Page 4 of Rolling with my Best Friend's Brothers

I follow her to the trunk, grab a box, and notice she’s looking nervously out of the garage.

“Everything okay?” Mammoth asks as he grabs a box from the back seat.

“I’m worried about Avery making it up the road. The water’s over the bridge.”

“It’s only an inch or so. She can still make it, that’s why we got her a four-wheel-drive vehicle.”

“You guys are good to her,” Beatrix says, her voice sincere. It serves as a reminder that Avery is the one I need to be good to, not Beatrix. Keep my head straight.

“We try to be,” Mammoth says.

“You are. Don’t let her rules confuse you. She appreciates what you’re doing. She just needs a little space to be an adult… and a mother.”

“We all want what’s best for her,” Wyatt says, while I continue to struggle with my inability to shake the connection we just had.

“Please treat her like an adult, not a little sister. She needs to feel like you believe in her.”

“Good point.”

The wind swirls, driving rain from one direction promptly followed by rain from the exact opposite direction. It whistles through the trees. A groan and snap catch our attention.

Crack!

The weighty rustling of leaves is followed by a thud as a tree crashes to the ground, falling across the road.

“Ah!” Beatrix screams as she stumbles backward. I shift the box to one arm just in time as I reach my free arm around her shoulder and pull her against me. Oh, she feels so good. My face angles toward her and I take in her citrusy scent. Forgive me for what I’m about to do.

On a deep inhale, I say, “Looks like you’re going to have to hang out with us for a little while.”

Wyatt is quick to add, “We better check on Avery.”

He’s right, but I struggle to let Beatrix go. I’m consciously thinking of relaxing my fingers and removing my arm from her shoulder but I can’t.

And for a few heartbeats, she doesn’t pull away.

The magic is only partially broken again when she says, “I’ll text her, I’ve got my phone right here.” She whips it out of her pocket and sends a message while securely wrapped in my embrace.

I softly say, “I’m aware that my sister is no longer a little girl… and neither are you.”

Beatrix cranes her neck, and her shock morphs into the same desire I remember from a year ago.

Gambling one step further, I say, “Unless of course, you want to be my little girl.”

Four

Beatrix

The wild hunger, the sexual tension, and the way Gabriel conveys that he wants to possess me leave me unable to move from his side. I’m not crazy to think that’s what I saw previously.

Then his comment about my shirt locked it in. Would I have parted my lips for a kiss if his brothers hadn’t come into the garage?

Would I regret the repercussions if Avery found out?

Ever since Avery’s graduation pool party, my emotions have felt like when I’m on the derby track busting through a blockade. I’m held back, but the moment I break free, my legs are primed to push forward and skate free from the pack. Liberated. Doing what I’m made to do.

Do I dare break free from Avery holding me back? Would she be able to forgive me when I revealed my true self?

No other guy has given me the look that Gabriel has paralyzed me with right now. He sees me… and I love being seen.

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