Beau:About the girl?
Me:Yeah.
Beau:What about it?
Me:She’s at the station. She knows everyone here.
Gage:did you trip over her feet?
Boone:Are you drunk, bro?
Beau:Isn’t this a good thing?
Me:It’s great. It’s just… weird.
Really fucking weird. So weird, I’ve been pacing up and down the hall, not too far from where said girl currently has her hands all over one of my coworkers. Not sexually, I know. For work. But am I crazy for feeling a little jealous of him, even if she’s possibly going to be running those hands over me next?
Fuck.
My dick twitches, and I stop in the center of the hall, look up at the ceiling, and take the most calming breath I can muster.
It’s not sexual. It’s not sexual. It’snotsexual.
I should say no. This has to be outside the boundaries of mythree-date rule, right?
No. No, it’s not sexual. It’s her job. Liam filled me in that she’s a certified massage therapist. Went to school for it and everything. She’s a professional. No happy endings here. It’s just… a massage from the woman I haven’t stopped thinking about in days, with her warm hands all over me, isn’t something I’m sure I can handle.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I glance at the group thread again. Gage has responded, and I shake my head as I read it.
Gage:you’re gonna bang her, right?
Boone:He’s going to take her on a date. You’re such a dog.
Gage:woof.
Gage is a top-tier asshole sometimes. A middle child who made everyone hate him. Beau tried to keep him in line, but he had so much responsibility as the eldest that he couldn’t keep up with babysitting duty. Gage drew the short end of the stick and suffered the wrath of our father most days.
Another text pops up, this time a private message.
Boone:You are going to take her out, right?
That’s our baby brother. Kind and thoughtful. A little naïve. Two years younger than my twenty-six. A true baby of the family, the way he could never do wrong, not just in my parents’ eyes, but in everyone else’s too. Minus Gage.
Top-tier asshole.
Me:Yeah… if she says yes, anyway.
Boone:She’ll say yes. The way you talked about her the other night, she has to.
I’ve always been Boone’s secret keeper, but it’s only been since I moved to California that he became mine. Before that, it was Beau. When I left home, it wasn’t on good terms with my dad or my oldest brother, and I needed a sounding board. Plus, a taste of home.
Boone was the one I texted after Bryn disappeared from Kickin’ Boots, and the one who gave me the idea to post about it. He figured with the reach I already had, I might have a chance of finding her.
Me:If luck is on my side.
Boone: You’ve always had a horseshoe up your ass.
I smile. He’s not wrong. I’ve always had good luck, and given who showed up today, I’d say it’s holding out.
