Page 22 of My Brother's Teammates

“I’m sorry.”

He held open his arms. “Need a hug?”

I groaned and shook my head even as I started down the stairs. Even when Jason got on my nerves, he gave the best hugs and he really was the best big brother. He always had been. I was repaying him by hooking up with his best friends behind his back.

“Come here, kid.” He met me at the bottom of the stairs and wrapped me in a bear hug. “What’s going on with you? More bullshit with the ex you won’t tell me about?”

I breathed in his familiar scent and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

He picked me up, still in that bear hug, and walked me to the living room while I groaned and complained that he was squishing me. “I ordered Chinese food. Hudson picked a movie. And the Grumpy Twins graced us with their presence while we did everything. Would you care to join us for a fucked-up family movie night?”

He put me down next to Hudson and pressed his hand against my forehead until I fell back on the couch. I grunted as I landed and frowned at him. “You’re not too old for me to tell Dad on you.”

Hudson got up and stretched. “Anyone need anything from the kitchen?”

I tried to send a silent message to him that I wanted more candy. He quirked an eyebrow at me. I sighed and waved him off. “I’m good.”

“Did you mention to Jason what happened last night?” Ryder stretched his legs out in front of him and watched me with an intense stare that made me squirm.

***Jenny***

Ryder’squestionregisteredandI choked like the loser I was. It wasn’t a pretty choking, either. Not that choking was typically pretty, but I could feel my face go tomato red and my eyes watered while I coughed and gagged on literally air and spit. By the time I was breathing normally again, I had all four guys around me, trying to decide whether they should call 911 or perform CPR on me.

“You’re not doing mouth to mouth on my sister, you dick.” Jason clearly saw a flaw in the CPR plan, but just not the important one.

Hudson scowled. “Well, do you want to do it?”

Jason gagged. “God, no. That’s my little sister.”

“She doesn’t need CPR, assholes. She’s needs the thing where you stand behind her and thrust-”

“Excuse me?” Jason’s voice went shrill as he cut Axel off. “You want to thrust at my sister while she’s choking to death?”

“Goddammit, Jace, not like that. You know? When you do the thing…?” Axel held his hands out in front of him and tried to mimic the Heimlich maneuver but just ended up looking like he was trying to screw someone.

“No, it’s CPR. Let’s just do CPR.” Hudson slapped Axel’s hands down. “Stop fucking my air space, pervert.”

“You’re the one trying to make out with a choking woman.” Axel slapped Hudson’s hands back. “Pervert.”

I watched them, wondering when they’d actually try to save me or realize that I was fine. I jumped when Ryder sat down next to me. “Sorry. I was afraid someone had finally decided to hump me or drool into my mouth.”

He wagged his eyebrows in an uncharacteristic display. “Why choose just one when you could have both?”

I knew he was talking about the humping or the drooling, but my entire face and neck heated when I thought about my brother’s best friends. I primly folded my hands in my lap and pretended I wasn’t sitting next to the man I’d begged to fuck me that morning.

“I meant about the groping at the party.” Ryder was staring at my mouth as he spoke. “Axel and I spoke about it. The parties have to be finished here at the house.”

I turned to face him and put my finger over my ear facing the guys still arguing about how to save me. “You don’t have to do that. I have a plan now. I’m just never going to leave my room until I find another apartment. Simple, huh?”

“Not that simple.” He frowned up at his friends and looked back at me. “It’s fine. The parties are always happening somewhere. Jason could find one every night of the week if he wanted to.”

“What about Axel and Hudson? It doesn’t make sense that three of the roommates want the parties and you would call them off because of me.”

Ryder’s gaze was anything but icy then. “Seems everyone else in this house has kitten fever. No one wants to party when they could play with a kitten instead.”

My mouth hung open in what I’m sure was a very cute display of all my teeth, every single one of them. I took my glasses off and held them out to Jason, who took them without comment. When he handed them back to me, I somehow felt like that would help me hear better. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“You heard me.” Pointing to Jason, Ryder frowned and tilted his head. “He just cleaned your glasses in the middle of arguing about how to save your life because he thinks you’re still choking to death. That’s what happened, right?”

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