Melting for My Brother's Best Friend

By Elle Davis

What happens when the girl next door grows up?

Isla Linden is fed up. Always having to take responsibility for her brother, her house, her job...she's had enough. The last thing she needs is her brother's best friend talking to her like they're still kids.

Maddox Hayes is a man now, and Isla is well aware as she watches him blow glass in his studio. A late-night errand melts into a fiery escape that leaves Isla gasping by the furnace.

Can Maddox help her forget her troubles, even if it's just for one day?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elle Davis
• Release date: Oct 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798223857389

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Isla

MY PHONE RINGS just as I finish my shift at the restaurant. I see it's my brother and decline the call. He knew when I was finishing work and that means he wants something from me. I'm sick of doing shit for him. He's probably drunk and needs a ride.

Our parents died the year he graduated from high school. It's just been the two of us since then, and even though he's two years older, he acts like a child. I've had a steady job for three years since I graduated, and he works sporadically doing construction when a buddy will pay cash. It's nearly midnight and I'm exhausted from being on my feet all damn day, and I groan when the phone rings again almost immediately.

What?? I hiss by means of a greeting.

Isla, don't hang up.

What the fuck do you want, Isaac? I'm tired.

I need you to go see Maddox. I pause. This comes as a surprise. Maddox Hayes is my brother's best friend, but I haven't seen him around in awhile. Most likely he's sick of Isaac's crap, too. Last I heard Mad had his own thing going at a glass studio and was doing well for himself.

Maddox? I ask, my tone still poisonous. Why the hell would I go and see him?

Isaac sighs into the phone. Isla, I know the taxes are due tomorrow. I've been working for Mad lately and he said he'd pay me tonight, but I'm not in town.

You're not in town? I begin to understand what's happening. My brother is probably off on some drug bender with his no-good friends, but he kept his wages with Maddox so I wouldn't be short for the property tax. I sigh again, resolved that keeping the house is more important than forcing my brother to grow up.

Isaac