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Katie:Good because I won’t let my brother win again this year. He’s too fucking cocky and it’s getting on my nerves.
Me: I thought you were going to hide his lucky outfit today?
Katie:The bastard hid it first. I know he’s up to something.
Amber:To be fair, you tried to trip him before the game last year.
Katie:Whose side are you on?
Amber:
Katie:Traitor!
Me:Maybe this year is our year.
Katie:I hope so. Otherwise, my sisters will bitch and complain for the next twelve months. Seriously.
Amber:We’ll try our best. I have a secret new pitch this year!
Katie:That’s the spirit! Abby? Where are you? We need your batting skills, missy.
Imanaged to avoid West for nearly two days. I’d secluded myself in my office the next day, and the day after was the Fourth of July, and I hadn’t seen him at the Starry Hills parade.
But as I walked up to the Evans house, the sounds of laughter and talking and music filled the air, and I knew I couldn’t hide any longer. He would be at the barbecue, along with his kids.
For West, of all people, to find me bawling my eyes out had been beyond embarrassing. And I still couldn’t believe I’d shared as much as I had about my parents.
Yet, when he’d held me in his strong arms as I sobbed, his touch gentle and voice soothing, I had felt safe. Almost as if I could be myself, reveal some of my burdens, and he wouldn’t run the other way screaming.
If that hadn’t been ridiculous enough, him making me laugh had made things even weirder.
And the stare down right before I’d left my dad’s old office? His gaze had flashed with heat and yearning, which had confused the hell out of me.
It was hard to believe West desired me.
But if he would’ve leaned down and kissed me, I wouldn’t have put up a fight.
Warning bells rung inside my head. I definitely couldn’t be alone with him like that again. I may not hate him, and I was a lot less angry about him leaving his family than before, but I needed to start thinking of him as my brother. And fast.
Because if he kept being so nice to me, I could see myself “like” liking him, in a way that had us ripping off our clothes and moaning as we came, all sweaty, hot, and delicious.
Stop it, Emmy.
Wait, what? I hadn’t scolded myself silently as Emmy since I was a kid. No, Millie was the person I’d become after the car crash. Millie. Not Emilia, and most definitely not Emmy.
Except for West.
As I rubbed my eyes, a familiar voice called out, “Millie! You need to hurry up! Otherwise we won’t stand a chance in hell at beating their asses this year.”
I glanced up, and the dark auburn-haired, blue-eyed form of Katie Evans dashed toward me. She might be short with curves I wished I could have, but she was fast as hell and was right in front of me in a second, if breathing a little heavily. “Kyle is a cheating bastard and moved the start time for the baseball game. And I know he’s only doing that because most of my team hasn’t shown up yet.”
As she pushed me from behind until I started moving, I laughed. “It’s just a game, Katie. Who cares?”
“Who cares? Are you serious? You don’t have to live with Cassie, Sam, and Kyle like I do. My sisters are pissed, and I’ll never hear the end of it if Kyle wins because he cheated.”
The baseball teams were always led on one side by Kyle Evans and the other by the three Evans sisters. On the surface, having the sisters—Cassandra, Samantha, and Katherine—on one team against their only brother, Kyle, might seem unfair. The three sisters had a whole secret language they used for the game, one I’d never really figured out.
However, Kyle had played ball all through middle and high school, as had some of the other guys. Including…
