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“So.” He turned to face me, looking down at his ice cream, then tossing it over the wall and onto the sand. Hunter wiped his hands on a paper serviette and then stared into my eyes. “You want to know what’s going on?”

“Everyone’s been weird since Millie asked you guys to be my date.” The words just came tumbling out, the darkness helping me say what was on my mind. “If you don’t want to do this?—”

“That’s not it.”

“If it’s awkward?—”

“Oh, it’s plenty awkward.” He smiled then, his teeth almost as bright as the moon. “Taking a girl to a restaurant where I can’t read the menu? Pretty damn awkward. But…”

I sucked in a breath, ready to propose another possible reason, but he shook his head as his hand slid my way. It was warm, massive, strong, and I could feel the stickiness of where the ice cream had melted on his skin, but only dimly. His eyes were grey in the darkness and yet still they pierced through the gloom, straight into me.

“What possible reason could there be for things changing between all of us, Jamie?” he asked, a strange edge to his voice. “Why would we sign up for something if it made us uncomfortable?”

“Because Millie asked you…”

But as soon as I said that, I knew that wasn’t true. She nagged them mercilessly, and they only said yes when it suited them. He shook his head, as if acknowledging just that.

“That’s not it.”

So try again, Jamie, that went unspoken.

“Because you’re good guys? What am I saying? You guys can be total dicks. Because I needed help?” I searched his face and saw him shrug slightly. “Because you knew how much my parents bug me and you didn’t want me to have to deal with that?”

“And why would we do that, Jamie?” he asked. “I wanna say men are better than they are, that they help girls out from the goodness of their heart, but…”

It was on the tip of his tongue and mine, and that had me remembering the feel of Hayden’s and Brock’s when we kissed. They’d left a mark on me, both of them and yet I still felt incomplete. Lost, buffeted around by the wind, it was as if gravity no longer had a hold on me. I could be picked up and blown away, I thought.

Perhaps a better fate than this.

My brows jerked down and I felt ice cream running down over my hand, threatening to drip on this pretty dress, but I couldn’t move to stop it.

“Guys don’t take their sister’s friends to dinner out of pity, Jamie. Brock didn’t take you back to his place for a family therapy session. Hayden made sure to take you somewhere that would make him look good, strong, competent, and I…” He reached for me, but I flinched back, because all the good feeling of tonight was being whisked away by the wind. “I pulled out all the stops, trying to make a night special for you, and despite the fact, I failed miserably.”

He shook his head.

“I still tried. More than I have with any girl before, because… If you had a good time, if I swept you off your feet, if you were thinking I was hot and suave and sophisticated instead of a dickhead carpenter in a suit that really is not very comfortable.” He wrenched at his tie, loosening it and then undid his top buttons. “Maybe you’d see me and not Millie’s brother.”

“Why would you want me to do that?” I croaked out.

“Because I stopped seeing you as my sister’s friend a long time ago. So did Hayden, and so did Brock. You stopped being a little brat and became…” Hopelessness and desire warred in his gaze as he took me in, I could see that now. “You became a beautiful woman. One that’s funny, and smart, and capable, and strong, and I just… Hayden just… All of us have been into you for some time. I think we were just waiting for you to notice us in the same way. As men, Jamie. As potential partners.”

That word, that’s what had me jumping off the car and dumping my ice cream into the nearby bin as he called my name. I scrubbed at my hands with the serviette, but it just balled up into a sticky mess. I made an animal sound of frustration, then tossed it away too, spinning around as Hunter approached.

“Jamie—”

“No!” I stabbed my finger in the air, as if that would stop the confusing rush of feelings that threatened to drown me. Too many wildly differing realities were crashing together right now and my brain ached, trying to reconcile them. “No. No…” I shook my head, as if that would help me dislodge these thoughts. I took a step backwards, as if I could run the hell away from what he’d said.

Run.

I was done thinking, my feet taking the lead, turning me around and getting me moving.

“Jamie!”

My name was carried forward on the wind, but it rushed past me and out to sea as I moved faster and faster across the concrete footpath. Where? That didn’t matter. I just need to get away. Into you… See us as men… Hunter’s words followed me, filling my head no matter where I went and that had my feet stilling. I fished out my phone from my bag and then scrolled through my contacts.

Brock.

He’d never lied to me before, always telling me what I did well and what needed work. Surely I could trust him to be real with me right now. Then I remembered the way he was this morning. Not horny, but… something else. His gaze intent, every bit of pleasure, of pain, there in his eyes as he…