Page 41 of My Best Friend's Grump Brother

He grimaced from his seat. “Don’t say that. If I had it my way, she would be in Catholic school with the nuns until the mature age of 39.”

I snickered under my breath. “And what does Claire have to say to that?”

“My wife doesn’t understand how these little dogs behave. I refuse to have my daughter corrupted. I was young once, too.”

I threw my head back and let out a boisterous laugh.

“She even has this little boy who gives her flowers every day after school—Jason. The little shit had the audacity to come up to me and asked me to marry her next week at recess.”

“Don’t tell me you’re fighting with a six-year-old child, Sebastian.” Daniel mused.

Seb looked at his best friend through the rearview mirror. “He’s a little shit. He said that she will love him more than me. Who does he think he is?”

“Your future son-in-law, of course,” Arthur pushed his buttons further.

One thing about Sebastian was that he loved his daughter fiercely. There was not a force on this earth strong enough to tear him away from his little girl.

“Do you want me to throw you out of this car?”

Arthur laughed, and the two went back and forth some more. I loved how easy-going and familiar this all felt. These men were all a part of my family—my chosen family.

“I had thought that living with you in the same city would mean that I would bump into you at least once or twice.” Xander’s breath brushed my ear. “Are you hiding from me, Abrams?”

I turned my head to the side and gazed into his eyes. It was natural for me and Xander to fall into this flirtatious exchange. “Not hiding, you’re just not looking hard enough.”

“Oh, trust me,” his eyes flicked down to my lips, “I’ve been looking, firecracker.”

I didn’t miss the little snort that came from beside me.

Xander either didn’t hear him, or he didn’t care. “You’ve gotten hotter since the last time I saw you.”

“Thanks, I lightened my hair a bit.”

“I love it; with your natural red, you are red-hot, baby girl,” he said as he bit his lip.

The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago. I was in the club with an old co-worker, and we had gotten into it again. I immediately regretted it, that had been the last time I had let this man near my vagina.

“And you seem to be balding a bit?” He wasn’t, but I loved to irk him. “Got singed one too many fires?”

Xander rolled his eyes. “Very funny. You wish your hair could be as luscious as mine. It’s okay, Sel, I will teach you my ways. You need not fear.”

“Okay, simmer down there, buddy boy.”

His smile sobered a little, and his eyes turned soft, “I have missed you though, firecracker. Life just hasn’t been the same.”

Xander was one of the biggest fuck boys I had met in my entire life, but he had a heart of gold. He didn’t need to work as a fireman. His trust fund was large enough to sustain him for decades to come, but he loved helping people, and it was one of the many reasons I had been drawn to him in the first place.

I sighed dramatically, “Okay, I may have missed you a little bit.”

His lips turned up one side into a cocky smirk, “I knew you loved me.”

“Love?”

“I mean, you like me enough to allow me to stick my tongue in your—ow!” I smacked him on the face.

My cheeks flushed as I looked around the car at the other three males who had been listening to our conversation. It was no secret that Xander and I had…relations, but I didn’t need him announcing those said relations to the entire car.

“How about some music?” Seb spoke into the thick silence that had fallen over us. He turned on the radio and started playing some soft pop song that I was unfamiliar with but would have welcomed any form of distraction.

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