Page 5 of Stalker's Valentine

“That’s cool.” My voice dropped.

“Sounds like your parents weren’t cursed like ours, right, Merritt?” Austin called, and when I looked up, I had a feeling he could see right through me.

Fuck. Is my little brother silently telling me not to think about it?

Scarlett had been raised in a good home with good, caring people. Not like us. My mom left the minute she popped Austin out, and we never saw her again. My dad drank to forget her and probably us all at the same time. We were basically raised by our uncles and grandpa. We’d all heard the stories of how the Hart men were cursed when it came to matters of the heart. Shit, we’d seen it with our own eyes.

But if that was the case, why did life choose to toss me another bone right in that moment?

“Speaking of the devils,” Bash muttered, and I watched the three guys behind the bar turn their attention to whomever had just walked in. I turned, too, and as if I had somehow magicallyconjured her up, there she was. Surrounded by her sisters, Scarlett looked like a damn miracle.

My miracle. Mine.Standing almost directly behind me, looking so damn beautiful, it made my chest hurt.Mine,the voice in my head repeated.

Curse or not, that’s what she would be.

scarlett

. . .

It’s him.

I knew it the minute I saw his broad back stretching the material of the black tee to its limit. He turned, and my heart started to pound so hard I wondered if my sisters, who were standing so close to me their shoulders brushed against mine, could hear it. Maybe they could feel it?

Light blue, almost gray eyes connected with mine, and I forgot my name. He was so much better looking than I remembered him to be. But it was more than his looks. It was like something inside meknewhim.

“Hey!” Coral waved at the guys, and I tore my eyes from the stranger’s light blue gaze and glanced at my sisters.

They were looking at the guys, not paying any attention to the seriously drop-dead gorgeous stranger in front of them.

“You guys still serving lunch?” Raven asked, and I didn’t miss the way Bash looked at her before his jaw twitched.Hmm, that is interesting.I’d been wondering about that since the party. There had been something about his reaction about her not coming that made me wonder if one of my brother’s best friends had his eye on her.

Not that Onyx noticed.

“For you brats, no,” Onyx joked. I didn’t have to look at my sisters to know the four of us probably rolled our eyes at the same time.

“Yeah, we are,” Bash spoke up, I glanced at Raven, who was looking around the brewery like it was the first time she had seen it. It wasn’t like we had been coming to eat there about every other day for the last week.Interesting!

“We’ll take a table.” Olive pointed at the ones behind us.

For some reason, I couldn’t get my feet to move. I looked at the sexy stranger who had been plaguing my thoughts and dreams since I left the party. He was openly watching me without an expression on his face. Almost like he didn’t remember bumping into me. I opened my mouth, not sure of what to say, and winced.What can I say?He probably didn’t even remember me. I shook my head and followed my sisters, taking a seat next to Olive.

“So… what happened with Trip?” Coral asked like the big sis she was.

“Nothing, it just… you know, it was one of those things.” Oli shrugged like it was no big deal, and I had to clear my throat so I wouldn’t laugh.

“One of those things?” Raven repeated and looked at me as her lips twitched. “Like an itch to get scratched?” she teased me, and I giggled. Olive scoffed and shook her head.

“No, but maybe,” she finally admitted, and the four of us giggled. “It’s okay, though; it’s all over now.”

“Just like that?” Coral asked suspiciously.

“Yup, just like that. He was not the one, more like the one for the night. It was just a hookup.”

I had no idea how Olive did it. She was two years younger than me and a lifetime braver.

One the other hand, I was a twenty-five-year-old virgin afraid of everything. I subtly glanced over my shoulder, sad to see the big hot stranger had turned around and was talking to my brother. At least I got to check out and appreciate the view of his back. And my, oh my, what a back it was. I didn’t have X-ray vision, but it seemed like his back muscles strained and flexed beneath his shirt. My hands itched to touch his skin.

Would he be tatted?

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