Page 65 of Something Borrowed, Something You

— Hunter —

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

It never dulled.

Not even after eight months of not seeing her.

I should’ve forgotten all about Summer by now. There’d been others—maybe too many others in an attempt to forget her—but my attraction was still there the first time we crossed paths again.

It was Jayce’s graduation party at our aunt and uncle’s house. I was sipping a beer in the living room when she walked in. Our eyes locked, and I swore it felt like my heart started to beat for the first time.

Fuck. She’s gorgeous.

I watched as she walked over to Jayce and his girlfriend of two months and gave him a big hug. She said something that made all three of them laugh, and then walked over to the couch and parked herself right next to me. Without turning her head in my direction, she took the beer from my hand and brought it to her lips to drink.

She spoke before drinking. “Truth or dare?”

I smirked. “Truth.”

After she took a healthy swallow from my beer, she passed it back. “Did you delete the nearly naked picture of me on your phone that I sent forever ago?”

I turned my head and waited until she finally looked at me to respond. “Nope.”

Her eyes sparkled. “How often do you look at it?”

“More truth?”

She nodded.

“Every fucking day.”

We passed the beer back and forth again. “Seeing anyone?” she asked.

“I have someone I see once in a while.”

“Is see code for fuck?”

The corner of my lip twitched. “I was trying to be a gentleman. How about you? You seeing anyone?”

She lobbed my noncommittal answer right back at me. “I have someone I see once in a while.”

I was screwing someone else, hadn’t seen or spoken to Summer in eight months—not since the night at the party when I walked away after realizing she was the girl my brother was nuts about—and yet, I had the urge to rip the head off the nameless, faceless guy she was sleeping with. Yeah, time hadn’t dulled shit.

I stood. “Going to grab another beer. You want your own, or are you planning on just taking mine the rest of the night?”

Summer flashed an impish smile. “Planning on taking yours the rest of the night, unless that’s a problem.”

“No problem here.”

I took five minutes to sort out my head before returning to the couch. I glanced over at my brother with his arm around Emily—he looked happy. He’d pined over Summer for six more months after that party. Now that he seemed to have moved on, was the ban lifted? Jayce had no idea anything had ever happened between Summer and me—and truth be told, not much had. But was it ever okay to go for a girl your brother was once crazy about, even though she’d never returned the feelings? I wasn’t sure my moral compass always pointed me in the right direction.

Summer hadn’t moved from the couch when I returned. I sat, cracked open a new beer, and took a sip before passing it to her. “My turn. Truth or dare?”

She took a long chug from the can. “Dare.”

The challenge exited my mouth without any real thought. “Text the guy you’re seeing and tell him you’re done with seeing him.”

Summer looked back and forth between my eyes before digging into her purse and pulling out her cell. She scrolled through her contacts and typed a message. When she finished, she turned the phone toward me so I could read the text she’d typed to a guy named Gavin.

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