“Why is your relationship strained with your parents?” Chase asks.
“They don’t support my career choice. According to them, I have no business pursuing aman’scareer. They think something is wrong with me because I love cars and racing. And the worst part is my dad’s a mechanic. He’s the one who taught me to love cars.”
“That sucks,” Ash says. “What about siblings?”
“I have a brother and a sister. They followed traditional career paths that my parents deemed appropriate. Nora is a teacher, and Roane is a dentist.”
I wince and shake my head. “I’d much rather stick my hands under the hood of a car any day over someone’s mouth.”
“Right?” Sophia chuckles, and my chest tightens. I prefer to hear her laughing over yelling at me.
She adjusts in her chair and her leg brushes against mine. My mouth runs dry as my body recalls how those legs felt wrapped around me.
If I don’t put some distance between us this weekend, things are going to get heated really fast.
Something tells me that no matter what I do to avoid Sophia, my brothers are going to push her in my path.
Chapter14
Small places plus forced romance equals excessive tension.
Sophia
There are two one-room cabins, each with one bed.
There are five of us.
This doesn’t quite add up.
I turn to face the men. They’re standing in a row like they didn’t know this was going to be a problem. I can tell by the looks on Chase’s and Ash’s faces that they knew this about our sleeping situation before we left Ohio. Garret? I’m not so sure about. Mac, on the other hand, looks genuine in his ignorance.
“So, what are the sleeping arrangements?” I ask.
“Well,” Chase gives me one of his flirty grins, “Garret, Ash, and I will share one cabin, and you and Mac can take the other.”
I stifle a groan and rub the bridge of my nose. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Would you rather shack up with one of us?” Ash grins and waggles his brows.
“No!” Mac’s voice thunders, and I can feel the vibrations all the way over here. All three of his brothers laugh.
“That’s what we thought.” Chase slaps Mac on the back as he heads toward the cabin closest to him. “They’re identical inside, so we’ll take this one. You two can getcozyin that one.” He winks at me as he points to the cabin set back in the trees. “Ash, you wanna grab the sleeping bags?”
“Yep, on it.” Ash rushes back to the truck to grab the bags. Garret follows to help.
I turn to Mac and take in his worried expression. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and stares at the ground.
“You okay with this?” he asks, unable to look me in the eye.
“Do I have a choice?”
“You could always sleep under the stars.” He gives me a sheepish smile.
I know he’s only kidding, but it still irritates me. This is his brothers’ doing. I’m ninety-nine percent positive Mac didn’t know this would happen.
“Or you could,” I say with enough venom behind each word that he flinches.
He kicks a rock with his toe and heads toward his truck. “I’ll get our bags. Why don’t you go check out the cabin?”