Page 42 of Flaunt
I suck in a breath. “You’re out of your damn mind if you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?” she asks.
Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I settle my gaze on her face.
A spattering of freckles dusts the bridge of her nose. A mole sits just below her right eye. It’s so tiny that it’s barely noticeable. It all complements the roundness of her cheeks and the soft line of her jaw.Dammit.
“I have nowhere to go, Banks,” she says.
“That sounds like ayouproblem to me.”
I refuse to say it. I’m not opening this particular can of worms even though it’s already cracked. If she wants to ask me, she’ll have to say the words.
She rolls her eyes. “Can I?”
“Can you what?”
“It will only be for a couple of weeks.”
“What will?”
“Banks,” she says, sighing. “Can I please stay at your house until the rental is vacant?”
“No.”
She throws up her hands and groans.
Maddox comes around the corner of the couch. I have half a notion to make a run for it—to jet across the lawn, dive into my house, and lock the door. But there is no privacy in this family—something I take advantage of daily. I’ve never looked at it from the position of being the one taken advantage of.Man, this sucks.
“Why won’t you help us out?” Maddox says. “I’ve helped you out a million times over the years.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Like when?”
I could easily rattle off a million and a half times when he’s helped me out over the course of my lifetime, but I need a second to think. To digest. To come up with a way out of this disaster—because it would be a disaster.
Sara and I barely got along long enough to get Ashley’s stuff from Orlando to Kismet Beach. She’s argumentative and headstrong. She’s beautiful and sexy. My attraction to this little pain in the ass grows every time I’m around her, and I’ve had enough experience with women to know that when someone drives you bananas from the beginning, you just walk away.
In this case, I need torunaway.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Maddox says.
I groan. “She can’t live with me.”
“It’s notliving with you,” Ashley says, coming to Maddox’s side. “It’s visiting you for a couple of weeks.”
I glance at Sara. “It’s the same thing.”
Sara sighs. “I can’t stay here, Banks. I’m making them miserable. That’s makingmemiserable.”
“So you want to spread the misery to me?”
Ashley looks sweetly at Sara. “You arenotmaking us miserable.”
“You’re newlyweds and were being overly gracious to me in the first place,” Sara says. “I can’t extend this. It would be totally unfair, and I’d be a jerk, and despite what some people think, I’m not a jerk. Or I try not to be, anyway.”
My heart pounds as I turn to my brother. He gives me the only look I didn’t want to see—the one of disappointment.
I run my fingers through my hair and pace in a circle. Why did I come over here? Why couldn’t I just stay at home and sign the invoices I brought back from the shop? Or something.
