Page 95 of Never You

“I’m Jensen.” He gives her a small wave. “And this is Bodi.”

Bodi does the same, and she waves back to them sweetly.

“Are these your boyfriends?”

The entire room laughs, and I can feel my cheeks blush when I glance at Jensen, not sure how to introduce him.

Either of them.

“These are my friends.” I go for. “This is Jensen, and that’s Bodi. Boys, this is my little sister Lily.”

“Those are weird names.” Lily scrunches her nose, and I cover her mouth with my hand, offering the boys an apologetic smile.

“Lily,” I reprimand, “I know, but we don’t say that out loud.”

Amusingly, both Jensen and Bodi cross their arms in front of their bodies with modest glares.

“Welcome, boys.” My aunt comes to my side, taking Lily from me, then offers them her hand. “I’m June. Nice to meet you.”

I smile at the sight of her, my eyes raking over her light blue sundress. She looks gorgeous as always, her intense hazel eyes and auburn hair reminding me of my mother’s.

They both introduce themselves once more, like real gentlemen, and I can see my aunt give them both a look of approval, before she presses a quick kiss to my forehead.

“Johnny told me you were staying. Sorry, we didn’t inform you about the party. Let me show you to your rooms, and you can take a minute to freshen up,” she offers before she walks them upstairs, showing them the guest room. Jensen lingers, licking his lips when he brushes past me. His eyes move to my mouth, then quickly glance behind me at the people still waiting for me to greet them properly.

He wants to kiss me; I can see it in his eyes. But instead, he just strokes my stomach, passing by before he trails behind Bodi, shooting me a wink as he walks up the stairs.

My heart flutters, and I let out a deep sigh, right in time, before the small crowd is hovering around me.

“Hello everyone!” But before I can properly welcome everyone, brown hair bolts through the people in front of me, jumping my neck.

I laugh as her body slams into mine, squeezing me tight before she whispers: “It’s a good thing you’re staying because you ain’t going anywhere before you’ve told me who those hot motherfuckers are.”

***

Twenty minutes later, I have a glass of wine in my hand, a cupcake in my belly, and my cousin Kayla hanging on my hip as I tell her about the last week. And by hanging on my hip, I mean, she cornered me and is now interrogating me like the fucking FBI. But in her defense, I would’ve done the same if she brought a guy home for her birthday.

“Okay, so what about that Emily girl? Isn’t he supposed to marry her or something?”

Anxiety hits me hard, just thinking about him marrying Emily, but the same question has been going through my own mind at least once a day.

“I don’t know, Keeks.” I take another sip of my wine, avoiding looking at her. “I don’t even know when he might be leaving?”

“Is he still expecting you to go to New York with him?”

“I don’t know!” I screech, looking up at the sky.

I don’t think he is, but who knows at this point. We haven’t really talked about what happens next, both set on enjoying whatever time we have together. Technically, we are not together.

“Are you going to if he does?”

I slowly turn my head to her. Her curly brown hair is voluminous, with highlights shining in the sun, bringing out her bright blue eyes. The signature of the Lockheart family.

“Am I going to New York if he asks me to?” Fuck no. I’m not going to torture myself by convincing his ex that there is nothing going on between us. Besides, when I made that agreement, there wasn’t anything going on between us. While right now I feel like a hypocrite even thinking about it, I don’t want to make life harder on him either. I know he will have to go through a bunch of shit if he doesn’t get back together with Emily.

“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I really, really don’t know, Kayla. I don’t want to. But I also don’t want to fuck up his life. Argh! How did my life get so complicated all of a sudden?” I growl.

Bringing my glass to my lips, I down the whole thing out of frustration, then pull Kayla’s glass out of her hand to continue with hers.

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