He harrumphs and sets to work when a voice scares the shit out of me. “You can’t tell Miles about us.”
“What?” I exclaim, my head snapping over to find Maggie standing right next to me.
“You and me,” she repeats, leaning in so close her breast brushes against my arm. “You can’t tell Miles we know each other.”
“No shit,” I growl and yank my arm away from those glorious specimens that have turned me into a fucking pervert. Fucking fuck. Did I describe her tits to Miles earlier? Goddamnit, I’m a moron! “Miles is going to rip off my nuts and hang them on the trailer hitch of his truck like those assholes who drive around with bull testicles.”
“What?” she asks, her blue eyes blinking with confusion.
I shake my head. “Never mind.”
“So we’re in agreement? He doesn’t need to know that you and I have…met before.”
She stares at me with a pleading look on her face, and my adulterous gaze drops down to the swell of cleavage beneath the lace overlay of her dress. I swallow hard and quickly turn back to face forward. Just stare at the liquor bottles on the shelf, Sam. Just stare at the liquor bottles on the shelf! “We’re in agreement.”
She exhales heavily and slides onto the stool next to me. I do a jerky look over my shoulder to make sure no one is watching us. Everyone appears to be happily listening to Kate tell a story, all their eyes alight with amusement.
Through clenched teeth, I ask, “Are you going to tell me why Miles thinks you still have a boyfriend?”
She winces and looks like she’s swallowing razor blades. “I can’t tell my family that Sterling dumped me.”
“Why not?” I ask, my brow furrowing. “Miles always said his family is cool. Super supportive and shit. He calls his mom every Sunday!”
“Our family is cool,” she groans, bringing her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “They are perfect, and they are everything to me. If I tell them Sterling dumped me out of the blue on Christmas morning, they will all hate him.”
“So what?” I grind out, staring down at her hunched frame. “I think the fucker deserves to be hated.”
She turns to look at me with glassy eyes. “I can’t have them hating the man I want to marry.”
In one day, I’ve been taint-kicked and gut-punched…happy fucking birthday, Sammy. “You really want to marry him?” I groan and scrub my hand over my jaw.
She nods glumly.
The bartender hands me a bucket of beer, and with a heavy sigh, I murmur under my breath, “It’s your life, sparky.”
I stand and gesture with my head that we should go back to the group before anyone gets suspicious. We rejoin the group, and I decide that going beer for beer with Miles, who has a good three inches and thirty pounds of muscle over me, is a good idea. We clink bottles, and I do my best to forget what Maggie said at the bar and definitely forget about playing musical beds with her.
For tonight, I push aside why all of this bothers me so much. It definitely surprises me that she wants to marry that asshat. In the brief time we hung out over the past week, I got the impression she was better than that. I know I told her it was cool she was trying something different to win him back, but now knowing that she’s not just trying to get her dimwit of a football player back but plans to marry the guy—it scares me for her. And it makes me doubt everything I thought about her.
But hell, she’s not my little sister. She’s Miles’s. My best friend…in case I need reminding. And apparently, I do need reminding because I can’t stop checking her out all night. At one point, I have to squeeze past her to get around the table. Our fronts end up rubbing together, and I swear to fuck, I get a half-boner. My buddy’s little sister has turned me into a goddamned teenager, so I have a strong desire to slam my forehead into the wall until I black out.
I head downstairs to use the bathroom located in the dingy basement of Pearl’s. I’m getting drunk because this is fucking painful. The one girl I contemplate breaking my rules for ends up being the one girl I cannot touch.
On my way back up the steps, my eyes land on a sexy pair of legs covered in tights that could easily take my mind off my fishing buddy. But when I raise my gaze to her face, I’m junk punched by the stunning raven-haired, blue-eyed beauty who shares the DNA of my best friend.
“Hey,” I state, propping myself up against the wall opposite the railing to give her a wide berth. I pretend to tip a fucking hat that I’m not even wearing at her and then consider eight different ways I could dick punch myself for being so uncool.
“Heyyy,” she says slowly, pausing on the staircase and pressing her back to the wall opposite me.
Don’t stop and talk to me right now. Keep walking. The less I look at you tonight, the better.
“Listen,” she says, biting her lip and tucking her hair behind her ear. “Thanks again for not saying anything to Miles.”
I lift my palms and shrug. “There’s nothing really to say. I mean…nothing happened, and I know nothing.”
“Right,” Maggie says, nodding curiously as she stares over at me. “Are you drunk, Sam?”
“No,” I scoff and buzz my lips like a moron.
She giggles and brings her hands up to finger the necklace at her chest. And now I’m staring at her tits. Way to fucking go, Sammy.
“You seem drunk, which kind of surprises me. I would have pegged you for a guy who’s always in control.” She narrows her stunning eyes at me, and my brows lift.
“Wellllll,” I sing out in a weird, high-pitched voice, screwing my face up as I attempt to find the best words to convey my message. “When you realize the girl you went ice fishing with who has exquisite tits is the younger sister of your best buddy, alcohol just seems like the only thing to make that all less horrifying.”
She blinks at me, clearly taken off guard by my honest response. “Did you just say my tits are exquisite?”
“So not the point, sparky!” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose and throwing my head back on the wall behind me in frustration. “Maybe just keep a ten-foot radius from me for the rest of the night. It’s my birthday, and I can’t be trusted.”
She smiles, seemingly flattered by this ridiculous request. She takes a step down toward that bathroom and then looks over her shoulder. “I guess at least I now know why you seem so familiar to me. You and Miles are a lot alike.”
I nod and exhale heavily, feeling weird that she just told me I’m like her brother. “Yeah, he’s good people.”
“I completely agree,” she confirms, and then pauses for a moment, eyeing me like she wants to say something more, but then she gives up and turns on her heel to make her way down to the restrooms.
And like a fucking pervert, I stand there and check out her sexy legs in those tights for her entire walk down.
It’s midnight before everyone clears out, and I’m a little drunker than I should be. Miles throws his arm around me and walks me through the bar, going on about how much he loves me, and how he can’t wait until we’re running Tire Depot together, side by side. Kate and Maggie are just ahead of us, talking quietly like old friends, and I pray to fuck Miles doesn’t notice me checking out his sister’s ass.
“So Sam, are you going to call your fishing goddess?” Miles slurs, touching my ear with his lips and making me cringe.
“Huh?” I mumble, unabashedly pushing his face away from me. God, this fucker is a close talker when he’s drunk.
“Your fishing buddy. The one you’re going to break all your rules for.” He leans in close and whispers loudly. “Water balloon tits.”
“What’s that?” Kate asks, looking over her shoulder with wide, curious eyes.
“Nothing!” I exclaim and slam my palm over Miles’s loud fucking mouth just as Maggie looks back. I avoid eye contact, and add, “Nothing at all.”
They both turn away, and when I release Miles’s mouth, he gasps for air. “Jesus man, you were plugging my nose too!”
I wind back my elbow and jab him in the ribs. “Well, shut the fuck up then!”