Breaking Ground (BRO CODE #1)

Chapter One

Sep 11, 2023

First off, thank you for still being here.

I am so excited about this book, you don’t even know. And I already have the second book plotted as well, so things are really kicking off!

The cover for Breaking Ground is currently being designed. And let me tell you… from the mockups I’ve seen already… hot. The cover itself is done. The colors for the writing is all that needs to be finalized. And depending on how I’m feeling about it, I might put it up to a vote with you guys. Or I’ll give you early access if I’m able to decide. (I’ll talk more about this in my next update with the cover.)

So now, without further ado, I present to you: Chapter One.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Chapter One

I’d sworn to myself the day I graduated high school that I would never return to my small coastal hometown of Pleasant Grove. But here I am, standing on what would be considered a busy Main Street, as I stare across the roadway, willing my feet to move.

The sooner you go in there, the sooner you can leave and get back to your life.

Not that my life was anything grand. Sure, on the outside it seemed perfect—the eternal bachelor who owned my own marketing firm and had made my first billion by the time I was 27, and in the last decade, I made that many times over. But I found out a long time ago nothing is perfect. That’s a lesson I can thank my father for teaching me.

And now, all I have to do is walk across that street, open the door, and listen to my father’s lawyer read his will. Then I can put Pleasant Grove behind me once and for all.

I glance at my watch with a weary sigh and make sure the road is clear before I take that first step towards my father’s lawyer’s office. Part of me wishes someone would hit me as I cross, and maybe I could wake up days later in the hospital with a brand new life. A happier life. But I shake the thought away and steel myself as I walk inside and am greeted by a young woman playing on her phone. She doesn’t even look up as I enter the office.

“Excuse me? Tate Flynn. I’m here to see Frank Cavanaugh.”

The woman barely glances up at me before returning to her phone.

My impatience grows as she continues to ignore me but just as I’m about to say something, one of the doors to the side opens and a portly gentleman walks out with a grim smile on his face.

“So sorry about Gregory, my boy,” the older man says as he waves me over to follow him.

He may be sorry that my old man took a heart attack and hadn’t made it, but it didn’t make me feel anything. I wonder what that says about me.

I offer him a tight smile as I take the seat he indicated across from his desk.

There’s not much fanfare as Frank drones on and starts to read off whatever it is that my father had and his plans. My old man didn’t have much and I’d sell the house and whatever car he had and wash my hands of him and my old life.

Until something Frank says catches my attention, then I curse myself for not paying better attention.

“I’m sorry, what did you say about Pleasant Cove?” The small island about a mile from shore has been abandoned for decades, before I was even born, if I remember correctly. So I’m not sure what Frank is indicating, or why my father would have anything about it in his will.

“You didn’t know?” Frank sighs as he puts down the paper he’d been reading from and shakes his head. “I told him years ago to tell you. The stubborn old goat.”

I stare at him, still waiting for him to explain.

“It had to have been about seven to ten years after your mother left,” Frank says as he leans back in his chair and studies me. “He found out the developer that owned Pleasant Cove was selling it. I thought it was a horrible idea but he was determined to buy the island, especially since the owners were so desperate to unload it and letting it go for a song.”

My stomach churns. Pleasant Cove had been an an island retreat a long time ago. There were a lot of legends and stories about why the place shut down and no one had ever repaired it, but no one knew the real story, only that one day they closed up and let it go back to nature, as it were. And no one has done anything with it since.

“Why would he want that old place? Where did he even get the money?” My father wasn’t a sentimental man and rarely did anything without a lot of thought and consideration. So the idea of him buying this place and letting it continue to rot didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit with the image of the man I knew.

Frank shrugs but doesn’t say anything for a moment as we stare at each other. My mind races as I try and figure out what sort of game he’s playing. There has to be some reason my dad bought that place and I’m sure Frank knows what it is, but if he does, he’s not saying.

But I need to play my cards right because I know if I push, the old badger will just shut down more. Because my old man might be dead, but that doesn’t mean loyalties to him are.

“Alright. So he left me the island. I guess I’ll just sell it, along with whatever else he has here. And that will be that.” I lean back in the chair and take a deep breath. There’s no use getting caught up in whatever reasoning my father had for wanting the abandoned island, especially since I don’t share any sentiment he obviously felt for it.

When I see Frank grimace, my heart sinks.

Fuck. Now what?

“Yeah, about that. Your father has a stipulation in his will that you have to stay here and oversee the restoration of the resort, in order to inherit it. Otherwise, if you’re not interested, you would be responsible for the cost of bulldozing the resort and then the deed of the island would be transferred to Pleasant Grove.”

Frank doesn’t look particularly happy, and whether it’s because he doesn’t like having to break the news to me or because he doesn’t agree with my father’s choice, I’m not sure. One thing I am sure about, is that my face is probably reflecting an expression that is just as unhappy.

“I’m sorry, what?” Words don’t often fail me.

Frank repeats what my father had drawn up in his will and I’m stunned to realize I hadn’t somehow misheard him the first time.

I go to open my mouth to tell Frank that I don’t give a fuck about the island or whatever else my dad owned and he can do whatever he needs to with everything, when he raises his hand to cut me off.

“Whatever you’re about to say, hold on a minute. Because I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that despite the current state of the resort and the rest of the buildings on the island, the last appraisal of the land itself, was just over twenty million dollars.” He stares at me with a hard expression as the words sink in.

Sure, it’s a lot of money. Unless you’re me. But even I don’t consider that to play money. But I’m not in the business of resorts or islands or whatever. Sure, I have business and marketing degrees, but that didn’t mean I want run an island resort that is halfway across the country.

“I don’t want the resort, or the island, or any of it,” I bite out. “My life, my business, is in Chicago. How could he just expect me to pick it all up and move back to Pleasant Grove. Why would he think I’d even want to come back here?”

No one knew why I disappeared a week after graduation and never came back. Hell, I barely let myself think about why I fled this small town with their small minds. And I don’t intend to get into that with Frank either, but I’m curious as to what the hell my father was thinking.

“If you stay, do the repairs, then you have the option to sell. At that point it would be worth exponentially more.” Frank looked down at the will in front of him for a moment before he continued. “He wanted to see the place restored to its former glory and he thought you would be the person to do it, since he spent most of his savings—and then some—on the purchase, and didn’t have the means to do any repairs.”

My anger spikes and I try to bring it under control. It isn’t Frank’s fault my father was an asshole in life, and still was even in death, apparently. But I hate to think how my father still found a way to try and control me, even from his grave.

We never talked about what led me to fleeing Pleasant Grove when I was eighteen. And my old man never tried all that hard to get me back in town once I left, not that I would have come back anyway. Especially since I was sure any attempts he might have made, would have been out of obligation rather than an actual desire to see me.

But I still don’t understand why he wanted me to have the resort or what was so special about it. More over, I don’t understand how he could have afforded to purchase the island. No matter how much the developers were letting it go for, it still had to have been millions, even back then.

“Why do I have to stay here and oversee the project? Why can’t I just hire someone to do everything and stay in Chicago?” That’s what’s bothering me the most. I didn’t even want to be in Pleasant Grove for this conversation, let alone to be here for an undetermined amount of time while the resort is brought up to code and no longer condemned.

“Honestly, I have no idea. But that was what your father wanted the stipulation to be. Like I said,” Frank said with a pause, “you have the option to walk away and the property would belong to the town.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose as I consider my options. While I know in my gut I should walk away, there’s something telling me I need to stay and do this. Plus, I can sell it off when it’s done. Or even hire someone to run the resort and expand my portfolio. Either way, it’s a lot to think about.

“Is there anything else I should know?” I ask with a resigned sigh. “Cliff notes version, we don’t have to sit here and read the whole damn will.”

“About the resort or in general?”

I shrug. “Both, I guess.”

Frank nods and picks up the will, looking through it as though he hasn’t memorized it and knew all the things he needed to tell me well before I walked through those doors and took a seat.

“Well, if you do choose to keep the resort, at least for now, you can’t demolish more than thirty percent of the original resort building without forfeiting it and the island. I don’t see why that would need to happen, even in its current condition. But I guess he was thinking about renovations you’d want to make.”

My face pales. Another thought I’d had was that it might be cheaper and more timely to demolish the original building and start from scratch. But I guess that idea has been shot down now.

“Other than that, you can do whatever you want with the smaller villas and the rest of the island. The original main building is the only one your father has anything in here regarding.”

“Great,” I mutter, grinding my teeth. “Can I trust you to take care of selling his house and vehicle?”

“You don’t want them?” Franks asks, looking up at me in surprise.

I do my best to hold back the bark of laughter that threatens to explode.

“No.”

His eyes furrow. “Where do you plan on staying while the renovations are going on? Assuming you’re keeping it, that is.”

Shit.

I didn’t think of that. But either way, there is no way I can stay in that house. It isn’t as though it holds a lot of good memories for me. In fact, I’m not sure there are any memories I could even classify as fond.

One of my earliest memories from living there was listening to my parents fight while I sat at the top of the steps, hidden in shadow. My mother was screaming at my father, as he tried to quiet her. But she walked out, slamming the door, and I never heard from her again. Things hadn’t gotten better after she left.

“I’ll find a rental or something.”

Frank is quiet for a moment but then nods. “Consider it done, Tate. I’ll get a realtor in to go through and list it.”

“Perfect. Whatever they can get for it is fine. Just send me the paperwork when it’s done.”

My mind is racing as I stand and shake Frank’s hand before I hightail it out of the office. When I get outside, I’m surprised to see how dark it got during my short visit to the lawyer’s office.

I slide into the driver’s seat and my head falls back with my eyes closed as I try and figure out what my next move is. The correct answer is that I should get dinner and head back to my hotel room.

Instead, I pull my phone out of my pocket and stare at the words I type into the search bar. The words stare back at me, haunting me. I erase them, more determined than ever to head back to my hotel but I find myself typing them back in and hitting search before I can second guess myself again.

Thirty minutes later, I pull into the parking lot of the only gay bar within a twenty mile radius of Pleasant Grove and curse myself as I make my way inside.

Click below to continue reading chapter two!

BRO CODE