Page 77 of My Ex's Brothers

Which makes me think about him. In said shower…

“Where’s Lyla?”

“Dane and I dropped her off at your mom’s.”

Richie nods, raising an eyebrow. “That didn’t take long,” he says gruffly.

“Are you uh…headed home…after this?” I feel strange calling their place home, but that’s what it is, right? It’stheirhome, even if I am just a guest. “Or?—”

He shakes his head, some water spraying onto me, and I have to stifle the urge to laugh.

“Nope.” He shrugs, a smirk crossing his lips. “What’s the matter, baby girl? You afraid you’re gonna miss me?”

My cheeks redden at his words. “No.”

He knows I’m lying as well as I do, but I don’t want to think about such things right now.

Richie isn’t like his brothers. I get the feeling that smoldering intensity will burn me if I get too close. And he’d love every minute of scorching me.

“Mhmm. Well, don’t wait up for me,” he says as he towers over me. The sight makes my heart race, my blood rush. The way he’s looking at me makes more than my cheeks blush. My entire body warms at the sight.

“Richie.” Dane’s voice breaks through the spell, and I blink. I take two steps back, noticing the exchange between them. “See you at home?” Dane says.

Richie shrugs. “Maybe. Got some shit to do.”

Dane nods, glancing back at me. “Okay. See you later, then.”

I don’t miss the way Richie knocks into Dane on the way out.

“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching out for his shoulder.

Dane grins. “Nothing I can’t take. Richie’s been checking me for years,” he says. His freshly showered scent hits me and I take in the sight of him. Dressed in his button-down and khakis like some high school gym teacher. His forearms glisten in the low light and his watch catches the overhead lights. “So I was thinking…”

“You do a lot of that,” I say with a half smile.

He chuckles, shaking his head as he captures my gaze with that boyish gleam in his eye that is just so….him.

Dex is charming. You can’t afford not to be charming when you have a whole other wife and child and cheat on them with multiple people.

But Dane…Dane is likePrince Charming.If Prince Charming came with solid abs, of course.

“I was thinking, since my parents have Lyla right now, and I have you…” he says with a grin, “maybe we could grab something to eat. Just the two of us.”

His grin could melt the ice in the arena.

Fucking hell.

“You mean like a date?” I ask, grinning coyly.

He regards me thoughtfully as we head to his SUV. “Yes. If you want it to be, that is.” The sky is that perfect shade of dusk, that twilight that is neither day or night. Something in between. I can see the moon and stars, but it’s not dark by any means.

I think about his words. If Iwantit to be.

Looking at him, freshly showered, dressed in preppy clothes with that boyish grin on his face…takes me back to that very first night.

When I saw him from across the room. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him because he was reading a book at the bar. Who reads a book at the bar? Better yet, what athlete reads a book in a bar after a winning game?

Dane Rose, that’s who.

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