Bidding on Brooks: The Winslow Brothers #1 Read Online Free

that if he allowed himself to fall in love and have children, he’d only end up abandoning them if he met his father’s tragic fate. And that wouldn’t just be heartbreaking, it would be irresponsible.
    So it didn’t really matter what he wanted. What was best for him was to keep a wide circle of friends for companionship and seek out safe, anonymous encounters when he felt the need for a woman. But he kept his heart carefully guarded, off-limits, and impenetrable to love, so that he’d never find himself gasping on an early deathbed, leaving tear-stained faces behind.
    Unwilling and unable to answer the uncomfortable question for Jessica in any simple manner, he defaulted, as he often did, to the stern tone of an older brother out of patience for his little sister’s shenanigans.
    “I’m fine, Jess. I don’t require—or appreciate—your interference.”
    She gave him a sour look, tilting her head to the side before resting her elbows on the table. “Well, I still haven’t answered your question, but now I will. I entered you in the auction because I’m hoping that if you get trapped on a sailboat for a week with a nice woman, you’ll let propinquity take over and fall in love.”
    Brooks blinked at Jessica, quickly looking away before she saw him smirk at her outlandish suggestion.
    He couldn’t help it…thinking about Skye’s shapeless body in men’s overalls, the filthy, omni-present grease-stained bandana sticking out of her back pocket, battered topsiders covered with dried sea salt, and a face largely hidden by the brim of a beat-up Orioles cap, he almost laughed. Like every other man on earth, Brooks had a favorite type: blonde, blue-eyed, and willowy with an ass and breasts that a man could hold onto in bed and legs that went on forever. He wanted the type of girl who made other men turn around and gawk with envy when she walked into a gala, who knew how to be feminine and graceful and still take care of a man’s needs without awakening his heart. He knew his type, and it didn’t include a certain marina mechanic who was more comfortable with a socket wrench than a champagne glass.
    “Yeah, well. Good luck with that,” he said, grinning to himself that he’d somehow managed to foil Jessica’s matchmaker intentions.
    She huffed. “I’m not giving up on you, Brooks.”
    He took the last bite of sandwich and swallowed as he stared at his little sister. “You probably should…or at least trust me when I say that it’s not going to happen this time.”
    Jessica rolled her eyes as she stood up, but she did that super annoying thing girls sometimes do: as she headed out of the room, she tossed over her shoulder in a knowing, sing-song voice, “Never say never, Brooks. Never say never.”
    ***
    Whenever she could, Skye tried to catch the sunset over the marina. The way the oranges, golds, and purples colored the clouds, reflecting off the water and silhouetting the tall masts of sailboats was—hands down—the most beautiful thing in the world.
    After Brooks left her, the bilge pump job had taken twice as long as she’d anticipated because it wasn’t a pump problem, but a wiring problem that had led to hours of testing the electrical board on the boat. Happily, it was now completed, and she’d saved the owners a couple of hundred dollars by not having to replace the pump. She’d done a good job, and per usual, she took a great deal of pleasure from a job well done.
    As she watched the sky turn from blue to Technicolor, Skye thought about how much she liked working with and for her father. She’d learned about boats and their maintenance from the best, and although she’d grown up without the benefit of a mother, she felt certain that her father’s love and affection had more than compensated for her mother’s absence.
    Her mother hadn’t loved the simple life of living by the water in Maryland, and had left for Los Angeles to be a singer when Skye was a little girl. If she hadn’t