Page 16 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

Oh my god, shut up, I thought furiously.

“Backflips?” She moved closer to the edge of the pool. “I think I need to see such acrobatics for myself.”

“Oh no—”

“What’s up, Red?” I freaking hated it when they used that nickname, his mocking tone grating on every nerve. “You scared?”

Those two words were all it took to get me jumping off cliffs with them or climbing up the big tree in our front yard, going up far too high. They had me eating weird berries they handed me, or forced me to keep up when we went exploring along the coastline not far from our old house. They were like a red rag to a bull, and I could never just ignore them. My glass made a clinking sound as I set it down on the pebblecrete and then moved closer.

“Of you?” I was fired by a bravado that would fade the moment my head cleared, but right now, I grabbed his hands as the bastard smirked. “No way.”

Every time I let my temper get the better of me, they won. I knew that, but as he sank down into the water, I planted my feet on his shoulders. My own stupidity became apparent as he surged up and out of the water because I didn’t have a kid’s centre of balance nor athleticism. My legs shook, my hands gripping tighter as Gage stood up, but his hands gripped me right back, steadying me as I blinked and looked around.

Barbie’s shocked expression made clear she didn’t expect me to follow through. Me either, Barbs, I thought mutely right before he said the word.

“Ready?”

No, no I wasn’t, but when had that ever mattered? Fake it until you make it, that was a motto that worked well for me, and that was what I did now. I nodded sharply right before he dropped down and then launched me into the air.

Chapter 10

Gage

I didn’t want to let Kendall go. The feel of her body against mine as she climbed onto my shoulders had my eyes jerking up, but the water prevented me from seeing much until I surged up out of it. The way her hand held mine so tightly had forced it all to come rushing back.

We didn’t spend all our time tormenting Kendall. Sometimes we played together just fine, something I remembered because her mum always commented on it.

And those times were the worst.

When we got older and started noticing her as a girl, not just Finn’s sister, playing took on a whole other vibe. One that left me aching and feeling like shit all at the same time.

“Fucking Gary Sweet has been sniffing around my sister,” Finn growled one day during our lunch hour at school. All of our eyes had found the little prick in the yard, watching him laughing and showing off with his mates, catching every time his eyes slid to Kendall and her friends.

“What’re you gonna do about that?” Van asked, but he knew. We all knew.

Bags and lunch discarded, we rose as one, everyone else knowing the best thing to do was scuttle out of our way as we crossed the yard.

“Make clear what a mistake that is.” Finn glanced at the rest of us. “Right?”

We’d all readily agreed because we were just as maddened by the sight of someone trying to catch Kendall’s eyes, though our motivation was completely different. Finn didn’t want some dickhead messing with his sister, but we… We just didn’t want another guy doing the one thing we wanted the most.

And that hadn’t changed one little bit.

I stared up at her, watching her freak out and cling to my hands. Her weight felt like nothing on my shoulders, even as she curled her toes, trying to get a better grip. I didn’t want to let her go when we used to muck around in the pool, nor now, but I felt her knees bend as she readied herself to flip away from me. I dropped my body down, ready to give her extra momentum, then shot back out as she threw herself free.

“Oh fuck…!” That wild grin as she emerged from the water, wiping it from her face, was the same thing that motivated me then as well as now. I’d do anything to make sure she always smiled like that. “I forgot how much fun that was.”

“Again?” I asked, grabbing my t-shirt and pulling it off over my head, tossing it with a splat onto the side of the pool, but she didn’t answer. My girl just stopped right where she was, smile fading, but I didn’t mind at all. Her eyes felt like they raked over me, taking in my chest, my arms, and the tattoos I’d had inked there.

Look, I mentally urged. Look and keep on looking. See me, the man, not the boy who was too much of an arsehole to know he should’ve treated you better. See me. And she did just that to the sound of my own heart thundering in my ears, only to be interrupted by the friend.

“I’ll just go get that beer…”

Barbie’s grin made clear she knew exactly what was going on as she beat a hasty retreat, and I wondered if we’d have an ally there. Her disappearance seemed to shake Kendall out of whatever reverie she was lost in, her eyelids fluttering as she pursed her lips and then went to turn away.

“I should go—”

“Don’t.” Fuck, that came out far too sharply, too intense, but that was me all over, wasn’t it? I raked a hand through my hair, my mind racing to come up with a reason to keep Kendall here. “I mean, the guys, they’re putting your bed together—”

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