Page 67 of Strictly the Worst

He puts the peel into the little plastic baggy they’ve put in the cart to serve as a trash can. “I still don’t get why you’re telling me it. You had sex with your colleague. Okay, that’s a bit stupid since you have to work together. But she sounds like she’s got her head screwed on. She won’t say anything if you don’t.”

I frown. “But…”

“Not that I want to talk about it, but you have sex with a lot of women, don’t you?”

My face wrinkles even more. “Not that many…”

He lifts a brow. I shrug. “Average,” I say. “Maybe slightly above.”

“Do you know what average is?” he asks.

“No, do you?”

“We’re getting off the subject,” he says huffily. If there’s one thing my brother loves, it’s a problem to solve. He lives for it. “So you had sex while traveling with a co-worker. It happens all the time all over the world. Just chalk it up to experience and move on. Maybe send her some flowers or something.”

“I haven’t slept all week,” I tell him and he winces.

“Shit.”

“I think I like her.”

He actually fucking winces.

I frown. “Is that a bad thing?” I ask him. “Me liking somebody? Shouldn’t it be a good thing? Shouldn’t you be happy for me right now?”

“You’re the one boo-hooing because you fucked everything up royally,” Myles points out. “And I’m mostly reacting like this because I think you might have chosen the wrong person.”

“What do you mean?” I frown. “Why’s she the wrong person? What do you have against her?” The need to defend Carmichael rises up inside me. “She’s fucking perfect. Beautiful, funny, clever as hell. And she’s renovating a wreck of a home all on her own.”

Myles starts the cart up, an electric whir rising through the air. “I mean you picked the wrong person because she sounds too good for you. Plus there’s the big thing.”

“What big thing?” My blood begins to heat up. Myles is supposed to be on my fucking side, not telling me I’m not good enough for her.

I mean I’m not, but still. That’s for me to say, not him.

“You just told me she’s a single mom. You’ve never dated a single mom. Not ever.”

There’s a silence. Because he’s right. I never have. It’s not a choice I made. It’s just that all the women I’ve been with previously have been single and probably younger than Tessa.

“You can’t fuck around with them,” Myles says. “Because if you walk away, you don’t just hurt them, you hurt their kids.”

“I’m not planning on hurting anybody,” I say. “I’ve spoken to Zoe. She’s a nice kid. I’ve got her tickets to see the Linebackers.”

Myles taps his fingers against the wheel, looking ahead at the path as we drive. Holden and Eli are at the next green, and we slow down to join them. But neither of us gets out of the cart.

“Nobody thinks they’re going to hurt anybody at the beginning of a relationship,” Myles says patiently. “You think your mom thought dad would hurt her?”

“No.” My chest tightens.

“My mom didn’t either. And yet he hurt them both. And can I point out something else?”

“If you have to.” I’m starting to feel sick and I have a feeling whatever Myles has to add is going to make it worse.

“I’m just trying to be the voice of reason here. You walked out with a hasty goodbye. And you’ve not spoken to her since. That’s not how you treat somebody you care about. And it’s definitely not how you treat a single mom.”

Yeah, I feel worse. About a hundred times worse. “Can we just head back to the clubhouse?” I ask him. “I need a drink. Now.”

TESSA

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