Page 9 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“Oh no—”

“Do you have a trailer?” I asked, far too sharply. “How’re you getting your stuff over here?” Calm down, I told myself. Take a deep fucking breath and stop barking questions at her like they’re orders. Because if Van was a Golden Retriever, then I was a German Shepherd. Every muscle was tensed and at the ready to protect and serve her, whether she wanted it or not. But I forced them to unwind as I stared into her eyes. “It’s just we’ve got the van and a trailer and with three strong blokes—”

“Yes.”

The best friend stepped forward, eyes twinkling as she smiled at me, making clear she saw through my bullshit right away.

“Barbie—”

“Kendall would love it if you could give her a hand. What?” My girl had poked her friend hard in the back. “If we get these guys helping, then you’ll be moved in within the hour. Another one to put that goddamn bed frame of yours together… Do you remember the first time we did it? Death by flatpack. Our friendship nearly didn’t survive it.”

“Because you wouldn’t follow the instructions…” Kendall muttered.

“Instructions are for losers.” The girl waved her hand around. “I prefer to forge my own path, but…” She took a slow step towards us. “You guys work in construction, right?”

I knew that look well. We often had girls sidle up to us for similar reasons. Because they had work to be done on their cars, their houses, or just them and that made me stiffen.

“Right,” Gage replied, the word somehow dragged from the big guy.

“Well, maybe you could put together Kendall’s bed for her?”

And didn’t that conjure up a pretty mental image. Of setting up the bed frame, then the mattress, laying the girl on it last of all. I’d follow her down, my mouth finally on hers as we—

“Jesus, Barbie…” My girl pushed her way forward, putting herself between me and her friend and that was just fine by me. The closer the better as far as I was concerned. “You don’t need—”

“Yes, we do.”

I felt the guys cluster closer, knowing exactly what was going through their heads, because mine was thinking the same. We’d build a bed for Kendall from scratch, complete with a bookshelf for all her novels, if that was what it took, because she didn’t know…

We’d planned all of our pranks meticulously, gleefully discussing what we’d do in Finn’s bedroom, but the last one we hadn’t included him at all. Kendall finishing school, becoming an adult, that meant all bets were off. She wasn’t Finn’s kid sister anymore, she was her own woman.

And all three of us wanted to make her ours.

That was what we had planned back then, one last prank, but instead of one to torment her, we’d… I shook my head, trying to dispel the memory of everything we’d done in preparation for that night.

Only for her to not turn up.

Her dad found the note she’d left, spluttering and going on about how ungrateful she was, but we knew. She’d left to avoid us, to avoid the pain we caused. I’d watched Finn and his dad talk, getting louder and louder, trying to fill the space Kendall had left with their angry words, but they didn’t. Kendall’s mother had shaken her head then looked at the three of us, making clear what we all knew.

It was our fault Kendall had bolted, disappearing off to somewhere in the city. Away from her family, friends, us… But she was back now, and we had a second chance to make things right.

“We fucked with your bedroom enough times,” I said bluntly. “So let us make this right.” I moved closer, as close as I dared. “We’re a dab hand with flatpacks, and if your bed frame’s no good, we can build another one without too much effort. Just give us a second to grab our keys and our tools.”

Just give us a chance, that went unspoken but I thought on some level Kendall heard it. Her eyes widened just slightly, those beautiful brown depths threatening to swallow me whole. I wanted that, the unguarded moment, more than anything, but it only lasted a short time, her defences slammed up tight in seconds. She frowned slightly, ready to say no, so her nod took me by surprise.

“OK,” she said, “you can follow me in my car.”

Chapter 7

Kendall

“So what the fuck are you doing?” I hissed at my bestie the minute we got into my car.

“What?” I watched her eyelashes flutter like a butterfly hopped up on acid.

“You know.” I shoved the key into the ignition, heard the car turn over but not start before I winced. The guys had followed us outside, about to jump into one of their vans when they frowned. “C’mon, Daisy…” That’s what I called my car. “C’mon, girl, you can do it.”

Whether it was due to my urgings or because the gods were finally smiling down on me, I choked back a shout of jubilation, merely smiling through the windshield as the engine roared to life. I waved at the guys, catching the frowns men always gave my car when they heard it before pulling out onto the road.

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