Page 105 of Pick Me This Time

“I was trying to be nice. We’ve never been friends and we never will be, so just tell me why you followed us and take me home. Thank you.”

I heaved out a long breath, my heart thudding against my ribs. “You wanted us to be friends, Daph.”

“Oh, that’s what I wanted?” she snapped. “Last I checked, you were the one who broke things off. I was just trying to come up with something to say.”

“So you don’t want be friends?” I’m so fucking confused. “What do you want, then?”

“I want to go home,” she spat just as I turned onto the road that led up to our farm. “Please just take me home, Sterling. I can’t do this. I’m done with the drama, and the uncertainty, and having my life dictated by my brother, and I just can’t. I definitely don’t want to be the other woman.”

“Okay, what are you talking about? How are you the other woman?”

“Fiona.”

She said the name like it was akin to Voldemort. I kind of got it, but what I didn’t understand was why my ex kept coming up.

“What about her?” I asked, my irritation about our conversations always coming back around to this creeping into my tone. “I dated her in high school, Daphne. For fuck’s sake, let it go already. Or at least tell me why you keep using her against me.”

“Let it go? Gee, thanks. I would’ve let it go, except that I know you’re having drinks with her. I know she’s thinking of taking a job in New York to be with you. I know you’re excited about it, and I also know she was whispering sweet nothings to you less than an hour ago, so I’m sorry if it’s just a little bit difficult not to be thinking that you guys are probably getting back together.”

“What?” My head spun as I tried to figure out just where the hell she was getting all this bullshit from. “I’m not having drinks with her. She told me she had a job offer in New York, but I have nothing to do with that. I’m definitely not excited, and sure, she came to talk to me back at the festival, but she wasn’t whispering sweet nothings. Why would you even think any of that?”

“You’re not having drinks with her?” she asked, but it didn’t sound like she believed me at all.

“Hell no,” I said emphatically, driving to one of the barns once we were on Northfield Farms.

I didn’t want to keep driving in this weather, but my dad was at the house and the new hires had been using this particular barn recently, so I knew it had some blankets in it we could use to dry off. Plus, Dad had taken a heater in there for them to use when they were on break.

“Are you going to see her when you get back to New York?”

“Not if I can help it,” I said, slowing to a stop as close as I could to the half-open barn doors. I turned to face her and reached for her hands. “Why do you think there’s still something going on between Fiona and me, Daph?”

Tears shimmered in her eyes as she shook her head at me, looking so miserable that it broke my heart all over again. “She’s perfect for you. She always has been and now she’s even going to New York. Where you’ll be.”

I shook my head. “Daphne, there are about four million women in New York, and I would date all of them first before letting Fiona back into my life. And even then, no thank you.”

“But she⁠—”

“There’s only one woman who’s perfect for me, and that’s you.” Wrapping my fingers around hers, I tugged her closer, leaning in to slant my lips over hers.

I hadn’t been planning on doing it, but I hadn’t tried to stop it when I felt the urge either. My heart was going wild in my chest, ecstatic about finally being in the driver’s seat again, and my brain went on the fritz as soon as her soft lips met my own.

Right then, I didn’t give a fuck about Eric or Fiona. I didn’t care that I was leaving in just a few days or about the wedge I’d been so worried about driving between her and her brother. All the work I’d done to get my career on track faded into irrelevance and my nerve endings ignited. My cock immediately strained against my zipper. It hadn’t even moved when Fiona had come sniffing around again.

Somewhere in the back of my glitchy brain, I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, but I ignored all the warnings blaring at me that this would only make it worse. Daphne was like a drug to me, and I was completely addicted.

As her lips finally parted underneath mine and my tongue swept into her mouth, I groaned, lowered my hands to her hips, and pulled her closer. Whatever else happened after this, I didn’t want to leave a single doubt in her mind that she was who I belonged to.

Maybe we weren’t destined to be together. I could accept the uncertainty of the future. Sort of, but I couldn’t accept her thinking that it was about another woman. To my mind, there was and only ever would be one woman for me, and it was Daphne.

My ex best friend’s little sister. I was wholeheartedly prepared to accept the consequences for it, but I refused to pretend for even one minute longer that I would ever be able to move on from her.