Page 16 of Wrecked Rose

“How could I forget? You’re practically family, sis.” I try to make amends by giving her a cute little wink.

She sticks her tongue out at me. “Funny.”

“You wanna talk about your relationship with my brother?”

Her eyes bug out. “Nope. Gotta go.”

I chuckle as she scurries away. I have no doubt she and my brother will end up getting hitched and making some beautiful little Beau-and-Lyla clones someday. I always know how to get her to back off, though. She’s occasionally nervous about the status of their relationship, no matter how much he reassures her. If I had a mother like hers, I’d question people being nice to me, too, so I guess I can’t blame her.

That was actually kind of shitty of me to bring up so that I didn’t have to share with her what’s going on with me. Now I feel like an asshole.

With a sigh, I make a mental note to apologize to her later and get back to literally beating my body into submission in order to turn my brain off.

A jillion reps of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and circuits through the weight machines later, I look up to see my brother hanging out at the door watching me. I mop my face with a towel, then throw it over into the hamper before crossing the gym to him.

He’s leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed over his massive chest. “You’re working out awfully hard lately.”

“Since when is that a problem?” I grunt.

“Damn, bro. No need to verbally slap at me.”

“Sorry,” I huff. “Really, I am. I’m irritated.”

“At what?”

I give a half-smile. “Myself.”

“Anything I need to know about? Your grades okay? Everything’s looking good for baseball season, right?”

“Yeah. It’s dumb stuff. Girls. You know how it is.”

“Sounds like somebody needs to get laid.” He coughs to hide his amusement.

Maybe.“Might help.” I work my jaw back and forth. “I’ve been thinking maybe I need to slow my roll with all the ladies. Find one person I like and see what an actual relationship is like.” Oh, brain. That was cute, sliding in thepersoninstead ofgirl.

“The fuck? Seriously?” His eyes narrow.

“What can I say? Watching the rest of you settling down is making me think twice about everything.”

“Eh, don’t let that bother you. You should sample what’s out there until you find the one who steals your comic books and your damn heart.”

“Ha-ha. That’s you with the comic collection, and Lyla stealing your heart, not mine.”

He winks at me. “You know what I mean, though. Play the field while you still can. I’m done with that. For good.”

I shake my head, giving him a grin. “Yeah. It’s pretty obvious. You’re not worried about whether it’ll last?”

“Nah. I have no need or desire to look elsewhere. Why throw away perfection?”

I snort. “Don’t let Lyla hear you fucking say that, man. I swear, she already keeps your balls in a jar somewhere.”

“She can have ’em as long as I can have her.”

Oof.Disgusting love. I bend over to pick up my T-shirt and pull it on. It immediately sticks to my sweaty torso. I smell rank and need a shower in a bad way.

Beau gestures over his shoulder to the theater room across the hall. “You want to do a movie marathon after you de-stink yourself?”

“Oh. Uh, maybe. What were you thinking?” Trying to keep my jaw from tensing, I shrug.

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