Page 5 of Fluke
I shove his arm and immediately regret the decision.
The contact is akin to touching a piece of metal after shuffling across the carpet in clean socks. Despite the jolt of energy, my hand remains on his solid bicep for a moment longer than necessary.
Jess laughs, the sound taking up the space between us as I withdraw my touch.
I’ve known Jess and his brothers most of my life, thanks to my brother, Greg. Dad didn’t give his only son much of a choice. He was going to carry on the family legacy and become a wrestler. It turns out that wrestling is a very,verysmall world, and the Carmichaels were a permanent fixture in that landscape.
I spent countless weekends traveling to tournaments as a young girl, watching Greg do his thing. As we grew older, my brother and Jess became best friends. And when we all graduated from high school, Greg went to college on a course for med school, and I followed the year after. Jess stayed behind.
Since then, I’ve loosely kept up with the Carmichaels through social media and saying hello on occasions when we bump into one another somewhere. But because I made it a point not to come back to this area, mostly to avoid my parents until I moved back last week, I haven’t had an opportunity to really talk to any of them in a long time.
“When did you get here?” I ask, imploring my cheeks to cool.
“We’ve been here—what? Ten minutes?” He looks across the table. “Is that about right, Banks?”
A shorter, darker-headed version of Jess shrugs. “Probably. Hey, Pippa.”
“Hi, Banks.”
“Kerissa,” he says, nodding warily.
“Banks.” She lifts a brow and turns her back to him.
Jess and I laugh at the two of them still holding a grudge that’s years in the making—even though I’m almost positive that if Kerissa would give up her end of the beef, so would Banks. He’s stubborn, but fighting probably takes away from the attention value he could get from actually being able to talk to her.
If I remember one thing about Banks Carmichael, it’s that he loves attention.
“What have you been up to?” I ask, ignoring the strong pulse of my heart. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Not much. Working a lot.”
“Do you still work for your dad?”
He nods. “I’m running a crew now, and my brother Moss is running the other. The old man is keeping us pretty busy.”
“What about you, Banks?” I ask. “What have you been up to?”
“Looking for a new best friend. Are you in the hunt for one?”
Kerissa’s head whips around to his. “No. She absolutely is not.”
“I didn’t ask you,” he says, narrowing his eyes at her.
She narrows hers right back.
Banks does the only thing to make things worse—he grins. This only causes the flames shooting out of Kerissa’s head to grow hotter.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room,” Kerissa says, giving Banks a final glare. “I’ll be back, Pip.”
She storms off toward the back of the building.
“That’s funny,” Jess says, tipping his beer toward his brother. “Banks was just about to go to the truck to get his wallet.”
Banks flinches. “I was?”
“You were.” Jess lifts a brow. “Sogo get it.”
“Fine,” Banks says, sighing dramatically as he gets up from the table. “I’ll go get my wallet even though it’s not like I’m going to pay anyway.”
