Page 37 of Starfish and Coffee
“You want me to do your back next?” Holly offered graciously. “Or will Matt do it for you later?”
“I’m not hanging out with him tonight.”
“What?” Holly craned her neck to look up at him. “Are you fighting?”
“No, we’re just cooling off a little.” Alex hated the pang of loss just saying those words caused. Warning bells were going off everywhere. He needed Matt too much, thought about him too often, and made too many little mistakes when he was around. “We both need to start thinking straight again.”
Holly laughed. “The last thing you two do when you’re together isthink straight.”
“Well, yeah, exactly.” Alex shook his head. “Frank caught us touching this morning in the back parking lot. Right there in the open. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just lose my mind when I’m around him.”
“Touching how?”
“I was holding his hand, looking at his wrist.”
“That’s not that odd.”
Alex snorted. “Straight guys don’t hold hands, Hol. You spend too much time in Key West and South Beach with me.”
“As long as you weren’t skipping together.”
“Very funny.” He rubbed extra hard to make his point, but all it earned him was a pleased moan from Holly.
He was still taking out his frustrations on Holly’s back, which was turning out to be mutually beneficial, when the front door opened. Holly jolted in a rare show of nervousness, dropping the bottle of baby oil she’d been holding for him.
Holly gasped when Will walked in. She pushed Alex off her, one arm across her bare breasts as she struggled to get up. The second her feet hit the floor, her heel caught on the oil. She promptly slipped and ended up flat on her ass while Alex sat there gaping at the disaster. Holly’s shin had smacked against the coffee table on the way down, which made it all the more painful to watch. She forgot about her tits to grab her leg in pain.
“What the hell?” Alex scrambled to get off the couch, not sure what to do first. There was still oil spilling all over the floor, and Holly was sprawled out on her ass. He ignored the oil when he saw the way she was clutching at her shin. “Are you bleeding?”
“I don’t know.” Holly let out a pained whine, making it obvious she was near tears. “Oh my God, ow!”
“Just back off, Alex,” Will snapped furiously. “I think you’ve done enough.”
Alex turned to look up at his brother incredulously as Will stormed over to them. “You saw what happened. I hadnothingto do with this.”
“You haveeverythingto do with this,” Will said with a low growl as he dropped his backpack and crouched on the other side of Holly. “Lemme see it.”
Holly pressed her chest against her raised thighs and rested her forehead against her knees as she mumbled, “I need my shirt.”
Instead of questioning her sudden shyness when Holly had been lying out naked in the backyard for years, Alex grabbed her shirt for her. She did an awkward shimmy into the tank top that didn’t really leave much to the imagination anyway. Putting it on was pointless, especially considering they’d both seen everything she had to offer—many times.
“It’s bleeding,” Will announced and then slid his arm under her knees to pick her up as he glared at Alex. “Be good for something. Clean up the oil.”
Holly tried to struggle out of Will’s hold, but he’d have none of it. Bigger than Alex, he stood with her in his arms, bearing Holly’s weight easily despite her colorful complaints against it.
“Why do I feel like I’ve fallen into an alternate reality?” Alex asked as he watched his brother carry Holly toward the kitchen.
Neither of them answered him. They were having their own battle over Will’s determination to be the big, growling alpha male of the house. Alex considered it a minor miracle he managed to keep his opinions to himself as he picked up the oil bottle and just dropped a beach towel over the mess to prevent anyone else from slipping on it.
He walked into the kitchen, finding Holly sitting on the table, with Will in a chair in front of her, cleaning her bleeding shin. “How bad is it?”
“Why do you give a fuck?” Will asked angrily. “This is the first night you’ve been home in a month.”
“I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been that long.” Alex was trying very hard not to lose his temper. “Anyways, what does it matter? I’m still paying the bills. What’s got your panties in a wad?”
“It matters because you’ve been so busy with your boyfriend Matt Tarrington that you haven’t bothered to notice Holly’s been stuck in this house for a month. Her car’s broken again, and her best friend doesn’t spend any time with her.” Will cast him another furious glare. “Now all of a sudden you’re pretending to care. Fuck off, Alex.”
Alex held up his hands, stunned from the attack.
