Page 34 of Never Kiss the Bad Boy

Samantha is married to my brother, Chance. She’s the perfect shot of moonshine whiskey, with a filterless mouth that she can back up with major brains, just the right contrast to my brother’s green tea-vegetable smoothie. Chance is the equivalent of white bread toast as far as the rest of us are concerned, with a good guy reputation and image that he’s actually earned and definitely deserves.

Luna and Samantha are besties, which must be an ‘opposites attract’ deal because Luna is a quiet, bookish art nerd who tends to be nervous about any direct attention unless it comes from her husband, Carter, who’s also my brother. Even now, behind the lenses of her oversized glasses, she’s not looking at me, but rather just over my head. I think she’s secretly amused by my antics, though, as I’ve caught her biting her lip to keep from laughing at some of the more outrageous ones, like when I had a whipped cream speed-eating contest with my niece, Grace, and ended up blowing white snot out of my nose… at Mom and Dad’s dinner table, onto a linen napkin.

“Sorry I’m late, ladies. I didn’t know we were having a party or I would’ve brought beer. As it is, all I have is this.” I hold out the Styrofoam cup to Janey, and she reaches for it, fighting hard to hide a smile but not succeeding.

A quick look around lets me know that Kayla and Samantha have fixed their faces into perfectly blank, neutral expressions, and Luna is covering the lower half of her face, unable to reach the same degree of flat disinterest as the others.

Apparently, they’re going with the ‘Kyle sucks’ agenda tonight. A classic for sure.

“What is it?” Samantha asks, one brow arched so high that it disappears into her newly trimmed bangs.

“Strawberry-apricot Sprite,” I tell Janey. “I know it’s not the same as your favorite Red Bull, but I thought it’d be a good substitute given your current caffeine restrictions.” I point to her baby bump. I swear, she’s gotten bigger since I dropped off Peanut Butter this morning. Not that I’m stupid enough to tell her that, of course, but with the way her legs are criss-cross-applesauced in front of her, her round belly is literally sitting on her swollen ankles.

Janey’s job at a nursing home is both physically and mentally demanding, so she’s taking an extended maternity leave, starting well before her due date and lasting basically as long as she wants it to. One of the definite benefits of being a part of this family is the financial security to do that if she wants. This is day three of her being home, and I know she’s missing her coworkers and patients, who she loves like family, which is why I asked her to watch Peanut Butter, thinking a furry, friendly distraction would be good for her. Plus, it gives me a chance to check in on her every morning and evening, something I know Cole appreciates but would never dream of asking for.

“Ooh, thank you,” Janey says in delight before sucking down at least a quarter of the drink in one go. She sighs in happiness, and I’m glad I made the stop, even if it made me a few minutes later.

“How’s my boy been today?”

I look around, expecting Peanut Butter to divebomb me when I least expect it. We don’t affectionately call him Nutbuster for nothing. He’ll run at you full-throttle, his nose aimed right where you least want it. But he’s nowhere to be seen.

Janey laughs. “Already in bed. It was so nice out that we played fetch in the back yard for an hour today, and I think I wore him out. He’s already claimed Cole’s place on the bed, so you can leave him. I could use the company.” She glances up to the camera in the corner of the room and sticks her tongue out at it. “Yep, gonna have another man in my bed tonight. One that likes to snuggle.”

She’s talking to my brother, who probably switched from the porch camera to the inside camera when I came inside. Like I said, he’s a weirdo, but Janey doesn’t seem to mind and apparently talks to Cole like he’s here even when he’s keeping a lookout from hundreds of miles away. Or wherever he is. With him, you never know. He might literally be across the street or in another country, depending on the job.

“Oh, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have interrupted this.” I wave a hand in a circle, indicating the four women. “If you want to keep Peanut Butter, that’s fine. He snores like a demon, though, so don’t plan on a great night’s rest.”

Janey rubs her belly absently. “I don’t sleep much these days anyway, especially when Cole’s not here.”

I cut my eyes toward the camera, frowning, and then see the other women look at each other. It seems that’s why they’re all here too, checking on Janey while my brother’s out of town.

Not too long ago, the rest of us Harringtons wouldn’t have even known Cole was gone and definitely wouldn’t have known what he was doing. He came and went like the wind, vanishing at the drop of a hat and returning without notice. But Janey helped change all that, and now that Cole shares more with us, we look out for him and Janey, and their little one who’s on the way.

“Speaking of not here, where have you been?” Kayla asks.

I pull the beef sticks out of my back pocket. “I forgot, I did bring you something. Slim Jim?” I ask, holding them out to Kayla first, then Samantha, then Luna, in order of greatest threat to least likely to dig into things I don’t want to discuss.

But Kayla isn’t swayed by the mighty draw of the spicy stick of quick protein and sees right through my distraction technique easily. In fact, in trying to avoid the question, I think she sees an even bigger question mark target. Her denim blue eyes, the same as everyone in my family except me, narrow as she looks at me sharply.

Samantha’s quicker to the punch, though. “Probably screwing his latest and greatest.”

She doesn’t say it with any judgment. As a relationship therapist with a specialty in intimacy, she’s about as pro-sex as they come. Samantha’s motto is more ‘I scream, you scream, we all scream, and then we live a happy, satisfied life.’ And to be clear, I’m not talking about ice cream here. But still, the off-hand comment that normally wouldn’t bother me in the slightest because I intentionally don’t tell my family anything about my dating life—or life in general—hits differently tonight.

“I was dealing with a work issue,” I snap, my tone more clipped than I intended.

“Oh, no! I hope everything’s okay,” Luna says kindly.

But Kayla smells blood in the water… mine. “What kind of work issue are you dealing with hours after the city’s noise nuisance rules started?”

Fuck. Of course Kayla knows that all construction has to stop at seven o’clock. Why does she know that? Because she knows every damn thing, that’s why.

“Got an upset neighbor at the job I’m working, was trying to smooth things over.” It’s not a lie. It’s important to tell the truth, or some version of it, to Kayla, because she’s got a sixth sense for lying and liars. I swear, she can hear it if you so much as embellish the tiniest bit, a skill I’m sure serves her well at work but is annoying as fuck when you’re trying to keep her out of your business.

“Upset neighbor?” Kayla echoes. “Guess it went well, then, because you’re smiling as you talk about her.”

I scrub my hand over my mouth, physically wiping away this supposed smile. It’s a split second later when I realized that I fucked up and basically told on myself.

“You didn’t correct the ‘she’ assumption,” Samantha notes. “Is she pretty?”

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