Page 91 of Meant to be Mine

“You’re not any better.” The third woman—the redhead—pointed at Micah. “You called me Jessica. My name is Jennifer!”

“That’s pretty close,” Micah said with a grin. “Don’t I get points for getting the first two letters right?”

“Ladies, ladies,” Hollis said, spreading his hands in a gesture that was meant to be placating. “What’s in a name, right? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

“Save it,” Sophia snapped and grabbed Jennifer’s hand. “Come on. Let’s find people who care enough to remember our names.”

They stormed off toward the stairs, leaving Hollis and Micah standing there at a loss for words. My brothers walked over.

Hollis ran a hand through his hair. “Sarah had a hell of a tempter.”

I nodded. “Yeah, especially since her name is Sophia.”

“Oh, right.” Hollis shook his head. “I might have had too much champagne.”

Micah chuckled. “Jennifer, Jessica—they’re basically the same name.”

“Not to Jennifer,” I said.

“She’ll get over it.” He shrugged, unbothered. “They’ll find someone else, and there’s always more women.”

“You two are terrible,” Kensey said, but she was smiling.

“No point dwelling on it,” Hollis said. “They’ll forget about us in twenty minutes anyway.”

“Probably already forgotten,” Micah agreed. “I need a refill.”

They wandered off toward the bar, completely unaffected by the whole thing. I watched them go and shook my head.

“Your brothers are something else,” Kensey said.

“They’re idiots.”

“Loveable idiots.”

She laughed and pulled me back toward the dance floor. “Come on. Let’s not waste a good song.”

We danced through three more songs before we had to take a breather and get out of the sun. Kensey excused herself to talk to Micah about the sidewalk sale event. I watched her walk away. Even from behind, she was stunning.

“So,” Hollis said, appearing at my elbow with two fresh beers. He handed me one. “That’s getting serious.”

I took the beer and we moved to the railing, away from the clusters of people still dancing and drinking. The ocean stretched out endlessly on all sides. We stood under the canopy of the second floor, giving my poor overheated skin a break.

“Yeah,” I said finally. “It’s like we can’t get enough of each other.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, smiling. “She’s always been cool.”

I nodded, took a long drink, and stared at the water. “The problem is, I can’t stop thinking about the end.”

His brow furrowed. “What end?”

“She goes back to New Jersey in a few weeks, back to her job and her life. That’s what end.”

Hollis nodded in sympathy. “The whole thing will be over before it really had a chance to begin. Have you talked to her about it? What does she want?”

“We talked but mostly we danced around it. Neither one of us knows how to handle this. This was never supposed to happen.”

“Tell her to stay,” he said. “To move back home.”