Page 2 of Flynn

I only wished there had been photos attached, it was weird that there weren’t.

Okay, please cut it out with the judging. I can practically hear people clutching their pearls or laughing manically. I knew it wasn’t a smart idea, but at the time, desperation and wine had convinced me it was the perfect solution!

Addition to List of Awkward Truths

Rented a fake non-refundable boyfriend for the entirety of the wedding celebration.

Sofia and Ellis’s wedding was in five days, and we were all here at the resort to enjoy pre-wedding festivities before the big day. Most of the guests would not be arriving until day three or four.

At present—besides immediate family—the only other guests here were the wedding party, including Sofia’s other bridesmaid, Kate.

Sofia, Ellis, Chloe, Kate and I all grew up in the same small town.

Ellis lived across the street from me growing up. Sofia and Chloe were sisters, and they lived a few blocks away next to their neighbor, Kate. We had been inseparable, and where one of us was, you would almost certainly always find the rest. When Ellis and I started dating, we were sixteen, and honestly, I’d only done it because it was expected. For years my friends had teased me saying how cute we were together, how it was inevitable we’d end up together. So, when we’d kissed one night after playing spin the bottle and he asked me out a few days later, I’d said yes.

But the chemistry had never been there.

A few months out of high school, we broke up. I’d ended things when he started getting pushy about sex. It’s not that I didn’t want to try having sex, but there’d always been this stone in my stomach at the thought of sleeping with Ellis, and I just couldn’t do it. I’d grown up with incredibly strict parents with rules and values instilled in me that I struggled to weigh against my own desires and moral compass. I wasn’t the rebelling kind as a kid. I didn’t drink or smoke. I snuck out a handful of times and only one of those resulted in what they would consider unscrupulous behavior.

It was the night of my first kiss when I was sixteen.

But sleeping with a boy I wasn’t even sexually attracted to wasn’t going to happen. A few months later, I started dating someonenew, a guy from my college, and I ended up sleeping with him just to get it over with. No, it wasn’t love, but I’d still felt more chemistry with him than I ever had with Ellis. That relationship had died after about six months.

I was just reaching for my phone to see if my hired guy was on his way when a shadow fell over me.

“Hey.”

An automatic and welcoming smile was already on my face as I lifted my head to greet whoever it was when my breath caught and my head spun. I hadn’t expected to seehimhere. He and Ellis hadn’t spoken in years. They were on the outs last I checked. But here he was, both arms covered in tattoos and a black tee stretched over his wide chest and shoulders. His hair was still thick and dark, his eyes that same emerald-green I remembered. I hadn’t seen him since he was eighteen—a boy in the process of becoming a man—heading off to join the Army as a last-ditch effort to get his life on track.

“Flynn,” I whispered in shock.

That crooked, tempting smirk tugged at his full lips and several sex-deprived parts of me sat up and paid attention.

“Good to see you, Ara.”

“Uh...” My brain short-circuited. Flynn was theonlyperson who had ever given me a nickname because my parents demanded everyone call me Chiara, no nicknames permitted. It was so strange to hear him say it again after thirteen years. “Wha...what are you doing here?”

He cocked an eyebrow and I wanted to smile at the familiar expression.

Shaking my head at myself, I stood. “I mean, you’re Ellis’s cousin, of course you’re here. But I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t see your name on the seating chart, and no one told me you’d be attending. I thought that news would have been big.”

Ellis’s father—Trevor—had adopted Flynn when he was almostsixteen after his parents had died in a car wreck. Everyone knew the adoptive brothers had gotten into a massive fight years ago and hadn’t spoken since. Ellis and I had been at the end of our relationship when the two of them had gotten into it. I’d thought Flynn would be staying home after returning from his first deployment, but he’d almost immediately reenlisted. I always wondered if Flynn and Ellis’s fight had something to do with it. I’d asked his aunt and uncle about him here and there, but they didn’t say much, just that he was safe—and honestly—that had been all I’d needed to know.

Flynn had lived across the street from me for a little over two years, and while I knew he’d opened up to me more than he did a lot of people, we hadn’t exactly been close. Still, I’d worried about him. It was hard not to when thoughts of him always brought with it the memory of the last time I’d seen him in his dimly lit bedroom all those years ago.

Flynn took the seat opposite me as I sat back down, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking all of him in. He had always been hot and had that bad-boy edge as a teenager, but as a fully grown adult, complete with a litany of tattoos and facial hair, the man was freaking sexy.

“You’re right. Ellis and I aren’t in a good place, but I received a last-minute invitation I just couldn’t refuse,” he answered. The deep cadence of his voice sent a shiver of anticipation through me, and I had to force myself to push past it.

“Oh, from who?” I asked, struggling to bring up a mental image of the seating chart so I could figure out where to put him.

“You.”

His response took several moments to sink in, and when it did, my brows drew together. Me? I didn’t invite him; I had no power to add guests to the list.

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