“It reminds me of how you acted when you were younger and had a crush on him.”

I grinned. Zoning out on the carpet as I listened, I wished I could see her blushing now. She had a crush on me? It wasn’t news to me, but I liked the reminder that I could’ve affected her then as I did now.

“Because it won’t help matters now,” Brandon warned. “Nate says he’s ready to swear off women. He had a bad deal with an ex and he’s scorned.”

“I heard,” Rachel replied. “Um, people at the office sort of hinted at what happened.”

“Oh, so you know?” Brandon asked. “It was a long time ago, but he was burned badly.”

“I hate that he suffered like that,” she said softly.

I smiled, knowing she meant every word.

I hate that you suffered because of Kyle, too, sweet girl.

“Sometimes, I wonder if he’s waiting for Yasmin to come back to him.”

I furrowed my brow, shaking my head.Hell no, man. Never.

Not just because I no longer loved that woman, but also because I saw how much room I had in my heart for Rachel.

“Oh, I’m not sure about that,” Rachel argued lightly.

My smile returned.

Yeah, you'd better be sure about that.She could claim to be clueless and naïve about men, but I was rectifying her ignorance about how to be aroundme.

As soon as he left, I would get right back to giving her some more experience.

All. Night. Long.

Because a crush wouldn’t cut it. We had something mutual and solid. It was a start, this thing between us, but it was far from over.

17

RACHEL

“Well, even if he’s not interested in Yasmin anymore,” Brandon said, lingering just in front of the door, “I would like to see him not end up lonely forever.”

Me too.I swallowed hard, awkward with this predicament. Nate wasn’t lonely. He and I had been sharing some quality time together before my brother thought to drop off my phone.

“Of course not.” I bit my lip, fully aware that Nate was crouching behind the sofa and hearing all of this. I wanted him to know that I cared about him and didn’t want him to be lonely, but I was close to freaking out and cringing that he was overhearing all this about my having a crush on him.

“And he—” Brandon frowned, stalling, as he reached into his pocket for his phone.

Please, please justgoalready…I loved my brother, and I did miss him with him in the city when I was back in Rockton, but at this moment, with my skin still tingling from Nate’s mouth and fingers on me, I wanted to go back to where we’d been interrupted.

“Hey, good news!” Brandon grinned at me after reading a text. “The guy covering for me at the bar can stay the whole night. I don’t have to go to work now.”

No, no, no.I tensed up, straining not to show my frustration. “Oh, hey. Thatisgood news.”

“Now we can really catch up.” He walked in, letting himself in. “We can finally watch that last Marvel movie that we’ve been waiting to watch together.”

It was our thing. We saved those comic-themed movies for watching them together so we could one-up each other’s commentaries.

But not tonight! He couldn’t stay, not with Nate hiding behind the couch.

“Wait. No. Now?” I shook my head, following him as he sat on the sofa and settled in. “I’m tired, Brandon.”