Page 11

“Will you give it a rest, dumbass?” I ask as I drag him out of the room and shove him down the hallway. “Why you gotta piss him off?”

Dallas shakes out his shirt, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and smearing blood across his cheek. “’Cause it’s funny. Why don’t you try it?”

“Nah, don’t need the beast busting my pretty face, now do I?”

“Right. What would the women think then?”

My imagination immediately conjures Griffin and the fact that I may be into men. Or am into men? Hell, I don’t even know what way is up right now. And just like that, my mood deflates again.

“Oh, go figure, you’re bleeding. Do you get some sick enjoyment from riling people up?” Blaire asks Dallas as she blots at the cut on his lip with a rag. He gives her a devious look I’d rather not have seen. “Don’t you dare answer that, Dallas Maverick. Not at your parents’ house.”

“Gross,” I say under my breath as I walk away from them.Blaire works at the distillery as our event coordinator and has had quite the whirlwind romance with my brother. He’s lost to that woman wholly, and after the life she’s had up until this point, I understand why he’s so protective of her.

The rest of dinner goes as smoothly as it can, considering the company we’re in. All of my brothers are swooning over the loves of their lives. There’s a tiny twinge of jealousy that flutters in my chest, but overall, I just don’t understand how they can give themselves up so completely to another person. Especially after what Sawyer went through when Ivy left him at eighteen. The way he can just fall back into the fold, give someone else the power to completely wreck you—this is exactly why I stick to just sex. No feelings involved. No chance of anyone destroying me.

Griffin made you feel something.

Choosing to ignore the thoughts in my head, I help clean up from an early dinner and head home to change. There’s only one place I want to be tonight, and it’s only because I need to deal with Griffin Nash. It has nothing to do with him becoming a permanent fixture in my head.

Not at all. I’m in complete control.

CHAPTER 4

finn

“Hey fuckface,we’re going out. Get off your ass and get dressed, no more brooding,” Trey shouts as he walks into my house unannounced.

“Why’d I give you a key again?”

“’Cause you love me.”

“I’m rescinding your permanent invitation. Give it back,” I groan from my place on the couch where I’m currently writing on my laptop.

“Dude, what is wrong with you? If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were lovesick.”

“I’m not lovesick, you idiot. Just trying to sleep my problems away, but my ex-best friend won’t piss off and let me wallow.”

“Well, if I’m your ex-best friend, then I guess you wouldn’t mind if I take the Lexus out for a spin?”

That gets me standing up, the room spinning as I get used to the quick change in balance. Fuck, how long have I been sitting hereworking?

“Fuck you. Don’t even think about it, Trey. No one touches her.”

“Well, then I need daddy to drive me around.”

“Daddy, huh? Are we sure you aren’t gay?”

“Wouldn’t that make your life so much easier? We could run off into the sunset together, and life would be grand.”

“You couldn’t handle me,” I joke.

“Probably not, you freak. You think Carter Hayes can?”

I drop back down to the couch and groan like a baby. “Ugh. Did you have to bring him up?”

“Get dressed, or I’ll do it for you, and trust me when I say neither one of us wants that. So get to it. We’re getting you out of your writing cave. You’ve been locked away all weekend, and I know you’re stressed. This will be good for you, and I don’t have to roll up like a loner. Let’s go.”

Begrudgingly, and feeling kind of bad, I walk through the downstairs to the smaller bedroom I’m staying in, pulling off my sweatpants, taking a fast shower, and pulling myself together the best I can. I opt for a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved, button-up T-shirt.