Page 36 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“Of course you’ve got one of those.”

What did that mean? I didn’t know, but we scraped the bowls’ contents into the compost bucket and then stacked the dishwasher, but right as I was putting the detergent in, she held up the pot, showing me the aftermath.

“Fuck’s sake,” I said to Gage. “You’re gonna be the one to clean that. We talked about this. Stop burning food onto the bottom of the pots.”

“You get a say when you start cooking,” the big man said, walking over and taking the pot from Kendall. “I’ll clean this up.” He pulled out a much-used scourer, and Kendall frowned at the messy tangle of steel wool before looking at the two of us.

“Do you have any Bar Keepers Friend?” she asked. Gage and I just looked at each other. “Well, if you’ve got a dishwasher, you must have…” She reached down under the sink, and I was a very good boy and didn’t look at her arse as she bent over.

Much.

She produced a dishwashing tablet, unwrapping it before plucking the pot from Gage’s fingers then putting a little warm water in the bottom.

“This is an expensive way of doing it, but apparently using one of these like a scourer…” Her hand moved through the mess, and we both stared as the muck started to come off easier.

“Lemme do that.”

Gage shoulder checked her, nudging her out of the way and forcing her to drop the tablet into the water, but he was there to catch it. Apparently this wasn’t some kind of magic only she could perform, as the crud started to lift for him too. She spluttered, then grabbed a tea towel and started to wipe her hands.

“Don’t remember you guys fighting to wash the dishes when we were kids,” she said.

“Oh, I dunno.” I reached into a drawer and pulled out a clean tea towel. “We might not have volunteered, but we managed to make it fun when we did.” I smiled slowly as I grabbed the tea towel by the corner and then started to twirl it into a tight tail. “Remember the tea towel wars we used to have, Gage?”

“Pretty sure you started them all because you like getting your arse spanked,” he said, shooting me a sly smile.

Not quite. I felt something twitch in my pants as I approached Kendall slowly. Her eyes went wide then narrowed as she watched me wield my weapon.

“No.” She held up a hand, but the tea towel was still clasped in the other. “Van, no. I mean it. Van!”

Gage dropped the dishwashing tablet when I got too close, coming to stand between me and Kendall. His massive frame blocked everything else out as he crossed his arms.

“The lady said no.”

He glared down at me, making clear his position, right up until a sharp crack filled the kitchen. Gage’s eyes went wide, then he spun around to find Kendall cackling as she started to twist her tea towel tighter, ready to attack again.

“The lady is perfectly capable of defending herself.”

That light in her eyes, the way her grin was entirely spontaneous rather than forced, I’d store this moment away in my head forever. But Gage had to go and ruin it.

“That right?” I was abruptly disarmed, my tea towel snatched out of my grip, ready to be used by the man who was supposed to be my best mate.

“Oi!” They ignored me, starting to circle the other warily, so I grabbed another couple of tea towels from the drawer, wielding one then shoving the other in my back pocket for back up. “Two against one,” I crowed. “I like those odds.”

Because it wasn’t hard to imagine a whole other scenario, where Gage and I worked together to make Kendall feel—

“No one’s ganging up on Kendall.”

I spun around to find Connor grinning at me, right as he snatched my pocket tea towel then went for my other one. I flicked it out at him, cracking him on the arm, making clear what a mistake that would be, only to cop a lash across my chest, leaving a stinging trail.

“The fuck…?”

Kendall grinned at me, then dodged backwards, spinning her tea towel in a circle to create tension again. But right as I was forced to deal with her, further treachery happened. Another stinging flick across my back from Connor, right as he went to stand by Kendall.

“So you’re on my side now?”

Her voice was full of exaggerated mistrust, but there was nothing fake about the way Connor looked at her.

“Always.”

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