Page 5 of Falling for my Brother's Best Friend

I had tunnel vision the night she came in, asking me for something to remember her parents by. It still surprises me when I look back on it—that she trusted me to permanently mark her skin. “Truth?”

He walks back to the doorframe and leans against it in the same position he was in previously. “Always.”

“I took her home and we messed around and now I can’t get her out of my head, and since we live together, I spend most of my time out of my own house or in my barn.” I sound too vulnerable and way too much like a chick.

Rhys loses his smirk. “You need to decide right now if you’re going to pursue her. Either you go after her with everything you got, or you walk away.”

“You make it sound so easy.” I run a hand through my dark hair then pull on my neck, wishing the knots in my muscles would vanish.

“Believe me, I get that it’s not. But you can’t be in limbo like you have been. It’s not healthy, man. If it’s not gonna ever happen, you need to move on with your life.” He crosses his arms, and I wonder what brought him here. He sure sounds as if he’s speaking from experience.

“She’s my best friends’ sister.”

“Exactly.”

“Meaning I can’t very well separate myself from her forever.”

“You won’t, not can’t.” He pins me with a stare as if to say, “tell me I’m wrong.”

“What do you want me to do? Kick her out of my house and date other women?”

He touches his nose as though I got the answer right.

“I can’t kick her out. Her grandma would hunt me down and strip me of my balls. Have you ever met Grandma Dori?”

He chuckles. “Then do the one thing you can. Date around. Work her out of your system. I get the situation isn’t ideal, what with you two living together, but if she’s the one putting out the Heisman arm, you can’t be expected to play priest in your own house.”

I debate his words. Maybe he’s right. I’ve been so hellbent on not disrespecting Savannah, maybe I went about this wrong.

“The only other thing you could do is convince her to sleep with you. I mean, you don’t do serious relationships, right?”

His question throws me into a tailspin at first. I’ve never had a serious girlfriend, but I’m not against having one. I’ve just never found someone I could imagine infiltrating my life. I’ve lived on my own since I was eighteen, so she’d have to be amazing for that to happen.

I can’t say the thought of just sleeping with Savannah hasn’t occurred to me before though. “I’m not sure her brothers would be okay with me doing a fuck-and-chuck with their sister.” I raise an eyebrow.

“Do they have to know?”

“I guess not. Maybe you’re right.”

He pushes off the wall again, cocky smirk in place. “I usually am.”

“Is that why you ran all the way up here to Alaska? To prove you were right about something?”

“Nah. I just got tired of the view.” He goes to the front desk everyone gravitates toward to draw for some reason.

I press play on my phone and “Call You Mine” by the Chainsmokers comes on through the Bluetooth speaker.

Rhys comes back and grabs my phone. “Listen to this a few hundred times and you’ll start to believe it.”

“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk plays. He pats my shoulder and leaves the room.

Maybe he was a therapist before he came to Lake Starlight. Either way, I’m going to do what he says. Either I try to sleep with her, or I date random women until Savannah Bailey is so far out of my mind, I can barely remember what she looks like half-clothed.

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