Page 49 of My Brother's Best Friends

Memories of our earlier encounter flood me, and I draw a deep breath to stay anchored in the present.

“Are you okay?” I ask, standing aside to let her come in.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you the same question,” she says. “I don’t know a lot about foursomes, but I can tell you’re a little more private than your brothers.”

“Oh, I don’t know if that’s true,” I stammer. “I’ve hung around in the same room while they entertained the same woman before—it’s just—okay, that came out wrong,” I add with a nervous laugh.“I mean… Normally, I’d have no qualms whatsoever. But for my first time with you… I just wanted a little bit of privacy. You didn’t seem to mind.”

“I didn’t.”

“I actually enjoyed the intimacy.”

She nods slowly. “I just hope things are good between us…”

“Of course they are,” I assure her.

“On another note, since my brother expects us downstairs for dinner, I think I should take a shower,” she says, making no move toward her own bathroom. Ah, I see where she’s going with this.

“Maybe we should brush your hair first?” I suggest with a subtle smile.

She touches her beautifully messy mane and offers a sheepish grin. It makes me laugh outright. She nods, moving forward to sit on my bed.

“Where’s your brush?” I ask.

“In my bathroom.”

I fetch it in a heartbeat and sit beside her. Carefully, I start untangling the knots. Makayla winces, and I pause.

“Keep going,” she instructs.

“Let me know if this is hurting you,” I say.

“Oh, I’m used to this—the downside of having long, thick, wavy hair.” She pauses to look at me. “Thank you for doing this. It’s nice…”

“No problem,” I assure her. “Anyway, why would you think that about us?”

“I heard your voices,” she says.

“It’s nothing serious, Kay. We butt heads all the time. I’m pretty sure we made our mother’s pregnancy extremely uncomfortable from all the head-butting.”

She snorts, a very unladylike sound that takes me by surprise. I catch her smiling and realize that I know something my brothers don’t.

“I suppose that means you always find a resolution to your conflicts, too,” Makayla says.

“We do. It’s actually pretty cool to have three heads in the mix. One usually sees what the other two don’t,” I confide. “We even get to put things to a vote if we can’t agree.”

“It’s practically a democracy.”

“A very flawed one, but yes.”

“You guys are so different, even though you look the same,” she muses.

I continue working on her hair until it's one shimmering gold-specked waterfall. I hand the brush back, expecting her to leave. Instead, she lays her hand over mine and smiles.

“Will you help me take a shower?” she asks. “I feel so scatterbrained, I’m sure I’m going to forget something.”

“Help you shower?” I echo, certain I’ve misheard. “I’ve never heard that excuse before. Consider my interest piqued. How can I be of service?”

“I guess I need something new to wear,” she says. “It’s so hard to think right now, I can’t even begin to consider fashion choices. I guess it’s true, you really can fuck your brains out.”

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