Page 10 of Love Me

“Hey, big brother. I’m freaking amazing. You doing okay?”

“Just fuckin’ dandy,” I say, a hint patronizingly. Life fucking sucks right now.

“How about some ping pong?” Carter suggests.

Little competition sounds like a good enough stress reliever.

“Let’s make it beer pong, make it interesting.”

“Fine, but you’re cleaning up the mess, ’cause last time Mom was pissed.”

“Dude, she wasn’t pissed about the beer pong, she was pissed you puked all over her braided rug,” I remind him.

My brothers and I work together to set up the solo cups, filling them with beer, and splitting into teams. Dallas and I on one side, Carter and Sawyer on the other, and the game begins.

The balls get lobbed into cups, and after a few rounds, I realize that Dallas is throwing the game, distracted as all fuck, and Sawyer and Carter aren’t missing a damn toss, causing me to have to drink. So much for being a stress reliever. My asshole brothers are just pissing me off more.

I try to let my shit mood go and enjoy myself, but it’s difficult. I feel the moment Hannah walks downstairs, joining Kinsey, Ivy, and Blaire behind us, and my irritation over thesituation increases tenfold. Fuck all of this shit happening to her.

“Drink up, motherfucker!” Carter yells as his ball slams into another cup.

I flip them all off, knowing they were all teaming up on me and purposefully doing some shady shit.

“Fuck off! You’re a bunch of goddamn cheaters!” I yell over my shoulder, walking away from the assholes.

“How can you cheat at fuckin’ beer pong, lint licker?” Dallas yells back.

I try to tamp my frustration with my dickhead brother and join Hannah, Ivy, and Blaire off to the side. Ivy just married my older brother, Sawyer. They were childhood sweethearts until Ivy up and ran away, staying hidden for ten years. She only just returned last September, and they haven’t been apart since. He knocked her up and married her so fast our heads spun. They’re definitely making up for lost time. Something I wish I could do with Hannah.

“They’re cheats, huh?” Ivy asks.

“They’re assholes. All of them.”

“But, lint licker?” Blaire, our newest Aspen Ridge Distillery employee, asks. She works as our new event coordinator. She’s pretty damn smart-mouthed and makes us all laugh. Drives our brother Dallas insane, which cements her as irreplaceable at work, in my opinion.

Ivy covers her mouth and laughs as Sawyer walks up to her. He grabs her wrist and pulls it away from her face while saying something to her that I don’t catch. The two of them live in their own little world now, and that’s fine. We’re all happy to have Ivy back in our lives and our brother finally happy again.

“That’s Liam’s nickname. You haven’t heard it yet?” Sawyer answers the question I was dodging. I fucking hate thisnickname. My brothers are such assholes and I’m not in the mood for this shit right now.

“Apparently not, how did he get such an awful one? No offense to you and the other two, but Liam’s the most levelheaded one out of all of you, so how does he end up with the worst nickname?”

“Cause they’re all assholes and they don’t like that I’m bigger than them,” I tell Blaire, interjecting the question she posed to Sawyer. Fuck if I’m going to stand here and let him drag me through some more shit.

“Size doesn’t mean shit. How many times have I taken you? I’m happy to do it again right here.”

Finally, something tangible that I can take my frustration out on. My brothers and I have been boxing together since I was a preteen. We’ve always been extremely physical when it comes to dealing with issues, and after one good fight between my older brothers, our dad put us all in weekly boxing lessons at Knockout, run by a former professional Russian boxing champion. Sawyer practices all sorts of other shit too—Krav Maga, and MMA—and I swear he would have tried to go pro if the distillery hadn’t called us all to run the family business. I box with them since it’s all I know, but I prefer to weightlift, which puts me at an advantage when fighting these dicks.

I step into Sawyer’s space, we’re about the same height, so we’re looking eye to eye. I’ve got him in weight and muscle, but I know he’s ruthless in the ring and not to be underestimated. Good thing we’re in our parents’ basement and the rules don’t apply here.

Out of my peripheral, I see all the women take large steps back, my brother Dallas stepping to stand between them and whatever’s about to go down between me and shithead here.

“What the fuck is your problem lately? You got some shit you need to work out, then you let us know, but we’re not hereto be treated like shit by you, so what’s it goin’ to fuckin’ be?” Sawyer raises his voice directly in my face, which pisses me off more. Rage bubbles to the surface, not allowing me to back down.

Fuck this shit.

I jerk forward with my fist posed to clock him in the jaw, but I hold it back, just wanting to challenge him. Sawyer takes the bait, tackling me, bending down like a fucking linebacker, his arms wrapping around my waist and moving me back a few steps. The momentum causes my body to lean forward over his shoulder, but I use it to my advantage, throwing a punch into the soft part of his side, under his ribs.

“Get it out of your system, little brother,” Sawyer grunts out as I connect two more punches to his stomach.

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