him. "I don't know. My brother asked me to talk with him. So here I am."

In the other room, I heard Jess and my father entering the house, and made their way up the hallway towards the room we'd set up for my father since he couldn't take the stairs right now.

"You're hitting on dad's physical therapist."

I arched a brow at Noah. "First, I'm not, and second, what business of yours is it if I was," I said. I had taken his comment about hitting on her as a joke, even as I hated it.

"Because she works for dad,” Noah said on an exasperated breath. "You know we're not supposed to fraternize with the help."

I let out a loud laugh. "I don't remember you caring that much when Ryan was fake marrying Kellie and Hunter was sleeping with Natalie."

Noah actually scowled at me, which was surprising considering he usually didn't care very much about business matters. "If you fuck with her, and she ends up hating you, she could take that out on dad."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I don't get you, Noah. Jess strikes me as being more professional than that, and I'm still baffled about why you care anyway? Have you been trying to make a play for her?" And if so, I was going to beat the ever living shit out of him.

He shook his head. "No, I'm just joking with her."

"You know, sometimes joking about things like that can be misconstrued as sexual harassment. If you really care about this, you shouldn't be joking with her about it.”

"The fact that you’re arguing with me about this makes me think you do want to hit on her.” His eyes narrowed as they studied me, and I hoped he couldn’t see my past with Jess in my expression. “You and Hunter are cut from the same cloth in that you don't want to be involved with anyone. You don't want to get married or have kids, except he went around like a hound dog with no strings attached affairs, and you've been the opposite, living like a fucking monk.”

There was some truth to that, in that Hunter had been man-whore while I had been much more discriminating in my affairs. But I didn't mean I hadn’t been with any women in the last four years. It just meant that they were far and few between, and were with women I was sure there wouldn’t be any emotional entanglements with. In fact, that was how things had started with Jess, until my heart decided otherwise.