Page 74 of No Summer Hotter than You

Andy shook his head at me. “You’ll be fine. I’m serious, Anthony.”

I grumbled. “Of course that’s what you’d say.”

“I’ll be there to help you out.” He turned to look at me with certainty.

“All the way from SoCal? You’re going to help me all the way from Santa Mariana?” My brows furrowed together, confused.

He started blushing, and I knew he was going to start talking about Julie. “Once Julie and I get married and start having kids, we plan to move back to Sunset Valley. We want to raise our kids here and I want to work for Dad’s company.”

“You sure? It’s not nice like all those swanky finance companies you worked for, and it’s boring. We’re just a general construction and development company in Sunset Valley. It’s nothing exciting. Unless if you think kitchen remodeling is fun.”

Andy shrugged. “It’s fine. I would rather have that than waste my life away at some big firm and not be able to spend time with Julie and the kids. It’s great money, but I want to be an amazing partner and dad the way Dad is to Mom and us. I can’t do that if I continue to work in a big firm with all the long hours I must commit to my job.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, making Andy raise a brow at me. “What?” he asked.

“You talk as if you and Julie are already married with kids.”

I always figured Andy would be serious when it came to Julie. He sounded so mature when he talked so casually about marriage and children. I’d never seen this side to him before, and it only made me feel even more like a child. My brother was maturing and becoming more of an adult as he planned his future with Julie. Meanwhile, I was in a fake relationship with my best friend and floundering at the idea of taking over a company.

We may have come into this world together, but we weren’t the same.

A shy smile tugged on Andy’s lips at my comment. “Not now. But, yes, eventually. Besides, I can’t have my kids grow up without them living in the same city as you. I want my kids to grow up close to you, Anthony. I want them to know their uncle.”

I couldn’t help but flash him a wobbly smile. “Shit, Andy. Don’t make me fucking cry over this sappy crap.”

He laughed out loud. “Excited to be an uncle?”

“You fucking bet.” I grinned.

“How’s things going between you and Shoua?” His brow raised as his smile pulled into a sly smirk.

“Good.” My answer came out a bit gruff, and that alone revealed too much. Andy perked up, ready to fire questions, when I saved him from the one thousand questions he’d probably ask. “I slept with her.”

Andy’s smirk dropped as his eyes grew wide. He took a moment to recollect himself, pushing his long brown fringe out of his eyes. “W-wait. You mean you two had?—”

“Sex. Yes, we had sex with one another.”

I chewed on my bottom lip as Andy let out a long, exasperated breath in disbelief. “Fucking hell, Anthony. Did you take her out on a date first at the very least?”

“No, we kissed at the bar and . . . things got heated . . . and we just didn’t stop.”

Andy let out another heavy sigh. “What are you two now then? Are you together?”

I hesitated, almost unable to say the truth. I opened and closed my mouth as he watched me closely. “No, just friends,” I muttered. “We’re . . . just friends.”

“Just friends?” Andy didn’t look convinced as concern burrowed into the lines of his face.

I nodded robotically. “Yeah, that’s what we agreed on.”

He shook his head, a mix of frustration and pity in his eyes. “That’s not how it works. You can’t just have sex with your best friend and go back to being ‘just friends.’”

“I know! It’s just . . . things are just—” I hesitated, stumbling over my words. “C-complicated.”

My brother watched me as his expression softened. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? With just being friends with Shoua?”

I swallowed thickly as my brows furrowed together. “I don’t know,” I admitted with a sigh. This was the first time I had been honest about how I felt. “I really don’t know anymore.”

Andy tipped his head to the side, blinking slowly at me. His calculative eyes observed me down to every little reaction I had and any lack of it. He knew me better than anyone else and even better than I did at times, which was the worst. I could never hide anything from him, even if I tried. But neither could he from me.

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