Page 4 of So Bad It Must Be Good

“Like she needs encouraging,” Aiden replied, opening the fridge and poking around. “Let’s go out to eat. I’m starving and this all looks far too healthy.”

“You’re just going to live here then?” Liam asked, and immediately regretted it, because it was none of his business. Aiden living at home was none of his damn business.

“Hello, judgmental brother,” Aiden returned, closing the fridge, but he grinned like he didn’t give a shit.

Because Aiden straight out didn’t. Not about much beyond himself. Which wasn’t fair, in the least, but it was true, and Liam wasn’t very good at ignoring the truth.

“I’m not judg—”

“I’m only here until I figure out what my next move is. Although right now my next move is Kayla Gallagher. Hey, why are you always such a dick to her?”

“I’m a dick to everyone,” Liam grumbled. Which was an exaggeration, but he didn’t want to think about Kayla Gallagher.

“Sure, but she’s . . .” Aiden shook his head and Liam hated that his gut could still twist just like it had when he’d been a kid.

Kayla Gallagher was something. Very nearly ethereal. Sweet and shy, and she’d never failed to make him feel like a plodding, cardboard asshole. Especially, especially when Aiden was around.

Liam felt superior to his brother in just about every way. Aiden ran away and came back home with a regularity Liam had given up trying to change. Liam, on the other hand, always stayed put. He had partnered with his father in the family business because it was the right thing to do. He’d been at Dad’s bedside after the heart attack, and he’d kept Patrick’s Patch-ups going through Dad’s recovery. He did the right thing, instead of whatever the hell he wanted to do.

But Kayla Gallagher had been the one chink in his superiority for as long as he could remember, and the worst part was he didn’t have a fucking clue as to why.

He did not have trouble with women. He could be charming. He could smile.

Except around her.

“Well, don’t be so hard on her. Once I get out of my current situation, I will be barking up that tree, and I don’t need her hating my brother in my way.”

“What does any of that mean?” Liam asked, feeling a headache pound at his temples.

“It means Kayla Gallagher is mine. So don’t ruin things for me. Simple.”

“What situation do you need to take care of before she’s . . . yours.” He made air quotes with his fingers as he said yours, trying to get a bit of a rise out of Aiden, but Aiden never stopped smiling.

“Let’s just say I may be involved with someone else right now, but I’ll get that sorted out. Kayla has always been that something special, and now I’ll finally be around to do something about it.”

“I’m sure she’s been chastely waiting for you,” Liam replied deadpan.

“Don’t be jealous women like me better, Liam. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Women like me just fine.” Which was true. But hell if he didn’t feel fifteen and gawky again just at the very appearance of Kayla Gallagher.

Of course, signing up for the Gallagher & Ivy Farmers’ Market, he’d known he might run into her again. Any time he got called in to do a repair at Gallagher’s, he kept his eyes open for the possibility of catching a glimpse of her red hair.

But that was before Aiden had come home after being gone the past year, because per usual, Aiden existed at the center of all Liam’s problems, fair or not. He likely always would.

Someday . . . Liam was tired of his own somedays. Someday didn’t matter. What mattered was today, and today he was living up to every promise he’d ever made. It was his satisfaction at the end of the day, and even his brother couldn’t change that.

“So let’s go eat? Gallagher’s?”

“I’m not going to Gallagher’s to eat.” Not with Aiden. “Like you said, if you want Kayla, you don’t want me anywhere near her.”

It might not be for reasons that made any sense to him, but he did not know how to be around that woman. So he found the best answer was to just not be.

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