Page 84 of Just a Little White Lie

It’s nearly impossible to fight my grin.

Lauren’s my girlfriend!

But raging Luke with his hands on his hips and his scowl aimed at Lauren is keeping my lips from curling up.

“Get off him!” he barks at her, and I want to bite back.

Stop shouting at her!

Lauren rolls her eyes, and I love the way she’s so unperturbed by her brother’s fury. “Luke, I’m a grown woman. I can sit on whoever the hell I want to.”

“Not my best friend you can’t!” He pulls her back, forcing her to lose her balance.

“Hey!” I catch her before she can hit the floor, then throw Luke a warning glare that even he can’t ignore.

Stepping back with a huff, he crosses his arms. “This isn’t helping her. She needs to stay focused. Do you have any idea how much money she owes my parents? I’m trying to keep her on track here.”

“She is on track.” I stand, using my height to push Luke back another step.

Unfortunately, my best friend, the pit bull, doesn’t budge. He puffs out his chest and continues to snap and snarl.

“You’re not using my sister for a bit of fun. Grow up, Jack!” Luke points at her. “I told you to stay out of each other’s room. Didn’t I say that?”

“You’re not the boss of us!” Her voice pitches, and it’s kind of unfortunate that she’s sounding like a petulant teenager right now.

It doesn’t help that Luke is acting the part of Daddy dearest to perfection. “This is my house!”

“And we’re paying rent to be here!” she shouts back.

“You arebarelypaying rent.”

“That’s beside the point,” I cut in. “She’s twenty-six. You can’t treat her like a child.”

“When she acts like child, I can treat her like one.” Luke scowls up at me.

I mirror his expression, not even feeling bad for going behind his back on this one. He’s acting like a douche, yelling and carrying on this way.

Sure, I get why he’s annoyed. I’ve crossed a line, and we should probably talk about that. But not like this.

Not with him harping on and barking in Lauren’s face.

Her expression right now is slaying me. His words are cutting deep, and her sad sigh as she points to the door makes my chest hurt.

“Get out of my room,” she mutters to Luke.

“After you,” he snaps at me.

I turn to face Lauren, silently asking how we should play this.

But Luke’s growling like some threatened dog, and her eyes jump to him. “Stop being such a prick! I like Jack, okay? A lot! I like kissing him, I like dancing with him, I like hanging out with him. You can’t control this aspect of my life.”

My insides stir with pleasure. It’s kinda nice hearing those words coming out of her mouth.

What’s not nice is seeing Luke’s reaction to them.

An incredulous frown is making his sharp features twist in weird ways. He almost looks like a cartoon villain as he points at his sister. “Mum and Dad put me in charge of you. They told me to get you on the straight and narrow! I’m just doing what they want. I’m trying to help you!”

“I’m not taking her off the straight and narrow,” I argue. It’s hard not to be insulted right now. “Come on, man. What the hell do you think of me?”

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