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Chapter One

Ryker

“Congrats I’m proud of you,” I said

I clinked ne to my sisters’ Tess and Skye just quit their jobs to focus on their business full-tierie shop for a few years, but now they were preparing to open a brick-and- was in three weeks

“Thanks, brother,” Tess answered I could see she was truly pleased with my praise But it was the truth; I was damn proud of them both

“I’ on the couch that had just been delivered to the shop Tess and I sat on the armrests

“And because we’re all about setting goals, let’s hope we’ll nab an investor soon,” Tess added Although they’d made a lot of money on their own, they could expand faster with an investor

“You know I can help,” I offered for the millionth time I was director at a venture capital firm and knew many investors

The fund I worked for couldn’t invest directly—that would be a conflict of interest—but I could pull sos

Tess shook her head “We already told you we don’t want you to put your skin in the game for us What if this doesn’t work out? Your reputation on Wall Street will suffer”

I didn’t care about my reputation when it came to my family I just wanted to ease their way as much as possible The business world was ruthless, and I was convinced the best way to succeed was to approach it the e’d done everything else: by sticking together

“Besides, you’re already helping” Tess was batting her eyelashes I knew so was up

“What do you need me to do?”

“Don’t phrase that so open-ended, because our list is acurtains before the couch was delivered

“I know I saw the list There are still a s to check off” That was the reason our faotten the keys to this place teeks ago, and we’d divided the weekdays a ourselves Until the store opened, our brother, Cole, came Thursdays, I did Monday, and our cousin, Hunter, and his wife, Josie, stopped by on Wednesday Mom and her husband came Tuesday and Friday

Skye winked, sitting upright again “Nah, you did enough for tonight Thanks for helping us hang the curtains Tess and I have to pack some new online orders”

“Is that e drank only the sne bottle?” I pointed to the floor, where there was a large one next to a pile of boxes

“Oh, no We’re keeping the large Do will be here,” Tess said “Minus Josie and Hunter”

“Why aren’t they co?” I asked

“Theya trip and aren’t sure if they’ll co every free rin

Sometimes I still couldn’t believe that our cousin was married to his best friend, but I didn’t say it out loud My sisters picked up on it anyway

“Still haven’t recovered fro out of the bachelor pack, huh?” Tess teased