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Chapter One
Avery
What have I done? How could I have agreed to this knowing this is a special kind of hell for me? The hell you experience when you’ve eaten too much of your favorite food or you’ve ridden your favorite ride too many times and are about to blow chunks all over the place…but you still want to go just one more time.
That feeling…hits me hard when I see my best friend - and secret childhood crush - carry in not only two, not three, but four big ass boxes into the apartment. He is my favorite food, my perfect roller coaster ride, and the one boy I can never have all wrapped up in one six-foot-four person. And he thinks of me as nothing more than his annoying, sometimes useful, girl-next-door friend. I’m not even his best friend. That position goes to Dillion who is also carrying boxes in for me.
“What have you got in here, Ave? It weighs a fucking ton.”
I open my mouth to answer Dillion, but Murphy beats me to it, “If I had to guess, it would be books.” He gives me one of his killer smiles that makes my tummy flip-flop dangerously. “Am I right, Avie?”
I nod and give him a weak smile. It’s the best I can do.
“Where do you guys want these, because I’m about to drop them and I’m pretty sure if I do…they’re going all the way through the floor and I’m not going after them.”
“Just sit them down anywhere, Dillion. I’ll put them away as soon as I bring up the bookshelves.”
“You sure you don’t want me to put them in the master bedroom?”
I give him a confused look, “That’s not the room I’m staying in, Dil…” his words finally sink in, and I figure out what he’s trying to say. “It’s not like that, Dillion.”
“Maybe it should be, Ave.”
I shush him and turn to make sure Murphy isn’t anywhere close by. The last thing I want him to do is hear Dillion being an idiot. “That’s not ever going to happen, Dillion. You know I can’t risk telling Murphy how I feel about him.”
“What I know is that a twenty-one-year-old man doesn’t invite just anyone to come live with him.”
God, I wish that were the truth instead of the depressing reality I have to live with. “He sees me as a sister. He’s always seen me as a sister and nothing more.”
I made the mistake of trying Long Island Ice Tea with them one afternoon without really knowing how much alcohol goes into one of them - and I had three - and told Dillion how I really felt about Murphy. To my astonishment and eternal gratitude, he didn’t tell anyone my biggest secret and greatest shame.
If I could stop how I felt about Murphy I would. Having him be nothing more than my friend would make my life so much easier. But I’ve never been able to stop the growing love I have for him.
“All I’m saying is maybe he feels the same way you do. I love my sister but don’t want to live with her. And I damned sure wouldn’t beat the hell out of her prom date before he took her out.”
The three of us grew up together. At first, it was weird being the only new person in the neighborhood of old money houses and I wasn’t sure how my mom was able to afford to move here but quickly learned it was because of her new job at the company Murphy’s dad owned. He was letting her rent the house so she would be closer to the family to assist them. That was almost four years ago. And now I’m moving in with Murphy who’s offered me a room in his penthouse and a position in his company. Even Dillion works for Murphy.
And Murphy did beat my date up right before we were about to leave for prom my junior year. The guy had talked about ‘hitting it’ after the dance was over. Murphy didn’t take too kindly to that rumor and decided to hit him instead. I ended up going to both proms with Dillion and Murphy, which caused a lot of different rumors to start about me. That I was in a threesome with them, that they shared me, that we were all engaged to one another and were planning a three-way ceremony. It didn’t seem to matter that I only ever danced with Murphy, not Dillion.
It also didn’t help that the two guys were three years older than me. And in college at the time. I try to give his words the brush off but Dillion just keeps following me. All the while sounding like the secret voice in my head.
“The man likes you, damn it! You have to see that! You can’t be so blind that you think he is treating you like a sister when he’s…not.”
“Dillion! I don’t want to talk about this right now. Can we just…?”
“What are the two of you whispering about over there?’
Oh shit!
Chapter Two
Murphy
I hate feeling like this…especially with my best friends but seeing the two of them so close to one another and whispering just makes the angry little monster resting inside of me rage out of control. Is something going on between them? Did Dillion lie to me about how he feels about Avery?
And if they’ve had something going on this entire time…I can’t take it any longer. “What are the two of you up to over there?”
Avery turns around looking guilty as hell but Dillion…well, it’s Dillion that has me calming back down. He looks completely unaware that Avery is standing right next to him in nothing but a pair of thin-ass leggings and one of my shirts that she can’t keep up on her shoulder. He gives me a mischievous grin before turning away from the two of us.
