Page 21 of Unrequited (Unrequited 1)

She giggled. “No. Only high school.” Yael yanked at her hand, causing her to stumble and giggle harder. “Bye. Nice meetin’ you!”

When they were gone and all was quiet, Diego grinned at me. “I like her.”

I did too. I was fucking drawn to her. But she was seventeen, eighteen if I was lucky, and I was twenty-five. Any attraction I felt was a dead end.

“She seems nice. They both do,” I said, non-committal.

He opened the fridge and pulled out a few bottles of water. “But…?”

“Young,” was all I said, accepting the water.

“Not for me.”

That was true. Diego was only nineteen. They were pretty well matched in that arena. But the idea of Maeve being interested in him crawled under my skin.

“Mo said they’re off limits,” I reminded him.

He rolled a bottle across his forehead. “I know, man. But Mo doesn’t know me well. You do. You know I’d never mistreat a girl or anything.”

Diego had never had it easy, but the kid was good. Better than most. I’d never known him to so much as hurt a damn fly.

“I know. Just...be cool about it, okay?”

He laughed, patting my back. “I’m always cool.”

This was the right thing. The girl was too young, too rich, too sweet for the likes of me. But if she liked Diego, I’d be happy for them. That’s what big brothers did.

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