Page 71 of Borrowing My Bestie's Brothers

I almost felt sorry for Hayden, because his face fell, but then I remembered why. While I had been sleeping off my mistakes, he’d been rolling around enjoying some horizontal refreshment with the girl we each wanted to make ours. He shook his head.

“It’s like the walls come back up twice as high, maybe because she let them down in the first place. I can’t work out why.” He stared at me. “Like I know her family is shit, but still…”

“I’ll ask her if I ever get the chance to sleep with her, shall I?” I snarked and then took a long drink from my coffee. Black and bitter, it suited my mood perfectly.

“You’re on your own there. Gotta make amends yourself first.”

Some of the light seemed to go out of Hayden as he sipped on his coffee thoughtfully.

“Guess I’ll head around there tonight then,” I replied.

“Can’t.” The spark was back in his eyes. “She said she’s hanging out with Millie at the pub.” Oh, was she? “Girls only. Figure we could catch up on that TV series?—”

“You’re on your own, brother dear,” I replied, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Billy called and wants to meet for drinks to discuss the next campaign.” Billy was the advertising director of the surfwear company we modelled for. “He’s invited us to that swanky place on the bay.”

“You can go.” Hayden pretty much just did modelling because I enjoyed it and the novelty of twins was what sold us as models, but as a result, he left most of the negotiating to me. “Just don’t sign us up for too many shoots. I’m not spending all my bloody weekends doing that anymore.”

He was imagining night after night with his arms wrapped around Jamie and I was happy for him to delude himself.

I tapped out a message to Billy with intent, offering to meet him at a cafe instead, and much earlier than he proposed. I jumped in the shower and got dressed in something nice, Hayden barely looking up as I walked towards the door.

“Bit early for a drink, isn’t it?” he asked, staring at the football game playing on the TV.

“There’s this whole function thing on…” I said, watching his turn away in disinterest. Inside I smiled to myself. I’d told Billy we’d conduct a quick and dirty meeting at the cafe, because tonight I had somewhere else to be. “Don’t wait up.”

All I got was a snort from my brother in recognition.

As I got into my van, I punched in my sister’s number, letting it ring as I pulled out onto the street.

“What do you want, dickhead? I give you a prime opportunity to take my bestie out and you?—”

“Have to make amends. I shot my mouth off, which we know I have done in the past and will do again, but this time I need to apologise, make clear that I’m sorry. Hayden said Jamie’s hanging out with you tonight.”

“And you want to encroach on my girl time? I take it all back, you, Hayden, and Brock are banned from dating Jamie. She was my friend first.”

“And I want to spend my life making her happy.”

I talked shit, cracked jokes and generally made a fool of myself, and the benefit of that was when I was serious, people actually paid attention.

“Even if that means stepping aside for Brock or Hayden?”

Millie was testing me, I knew that.

“Did I stutter?” I replied. “If that’s… who she needs to be happy, I’m not gonna get in their way, but she hasn’t decided yet.”

“And you want to come to my pub and make some big apology to my best friend when she came to hang out with me?” she said.

“What’s it gonna take, Mills?”

“Build those goddamn walk-in wardrobes you promised to do months ago.”

I could hear her grin down the phone line. One sigh and then I was nodding.

“Fine, you got it.”

“OK, here’s what you need to do…”

“That’s a girl that got the good D,” Annie, one of the women who worked for my sister said, her words like a punch to my gut.

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