Page 53 of Falling for my Brother's Best Friend

Her eyes shoot up as though she doesn’t understand what I’m asking.

“Sleep together and get it over with?” I prod her.

“Well, I mean, you and Liam aren’t riding into the sunset. You’re riding him into the bedroom.”

She must sense my distaste, or my body language is telling, because she rushes to correct herself. “I mean you and Liam as a couple.” She cringes.

Strike that. She isn’t rushing to correct herself—she means it.

“Does that upset you?” she asks.

It does. Why does it?

“Wasn’t it just a few days ago that you were Team Liam?”

She inspects the ceiling as if her answer awaits there. “I don’t remember. Was I?”

“Yes, you were. Tell me, Juno, what—or should I phrase it as who—changed your mind?”

She smiles. She always smiles when she gets caught. When she was fifteen, the sheriff caught her and her friends out past curfew. When I say past curfew, I mean it was three in the morning. She’d snuck out. Austin and I arrived at the police station to find her pearly whites on display through the cell bars.

“Grandma Dori?” I fill in for her. “The same woman who suggested I become friends with the man?” This reverse psychology stuff feels amateur for Dori. Maybe she’s losing her touch.

“Sorry, the sooner she gets her way with you and Liam, the sooner she’s out of my apartment.” Her head falls into her hands. “She wants to do pedicures tonight.”

I laugh, imagining Juno painting Grandma Dori’s toes. “Bonding time with your grandma is good.”

She throws the pen at me that I’d thrown at her. “I think I’m gonna call Kingston’s commander and tell him there’s a family emergency.”

I shake my head but don’t say anything. She won’t do that to him. Standing, I figure I’ll grab my salad from the fridge to eat lunch, but Juno stands and hesitates in front of me.

“So things with you and Liam are…”

“Civil. He apologized, and I accepted.”

Juno doesn’t need to know about the little bet we made because she wouldn’t understand. Sometimes I wonder when my family stopped seeing me as a sibling and more as a fictional superwoman character.

“Denver said it was quiet this morning.”

“We don’t fight every morning.” I roll my eyes.

She smiles at me. “I thought maybe it was what you guys did. Got all heated because make-up sex was so good.” She laughs and dashes out of the office as the pen I throw at her hits the glass door.

Payback is a bitch though, because Juno runs right into Grandma Dori—who’s holding up a bottle of bright orange nail polish with a wide smile.

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