Page 7 of The Very Naughty List

He shrugs. “I had a lizard once.”

“Which ran away.”

“I like to think that’s because I raised him so well that he knew when it was time to leave the nest and strike out on his own.”

“Sure. Or he got eaten by a cat.”

He scowls. “It’s a good thing we’re brothers, or I’d deck you for even suggesting that.”

“You could try.” I roll my neck out as the two of us banter back and forth.

“I’d sell tickets to that fight.” We both turn around at the sound of Reid’s voice entering the kitchen. “We’re all pretty evenly matched, I’d say. We could probably raise a small fortune taking bets.”

“Don’t give him any ideas,” I warn. “Next thing you know, Seb will have a whole underground fight ring set up in Chestnut Hill.”

Reid isn’t wrong though. The three of us are all built similarly—muscular and broad-shouldered, with the kind of physique that comes from working with your hands all day. All three of us have physically demanding jobs, even though we joke around about whose is better from time to time.

We’re more alike than we’re different, although we each seem to lean into the qualities that make us uniquely ourselves. But the bond between us is a strong one. We relied on each other after our parents died in order to get through the loss, and we all submerged ourselves into trades that allowed us to distract our minds with physical exertion.

Now we live in our parents’ old house, which the three of us decided to keep after our older sister, Addison, moved out and got married. We owe her a lot for helping to raise the three of us after our parents died, and keeping the house seemed like the right thing to do. Plus, it’s big enough that I have room for a home gym, Sebastian has a whole garage to store his collection of motorcycles, and Reid has a workshop out back where he builds furniture for his carpentry business. And even with all of that, there’s still space leftover.

“You’ll never guess who I ran into in town today.” Reid grabs a beer from the fridge and gives Bruno a wide berth before sitting down at the table. It takes Sebastian less than a second toopen the fridge and grab bottles for the both of us too. “Hailey Bennett. Apparently, she’s back in town.”

Instantly, my body tenses.

Hailey Bennett.

Our best friend’s little sister, and the woman I’ve had a secret crush on for as long as I can remember.

There’s a whole lot of history between all of us, but I’ve never told anyone that. While we all grew up around each other, looking out for Hailey and keeping her under our protection, I also couldn’t seem to shake the constant awareness of how beautiful she was.

Every time she came around, I felt a visceral reaction to her. I just never fucking acted on it because she was Lucas’s little sister, thus making her off-limits. That didn’t make it any easier to breathe whenever she was in the room though. For years, I could barely string two words together anytime I talked to her.

Hell, she probably wondered if I could talk at all, since most of the time all I would do is speak in monosyllabic answers anytime she was around.

I pick up my beer and take a long swallow, trying to shove down the old feelings for Hailey at the same time. At least I’m not the only one who seems caught off guard about Hailey’s reappearance back in town.

“Holy shit. Is she here to stay?” Sebastian leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I wonder what brought her back to Montana.”

“No idea, but I’m guessing that it must have been a last-minute decision, since Lucas didn’t say anything about it to any of us.”

Reid’s got a good point. Lucas and Hailey are still close, even though she hasn’t been back here in two years. If he’d known she was coming home for the holidays, we would’ve heard about it.

“How did she seem?” Bruno barrels over and slams into the side of my chair to play, nearly knocking the beer out of my hand and making me spill some on my scruffy beard as I pull the glass away from my mouth to ask the question.

Reid shrugs. “She seemed fine, I guess. I only talked to her for a minute or two.”

I want to ask more, but before I can, Sebastian’s stomach growls. He declares that he needs food, and he and Reid launch into a debate about where we should go. It takes me a second to wrench my thoughts away from Hailey and focus on the argument playing out at the kitchen table, and I only fully snap out of it when Seb nudges my foot with his.

“I say we go to The Old Oak. Back me up on this, Nick. You know you want a nice cold beer on tap.”

I frown, glancing down at the nice cold beer I already have in my hand, and he shakes his head.

“That’s different,” Sebastian insists. “Fridge beer isn’t as good as draft beer.”

He’s got a point—and besides, they serve food, and I don’t have the energy to cook at home tonight. So after a bit more debate, the three of us settle on The Old Oak. We disperse from the kitchen, going to our respective bedrooms to change out of our work clothes, then reconvene and head out to the bar.

When we arrive, the place is already packed. Sebastian flags down one of the servers, Chloe, who grins at the sight of the three of us and waves for us to follow her over to our usual table.

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