Page 80 of The Other Side

Brett squinted, taking a closer look at her. “What’s wrong? You’re acting different.”

She was walking without the crutches now, but that wasn’t the change he noticed now. She almost looked nervous.

She waved her hand in the air, and her smile was definitely fake. It wasn't anything like the sweet smile she gave him when she laughed at his crazy jokes. “I’m not acting weird. Nothing is weird.”

Then she looked at the floor, covering her eyes with a hand.

Brett looked down, then at his shirt draped over the back of the couch. At least he was wearing gym shorts. “I’m not naked, Thea.”

She didn’t look up or uncover her eyes. “I know. It’s just that I haven’t seen your hot cowboy muscles before, and wow.”

Brett threw his head back and laughed. This wasn’t the way he expected their Sunday morning to start, but boy was it a nice surprise. “I’m glad you like what you see.”

Thea lifted her gaze and uncovered her eyes. The cute scowl was anything but menacing. “Stop it. You know you’re good looking. Quit flaunting your sexiness.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. “You’re right. I’ll just turn off the sexy.”

“Good,” Thea said. His joke seemed to fuel her fire. “Please put those incredible chest muscles away.”

Brett gave her a friendly salute as she set off toward the bathroom. “Yes, ma’am.”

She closed the door a little too quickly. If Hadley wasn’t up before, she would be now.

He grabbed his shirt off the back of the couch and pulled it on. Note to self: tease Thea with “cowboy muscles” as often as possible.

Hadley knew to stall Thea as much as possible this morning. With her sprained ankle almost healed, she was hard to keep up with. Her follow-up with the doctor had gone as well as could be expected. She could bear weight on her ankle, but she hadn’t been released to fly.

Brett jogged to the truck and blazed a hot trail for his cabin. The unspoken conversation he needed to have with Thea was never far from his mind, but he had no problem running away from it or offering up distractions.

Not that his surprise for the morning was a distraction. He was actually hoping to gain some wisdom that hadn’t shown up yet.

Barging into the cabin, he paused just inside the door. Linc stood in the kitchen holding a cup of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other. He didn’t even look up from the screen.

“Earth to Linc.”

Linc raised his head, looking completely bored. “Yeah.”

“What are you doing?”

“Texting.”

Brett closed the door and studied his roommate with narrowed eyes. “With who?”

“Whom,” Lind retorted.

“Whom is not a name. Who are you texting? You never text me,” Brett said, clutching the collar of his shirt.

Linc rolled his eyes and pocketed his phone. “None of your business.”

Brett growled and pulled at his hair. Linc literally made him want to pull his hair out.

But it was such nice hair. He conditioned regularly. Maybe it would be better to pull Linc’s hair out instead.

“Why are you the way you are?”

Linc shrugged, giving nothing away.

Brett tensed his jaw. Making friends was his specialty. Why was Linc such a hard one to crack? “Got it. I’ll just go pretend it doesn’t hurt my feelings that you’re texting someone. I’m going to start sending you memes again.”

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