It wasn’t just a paintbrush.

It was the paintbrush.

The one he’d kept in his mouth while hoisting Sloane up to grab the box in her brother’s garage. The one he’d been prepared to use to knock the larger-than-life spider off her back…before she’d stripped instead.

The one he’d all but forgotten when she’d kissed him in the kitchen. The first time they’d done that alone.

It was such a small thing in his hand now, but it had been powerful enough to send him into an emotional and enlightening tailspin. Even Dixon had picked up on the change. He’d given Brady something to think about before he’d left.

“If you need to be Mopey Brady again because your heart hurts, I’m okay with that,” Dixon had said. “But just so I know that at least one person has said it out loud to you—if you miss her, there’s one really easy fix for that.”

Dixon hadn’t said anything more, and now Brady was standing on Callum’s front porch with a paintbrush in his hand.

He didn’t know what one thing had compelled him to drive there or to knock, but when Callum opened the door, he knew one thing was absolutely true.

He loved Sloane, too.

And he missed her.

More than he’d ever missed anyone else, and it had only been five days since he’d seen her.

He missed her talking his ear off, her laughing at her own puns, and every single blush. He missed her awkwardness and the face she made when she was annoyed but trying really hard to stay polite. He missed her superpower of making what should be a quick goodbye last for hours. He missed her uncanny ability to stumble into the weirdest situations and then try her damnedest to play them off as normal.

He missed her sundress.

And yet he’d been the one to end it.

“What are you doing here?” Callum crossed his arms over his chest and gave Brady a look that could have killed. “You know Sloane left two days ago, right?”

Brady winced, though he already knew. The gossip of her leaving town had spread like wildfire. One that burned its way right to Brady, despite his mostly self-imposed isolation.

What had he expected after basically telling her to go back to her old life?

“I know,” Brady said quietly. He held the paintbrush up for a second, deciding that he’d tell Callum he was really there to return it. Instead, what he said came straight from the heart. “I’m in love with her, and I’ve been a total ass about it all. I need your help.”