Page 127 of Finding Hope

“Britt spent most of the day cooking,” one of the blondes announces with a sly grin.

I don’t actually know which is which. They’re identical, and they’re sitting together, so I just nod and smile, then I throw my arm over Britt’s shoulder and pull her in closer. “Thank you for cooking, Bambie.”

Nodding shyly, she rests against me. I don’t miss the feral eyes coming fromDeputyAlex, but I don’t really give a shit anymore. If I want to touch her, I’ll fucking touch her.

My heart’s still beating triple time, and my appetite has vanished.

Ineedto touch her.

In awkward silence, we serve ourselves and pass the heavy platters from hand to hand. Britt squeezes my thigh often. She sits closer than everyone else sits, and her shoulder rests against mine.

She’s trying to comfort me in the way I didn’t when our roles were reversed. When she had to face my family, I threw her to the wolves,because I knew my family wouldn’t be mean. They’d just joke and make fun.

“So, you’re dating my sister now?” Alex asks with venom. My eyes lift and meet his. “You’re over your dead girlfriend, just like that?”

“Alex!”

No, my family isn’t cruel. They’d never do that.

“We’re done,” Britt snaps. Tossing her cutlery down, she stands and glares. “I’m disappointed in you, X. That’s not you. You’re a good man, but for the first time in my life, you’ve disappointed me.”

Sitting back casually, he shrugs and works to hide the hurt in his eyes.

Snarling at his easy shrug, her eyes track the table. Stopping on a glass bottle of ketchup, she snaps it up and pegs it at his head.

She fucking nails him.

“You’re not that person, X!”

Teetering perilously on his chair, Alex shakes the shock off and comes back to growl at her. “And you’re not the girl who should be with someone like him.” Standing, fury rolls over his face. He jabs a dangerous finger in my direction. “You’re better than that, Britt. You don’t do shit like what I caught you doing last night. I’m disappointed in you, too!”

“Idodo that stuff, X! I heard you myself; you’ve brought girls up to the lookout. Why can you do that shit but I can’t?”

“Because you’re my baby sister!” he roars. “Becausehe’sgot a dead girlfriend, and he was driving the day she died! I’ve bullshitted with this asshole over girls, Britt. He’s a player, and he’s gonna hurt you. You’re better than that.”

“No, X. You’re better than this. He would never be cruel like you.”

But I have been cruel. I threw her out of my house and told her to fuck off.

“Do you even know about Stephanie?” Alex snaps. “Did he tell you about her? Or about the hundreds of other women that pass through his bed on a regular rotation?”

Britt picks up the salt shaker and tosses it. “Yes, asshole. I know about her! And yeah, I know about the girls, because I was one of them. I’m not your baby sister anymore, X. I’m a grown ass woman. And you know what? I like sex! I have sex.Lotsof it. Sometimes it’s with men I have no intention of seeing again. Hell, sometimes we don’t know each other’s names!”

“No, Brat, you don’t. You’re a good girl!”

She turns slowly, like The Exorcist in slow motion, then snaps her arm toward Luca with the blonde hair. “Not so good, X. I’ve fucked him, too!”

The girls gasp into their hands. The twins’ eyes dance with glee. They smile and giggle behind their hands, but the other members at this table don’t find Britt’s announcement very funny. Luca, the man who looks so much like his sisters, sits back in his chair the way someone might slowly back up from a pack of feral dogs.

It’s not just Alex’s glare burning holes into his face. Not just Scotch, or Marc, too, but forgetting the mouse, forgetting Steph, I stand and work to control the rage bubbling in my gut.

I know it’s irrational.Obviously, I wasn’t her first. But he touched what’s mine, and there’s no way in hell I’m gonna sit here and eat a meal with a guy who’s been with my girlfriend.

His eyes snap between mine and Alex’s. Then the girls. The band. The mouse. His hands come up in front of him. “Let’s just–”

“Did you fuck my sister?” Alex demands. Luca’s eyes wheel around the table. Alex snarls, “I’m talking to you, asshole.”

Luca gulps. “Fuckingis a harsh word, X.”

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