Page 58 of Stuck with my Brother's Firefighter Besties

His brows furrowed, and he blinked sleepily at me. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” I said, forcing a smile I didn’t feel. “Just a weird text. Probably spam or something.”

He didn’t look entirely convinced, but he didn’t press me. Instead, he wrapped an arm around my waist again and kissed my shoulder lightly. “Okay. Try to relax.”

But as I lay back down, staring at the ceiling, the unease lingered.

Something about the text… it felt… wrong. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t random—that it was meant for me.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe I was overreacting. But as I closed my eyes, the words lingered in the back of my mind like a shadow I couldn’t escape.

The storm outside had passed, but inside me, another one was beginning to brew.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

Jaxon

The cabin was finallybehind us, but the tension wasn’t.

Lila sat in front of me on the ride home, pressed against the window. She was quiet—quieter than I’d seen her in days. Every so often, she’d glance at her phone, her brow furrowing like something on it was bothering her.

It wasn’t hard to guess what was going through her head.

The week had been intense, to say the least. The storm, the close quarters, the nights we’d all spent too tangled up in each other’s orbit.

And now? She probably saw it all for what it was—a vacation fling. Nothing more.

I didn’t like that.

I didn’t want to admit how much it bothered me, but damn it, it did. She was in my head in a way I hadn’t expected.

Lila Harper was complicated and messy and entirely too captivating for her own good… or for mine.

But I wasn’t the only one feeling it.

Ryan had practically been glued to her side since the storm hit. And Colt? I’d seen the way he looked at her too, like she was some wild, untouchable thing he wanted to chase down and claim.

The problem was, this wasn’t just a simple case of liking the same girl.

We were Nate’s friends. Hiscrew.And Lila? She was hissister.

The lines were a tangled, blurry mess, and it was only a matter of time before someone tripped over them.

I leaned back in my seat, forcing my eyes away from her.

This was already getting too complicated.

I didn’t need the drama—not with Nate, not with Ryan and Colt, and definitely not with Lila herself. She’d been through enough already, and the last thing she needed was some messy situation with me adding to her problems.

We might have discussed things, but it was only for that night,right?

Perhaps we should have been more specific…

But maybe it was time to step back.

Yeah. That was the smart thing to do. The right thing.

Keep my distance, keep it simple. Let her figure things out without me hovering, making it harder.

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