Page 19 of Marrying My Brother's Best Friend

“How can I ever forget? She made us eat that for dinner every Saturday,” I answer and join in her hearty laugh as I enter the kitchen and pull out a chair to sit on. “I missed it, though. I barely have the time to eat anything from my own kitchen around here.”

“Always working, huh?” she says with a light shake of her head. “I thought athletes were supposed to care for their bodies?”

“We do,” I counter. “Have you seen me? I’m like a Greek God.”

Gracie laughs harder when I get up and flex my biceps to show their bulge. “See that right there?”

“You’re funny,” she says with a tiny snort that I find cute. Her eyes widen and she plasters a hand over her lips before laughing some more.

“Well, you’re back on the team and now I’m your fake wife, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. You’ll have something warm waiting when you get back.”

She turns around again, and my gaze drifts over her figure in her jean shorts. Her creamy legs catch my attention, and I can’t stop staring till she faces me again.

Gracie arches a brow when she catches me gawking at her.

“Are you checking me out, Hawkins?” she asks in a low voice that reminds me of the night when I asked her the same question eight years ago.

I recall that night vividly. We were at Gracie's eighteenth birthday party when I caught her staring at me, a drink in her hand. As our eyes met, she quickly turned away, trying to hide her blush.

I had admired her back then, too, and teasing her had come easy because I could tell she liked me too. Gracie was only eighteen back then, but she had easily stolen my attention.

Are you checking me out, baby girl? That question made her choke on her drink back then and cough so hard that I feared she would burn from the flush all over her skin.

Gracie’s still staring at me now, and she tilts her head to one side like she’s trying to figure me out.

“You know what will be fun?” I ask. “You should hang out with me and my boys after the game next week. I can’t leave you shacked up here every time on your own, and I’ll finally get the chance to introduce you to a friend of mine who’s a publisher. I’m sure he’ll love your work.”

Gracie’s smile fades at the mention of a publisher, and I notice how she pales before she even drags in a deep breath.

“What is it?” My heart pounds with the force of my worry. I leave my seat and go to her before she turns away. “Talk to me, Gracie. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.” My murmur envelopes us in a spike of rising heat, and she tries to avoid my eyes.

“I just…I don’t know if I’m ready yet,” she whispers, licking her lips. “I mean, I don’t know if I’m ready to show my work to anyone yet. It’s still a work in progress and I don’t think it’s good enough yet.”

“Don’t do that, Gracie,” I interrupt. “Don’t ever think that you’re not good enough ever. I read your writing in the past. It wasn’t complete, but it was good. You’re good, and I’m sure the publisher will like you once you meet him. Okay?”

When she nods, I stroke a hand down the side of her cheek and lift her chin high a little so she can stare at me. Our gazes merge into one, and I can’t control the rush of adrenaline that swamps through me right then. Gracie melts me inside, and I forget why I need to stay away from her.

I forget that I can’t let myself enjoy these feelings because then I will fall in love with her, and it’ll end in a disaster. Because love never lasts. My mom’s experience is a first-class example of what happens when you give your heart to someone. She ended up heartbroken and battered by the man she devoted her heart to.

“Oh, Gracie,” I murmur, shake my head, then dip to brush my lips over hers. Gracie stiffens, then she moans and parts her soft lips for me.

The kiss lasts a second, and it’s heaven. I never want it to end, but she plasters her hands on my chest and pulls back from me. My lids stay close for a moment as a heated breath escapes my lips.

Gracie obviously feels the steady rise and fall of my heart beneath her hands.

She sighs, too, and I open my eyes to stare at her. “Don’t, Trevor,” she whispers as tears fill her eyes. “Stop making me waver. We both know I’m never going to be good enough for you.”

“Gracie, wait please…” She turns away from me, ignoring my call as she dashes out of the kitchen and heads to her bedroom.

I hate the twist in my gut and the pain slicing through me as Gracie runs away. Gracie’s wrong in every way. It’s not that she’s not good enough for me. It’s me who will never be good enough for her!

Chapter 11

Gracie

The next evening, at dinner with some of Trevor’s teammates, Trevor is quiet most of the time. We haven’t said a word to each other since the brief kiss in the kitchen last night, and the tension from that encounter still zaps through me.

The clink of silverware against each other reminds me of dinner with my parents and Trevor when we were younger. Those dinner times were, however, full of laughter and joy. I used to enjoy being around Trevor so much. It felt like he was family. And I started to fall for him.

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