Page 77 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“I can do that,” I said as soon as we got into the kitchen. Kendall pulled open a drawer instead, sorting through the contents. “What’re you looking for?” I moved closer, leaning over and peering into the drawer filled with cooking implements. “I can—”

“You said that already.” She smiled slightly, her eyes shining in the dark as she brandished a spatula. “You’re acting all squirrelly, Van. Is there something in that drawer you don’t want me to see?” Kendall gave the spatula a wobble. “Crimes against kitchen spoons? Beaters that have been beaten? A misshapen whisk?”

“No.” I plucked the spatula from her grip. “Nothing like that.” I shook my head, wishing it was something as simple as mangled utensils, but instead, what I was trying to hide was this.

We’d tried so hard when we got home. To cook the meal exactly to Kendall’s mother’s instructions. I’d wanted to ring her again to get some clarification, but Connor shot that down instantly. We had to prove ourselves in his mind, and so we soldiered on. But when we were done and the meal started smelling the way it was supposed to, when we got a clean tablecloth out and smoothed it over the table, when baskets were produced, bread rolls heated and silverware we’d dug out of a deep cupboard polished and laid out, we sat down and waited.

And waited. And waited.

My hand wrapped tight around the handle of the spatula as I blindly cut a slice, transferring it to a plate. It smelled so damn good, but… It wasn’t what I wanted, no matter how much my stomach protested. That’s when I knew I had to tell her.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“What?”

She watched me cross the kitchen, shoving the plate into the microwave before pushing the buttons to reheat the meal.

“You finding the spatula.” I swallowed hard. “You serving me.”

Kendall glanced at the table and then back at me before nodding slowly.

“So you didn’t have a French maid’s uniform for me to wear as I scurried around the table, getting each one of you a beer?”

I watched her grin in the darkness, but there was an edge to it.

“No. If anyone would be wearing the uniform, it’d be me.”

“You?” The whirr of the microwave was a strange soundtrack playing as she stepped closer. She slid her fingertips across my chest, there and gone again, but leaving a fiery trail in their wake. “You know some guys do that as a thirst trap, right? I think it’d be kinda hot, seeing you all dressed up in black and white satin.”

I could see it clearly in my mind, how freaking ridiculous I’d look. That along with Gage and Connor’s desperate attempts to take a breath as they cried with laughter. But they didn’t matter, just her.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll have one ordered in my size and get it express delivered.”

“You would?” As she stared at me, her smile faded. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“As a heart attack.” Because that’s what it felt like as I grabbed her hand and placed it against my chest, right over my heart. It was beating too hard, too fast and I needed her to know that. “Whatever you need, Kendall.”

“You keep saying that—”

She went to pull away and that’s when I ignored everything the guys and I had talked about. Taking things slow, letting Kendall set the pace. That was the right thing to do, somehow I knew, but…

I just couldn’t.

My lips were moving, my lungs filling with air, because I had to tell her exactly what I meant.

“Whatever you need.” I pleaded mutely for her to understand as I stared into her eyes. “If you want shepherd’s pie made every night with extra pumpkin, it’s done. You’ll never have to cook or do the dishes. The floor will always be mopped, the toilet seat always put down and all you have to do is put your dirty laundry in the basket and one of us will return it, cleaned and folded.”

She took a step backwards then, obviously wanting to get the fuck away from me, but I couldn’t seem to stop. Following her, describing how it’d be.

“If you want to go out every night, one of us will drive you there. You never need to drive that rust bucket again—”

“You guys need to stop dissing Daisy.” Kendall tried for sassy but failed utterly, the whites of her eyes gleaming in the dark.

“We’ll take you to work in the morning, pick you up in the afternoon. Shit, if you want to quit that job entirely, we can support you, or if you want to retrain…” I paused to suck in a breath, my throat feeling tight as a result. “If you want to do something else, we can help you with that too.”

“Chris offered me a bakery apprenticeship today.”

Her voice was little more than a squeak, but that had me rushing forward.

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