Page 93 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“No.” They were my elders. I owed them respect due to their age and the relationships our families had shared, but they wouldn’t get this. I surveyed each and every one of them, waiting for them to fall silent before I spoke. “From what I can tell, you guys… experimented back in the day, and the less said about that, the better.”

“Hallelujah…” Van said, his eyes sliding skywards. “I will do literally anything to stop hearing about that.”

“But there was no pressing need to be together beyond a few drunken nights, right?” When I stared at her, Heather nodded, so did Phil, even Bruce followed suit. “You just wanted to have a little bit of fun. What we have with Kendall has nothing to do with fun.”

“Um… thanks?” Kendall shot me a sidelong look filled with incredulity and just a little amusement. “I think it was pretty damn funny when I had you showering in beef stock, Bonox.”

“Fuck, yes…” Van chuckled.

“Pretty sure you’ve still got a bit of glitter on you, Sparkle Tits,” Gage told him with a nudge.

“OK, so we’ve done a lot of dumb things to each other over the years, but…”

I sucked in a breath, somehow able to imagine having this same speech somewhere else. A pretty little chapel or even under a flowery archway at some beautiful destination. Kendall would be dressed in white, while we… I couldn’t finish that mental image because the world hadn’t progressed that far yet, able to show on screen the kind of love I shared with my girl and her boys.

“I might regret all of the shitty things I’ve ever done before but not this.” I plucked my hand from Kendall’s limp fingers, using both to cup her chin. Our parents, the world, it didn’t matter-just her. “Not Kendall. I’ve been in love with your daughter for longer than I can remember, Bruce, and while I’d like your blessing to pursue a relationship, I don’t need your permission.”

I stroked a thumb over Kendall’s cheek, watching her lips twitch and then curve into a smile.

“The three of us worked out pretty damn quick that Kendall was the only girl for us and we could either fight each other for the honour of walking by her side, or…” When Kendall breathed in, I did too, drawing oxygen into starved lungs. “Or we could spend the rest of our lives making sure she was the happiest woman in the world.”

“Kendall is going out with all of the boys?”

That was Maggie, Gage’s mother.

“A good question, Maggie.” I knew everyone’s voice here like I knew my own because of our shared history, but none sent cold fingers raking up my spine like his. “I’d like to know the answer to that too…” My eyes began to close, flinching in anticipation of a blow. “Son. What the hell do you think you’re playing at, pretending to be in some kind of… depraved relationship?”

Chapter 47

Connor

What the fuck was I thinking coming here?

“Get in the van,” I told my best mates, holding out the keys for one of them to take, but they didn’t. Instead the fob just hung in the air, spiralling slowly.

Just like my head.

Announcing what we were to each other to our whole families seemed like a good idea, but I knew it wasn’t. Bruce was gonna bluster and get all cranky. Heather was staring wide eyed. Maggie got to her feet and along with Phil, surrounded Gage, hugging him close but talking real damn fast. And my dad… I knew exactly what he thought, how he’d respond. The only way the other guys had managed to persuade me that coming here was a good idea was when Van insisted my parents weren’t invited.

But Heather…

She would’ve seen Dad up the street or Mum at the shops. There would’ve been this painfully awkward meeting where they looked down their nose at Heather and she just invited them anyway, because that’s what she was like. A heart as big as her son’s, maybe bigger, she’d be thinking family needs to be together, that getting everyone in the same room would be a damn fine idea rather than the horror show this was.

“I need everyone to get in the van now!”

I didn’t yell at my best friends, and I never intended to even raise my voice at Kendall. I fucking loved her, needed to pull her close and shelter her with my body right now, but I couldn’t. I willed Van to, or Gage, anyone but me, because the minute she got closer… As if summoned by my thought, Kendall did just that, appearing by my side as her eyes flicked from Dad to me and back again.

“Connor—?”

“Babe…” My voice shook on that, which had my jaw squaring. I clenched my teeth so tightly I feared they might crack, trying to get a handle on this. Then I sucked in a breath through my nose and spoke the words that needed to be said. “We need to go now. I can come back later, grab your new bowls—”

“So it is true?” Mum looked me up and down, her eyes narrowing the minute she did the same to Kendall. I shoved myself forward, feeling anger surge through me as I stepped in my mother’s way. “Connor? You’re… what, sleeping with all three of them?”

I let out a little bark of laughter. There was nothing wrong with being bisexual, but the thought of touching my best mates sexually made my mouth fill with bile.

“Sleep? Yes. Sex, which is what I assume you’re asking? Not with the guys, now—”

“And you’re just flaunting… whatever this is.” Mum waved her hand in the air. “To the entire world?” She didn’t wait for an answer, looking at Dad. “Mark, you know what this means.”

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