Page 69 of Stuck with my Brother's Firefighter Besties

It wasn’t just the way she looked or how her smile lit up a room, although, yeah, those things hit me harder than I liked to admit.

It was the way she made mefeel.

Like I could be whole.

But I wasn’t the only one tangled up in this mess.

Colt was just as on edge, his usual charm cracking around the edges, pounding the punching bag way too hard, as Jaxon lifted far too much weight.

The gym didn’t seem to be burning off as much energy as usual.

“So, Colt,” Jaxon said, his tone grim, “how was your date with Lila?”

The weights hit the rack with a loud clank as Jaxon sat up, wiping the sweat from his brow. I froze mid-lunge, my stomach twisting at the question.

He shrugged, but I caught the flicker of something in his expression.

Guilt.

“It was good,” Colt said, his voice nonchalant, but there was a hint of defiance in his tone.

Jaxon’s jaw tightened. “Good? That’s it? Because the way you’ve been walking around with that smug grin tells me it was a hell of a lot more than just ‘good.’”

I stepped back from the bag, my heart pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with the workout.

“What the hell does that mean?” I demanded, and it came out sharper than I intended.

Colt’s gaze flicked to me, then back to Jaxon. “It means we had a good time, all right? She came back to my place afterward.”

The room went silent, the air heavy with unspoken tension.

My hands curled into fists at my sides, and I saw Jaxon’s jaw clench so hard I thought his teeth might crack.

“You didn’t think to tell us?” Jaxon asked, his voice dangerously low.

Colt straightened, a defensive edge creeping into his posture. “What’s there to tell? We went out, we had fun. She wanted to be there, and so did I.”

“Damn it, Colt,” I growled, stepping forward. “We talked about this. If this thing with her is going to go anywhere, we have to be on the same page. All of us. Or have you forgotten what happened last time?”

Carly.

She was sweet and adventurous, the kind of person who saw the good in everything. Colt met her first, but she and I had a connection, too.

Sharing had seemed like the best way to go about things.

But beneath the surface, cracks had been forming.

The problem wasn’t her… it was us.

Colt had always been impulsive, diving headfirst into things without stopping to think about the consequences. I was the opposite: careful to the point of hesitation. We didn’t talk, and it just got messy.

Just likethiswas about to get messy.

Colt was being reckless. We didn’t even know what to do about Nate.

It was all just such a mess.

Colt’s eyes darkened, and for a moment, I thought he might lash out. But then his shoulders dropped slightly, and he let out a frustrated sigh.

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