“What the fuck…?” Jamie hissed at us, looking back guiltily over her shoulder to where the rest of my family were taking a little more time to fill their own plates. “You know we’re supposed to be putting on an act for my parents, not yours?”

“We need to get some practice in before the real thing,” I said, sliding into the chair next to her, right as Hayden pulled it out, ready to claim it for himself. He couldn’t even take the one on her left because Brock had already sat down and was starting to butter his bread roll. She frowned when he retrieved hers and did the same.

“Look, I’ve changed my mind,” she said, grabbing her utensils and gripping them like they were weapons. Her focus shifted to the house, and Mum and Dad’s banter filtered through. “This is dumb. I’m big enough, old enough, to have a frank conversation with my mother.”

Oh no, she didn’t. As I glanced around the table, I saw that both of my brothers stiffened in the exact same way. We’d just been offered everything we’d ever wanted and she thought she was going to yank it away again?

“Majorie Kingston?” I asked, staring into her eyes. Her gaze faltered, a frown forming. “The mouth from the south? She who ruled the PTA with an iron fist that people still talk about in hushed tones even now. That mother?”

Her jaw locked tight and then she nodded, bending her head to start slicing up her meat.

“A week…” I heard the doubt in her voice, and I hated that I was the one who put it there, but ten years of frustration did that to a guy. It made you hungry, grasping, desperate, and I grabbed for her now.

“Just a week,” I said in a much softer tone of voice. “We’ve got this launch thing coming up and they’ve been trying to pair us with some of the women who model for the company. You can come and be my plus one, that way I’m at least guaranteed good conversation.”

She shot me a rueful look, but that small smile. Yeah, she was coming around to my way of thinking.

“I’ve got a wedding.” We all looked at Brock in confusion. “I’m the best man and the bride thinks she’s gonna hook me up with one of the bridesmaids. You’d be doing me a favour if you came as my date.”

She snorted, then looked over at Hayden.

“And you? Need someone to sit with you when you visit your granny? Or convince the boss to stop sexually harassing you?”

“No.” I stared steadily at my twin, willing him not to fuck this up. I was as frustrated as he was about the fact we’d kept a lid on our feelings for so long, but… Jamie was skittish. I didn’t know if it was because her mother was a bitch or what, but she never let anyone close other than our sister. “And considering he’s a man in his fifties called Angelo, that would be seriously weird, but Jamie.” His eyes held hers. “I know Millie’s your best friend, but you’re a part of this family. We all care about you. If this is what you need, it’s no hardship helping you out.”

Fuck, where the hell had my brother got this sort of game from? I stared at him then and he shot me a dark look in response. I guess asking her to come to the launch wasn’t me stepping back and letting him pretend to be me. Oops.

“OK.” She nodded, the movement getting more confident as the seconds ticked by. “Yeah, I can do that. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Hell, if you help me get through this, I’ll be your fake date whenever you need it.” She smiled then. “Just ask.” Her focus was snatched away by the sound of Mum’s giggles. God, Dad was at it again, kissing her I was willing to bet. Millie was no doubt holding back the dry heaves at their excessive PDA to give us some time with our girl. “But what about your parents? They already think something is up. Do we tell them?”

I leaned over, putting my arm around the back of her chair, watching her eyes widen. Her pupils expanded and her breathing started to pick up. Interesting.

“Do you want us to?” I asked.

“No,” that was her initial, honest response. “This is so embarrassing. I mean yes, maybe we should tell them. Otherwise they’ll be wondering what the hell is going on. Shouldn’t we?”

Letting me make the decisions? Yeah, I liked that a whole lot, a smile forming without thought.

“Keep quiet now and let me take you out first,” I said, feeling and hearing my brothers move restlessly beside me. “We’ll figure out what to do then. Tonight…” I realised that wouldn’t work because we were already having dinner here. “Tomorrow night then.”

“We can talk about it at work tomorrow.” Brock shot me a smug smile. “And anyway, tomorrow is Thursday,” my brother said, shooting a small smile my way. “We usually have drinks down the pub.” His focus shifted back to Jamie, his eyes running over every inch of her. “I’ll bring some clothes to get changed into and take you to the pub.”

“To drink with the same guys she works with all day?” Hayden said with a curl of his lip. “How romantic.”

“We’ll have a few drinks.” I watched the big bastard lean forward, eating up the space between them, and I waited for her to pull back. She didn’t. “Then there’s a nice place up the road that does wood fired pizzas.” His hand slid across the table and I knew why. He wanted to take her hand, feel it in his and just cradle it there, unable to believe he had the right. “We could have a late dinner and go for a walk on the beach afterwards, make a decision about what to do there.”

The sound of the waves rushing in behind them, the smell of the sea air, the taste of salt on her lips as I went in to kiss her. I could just freaking see it. Suddenly, I couldn’t want anything more.

But I couldn’t.

Millie had cock blocked me during high school, making clear how much she would kick our arses if we pursued Jamie back then, but all bets were off by the time the girls graduated, right? But Hayden provided a much more convincing obstacle. He was standing by the window one summer, we both were, staring down at the girls.

Millie was in her car, revving the engine when required and Jamie was bent over the engine bay, tinkering with something. She had a sweetly curved arse I just wanted to bite someday, my teeth aching with that need, right as she straightened up. A girl shouldn’t look beautiful smeared with engine grease, but Jamie did. She pulled up the hem of her shirt to wipe her face, revealing the bikini she wore underneath. I wanted to shove up those flimsy Lycra triangles, revealing those beautiful tits I’d stared at way too long at, right before I took one nipple into my mouth, but all of that horny bullshit was shoved to one side as Jamie walked over to the garden hose, turning it on to clean her hands.

The water came out in a thin trickle, not enough for her to clean up with and she bent down, playing with the nozzle, as if to look for the blockage that was cutting off the flow, except that was Millie. My sister cackled as she unkinked the hose, sending water gushing all over Jamie’s face, my cock lurching at the idea.

If this was just sexual, I’d have hit Jamie up, dragged her into my room one night when she came around for dinner and pinned her to the wall before making clear what I wanted. We could’ve fucked whatever the hell this was out of our systems and I could’ve moved on, we all could’ve moved on. Instead I watched Jamie throw her head back, water flicking up in an arc as she let out a great belly laugh.

And that’s when I knew.