Page 35 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“We dished you up some pasta.” I gestured to the head of the table. “And we made you some ramen, just in case you preferred that instead.”

“Ramen…?” She sank down into the chair, and my palm stung with the loss of her warmth. Her small little chuff of laughter was enough to make me feel better though. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“We wanted to have a family dinner.” Connor was trying to be all cool and calm, his arm slung along the back of the empty chair beside him, but I was completely unconvinced by it. Because I knew. He wanted this, all of us around the table, way too much. “You remember what it used to be like.”

There it was.

I sat down, sneaking a sidelong look at Kendall to see how she responded, and sure enough, her back jerked ramrod straight. Shut the fuck up, you dickhead, I thought furiously, shooting him a meaningful look across the table. Our girl was about ready to bolt.

“I remember.”

Kendall was being polite, picking up her fork and then poking at the pasta before taking a little taste. Gage watched her every move, already pushing the parmesan her way when she reached for it. She nodded and smiled at him before sprinkling it on her meal.

“Like when we—”

“So how was work today?” I asked Kendall, shooting Connor one last dark look. “Was it busy?”

“Not too bad.” She twirled her pasta around her fork. “How about you?”

I didn’t answer because her red lips parted as she took a bite of the pasta, my eyes watching her take that bite before I could think to reply. A grunt from Gage and an elbow had me responding, just not in the right way.

“We ran into Finn today.”

Her eyes went wide as she coughed and then frantically tried to swallow, forcing me up and out of my seat, ready to give her the Heimlich manoeuvre if required. I got a dark look in return as she grabbed a glass of water and drank deep.

“You did what?”

“We had a run in with Finn is probably a more accurate way of putting it.” Connor set his fork down with a sigh. “Your brother had… thoughts to share about you living here.”

“Oh, I bet he did.” She grabbed her phone and then angrily started to tap on the screen, as I plucked the poor unsuspecting device from her grip. This resulted in a low growl from her, right before I set her straight.

“We told him.” Her eyes locked with mine. “We made it clear that he has no fucking say over… anything. You’re an adult, so are we, and…” And now there was nothing standing between us being together, I wanted to say, but of course, there was. Me, her, them, even Finn, we all got in each other’s way, so I just sighed. “That there’s nothing he’s got to say about any of this that we want to hear.”

Why did that make her shoulders slowly drop down? How the hell did I make the tension leech from her body and how could I do that again? I had no answers, but I wanted them so fucking badly.

“You…” She looked from me to Gage and then to Connor. “You told Finn that?”

“We had to.” Gage sighed and pushed his bowl away from him. “He was real interested in our new female house mate, imagining some kinky shit was going down, right up until he realised you were the one living here. We’ve been best mates since… forever, but when it comes to this situation, he knows he needs to butt the fuck out.”

“Right…” It was only when she stabbed her fork back into the pasta that the rest of us felt like we could do the same. Kendall twirled her pasta speculatively, but in the end, she grinned when she looked up. “I wish I’d seen his face when you told him that.”

“It went all purply.” I gestured to my own face. “You know how he gets. Like remember that time when Connor beat his record for goals kicked?”

“God, he was filthy.” She let out a little laugh, then a bigger one. “He was so damn proud of being the best goal kicker, going on and on about it, and then Connor beat him.”

“By five goals.” Connor allowed himself a smug little smile. “I paused at the first goal over, but after that, I just kept going.” He shrugged. “I was already in the doghouse for the first one, so…”

“And he kicked his boots off, nearly hitting the coach in the head, so he got banned for a couple of games. Dad was pissed, and then the house was quiet for a while.” Her eyes scanned the whole table. “You guys weren’t allowed to come around.”

“Must’ve been a nice break for you,” I said, wishing the opposite was true.

“Not really. Finn was always a prick when he was bored, and he was plenty bored without the three of you. He and Dad were squabbling all the time until Mum talked to your mothers and told them to send you back around.” She waved her fork in the air. “Then it all started up again.”

When her eyes dropped down to her bowl, I think we all saw it, the reign of terror we waged in that house, so I wasn’t expecting to hear this.

“Thanks, though.” She nodded to each one of us in turn. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever stood up for me against my brother.” Her lips pursed. “Even me.”

Dinner passed much more quietly after that. Not quite the rowdy moment of connection Connor craved, but I found a kind of peace in it, broken only by the silvery scrape of utensils against bowls, until Kendall got to her feet. I found myself rising with her, only to realise why seconds later. She was carrying her bowl to the sink, but I swept in, taking them from her, then the guys’ when they held them up. My girl just shrugged and collected up the glasses before filing into the kitchen. I was forced to stop her when she started to run the water, pulling open one of the drawers to reveal a dishwasher.

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