Page 38 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

He flashed me the side eye, and I laughed, loving how he could call me out with a single raised eyebrow.

“I survived fine all by myself until you came along.”

“Not sure how,” he laughed, blowing me a kiss. “You’re a mess, sweetheart.”

“For your information, I can hold my own with a bar full of drunks, I think I can handle some overeager family members.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Tripp had turned northeast after leaving the ranch, but I was still trying to figure out if I recognized where he was taking me. After a few miles, he turned off on a gravel road, following a long and winding path through the trees that opened to a large two-story house styled like a log cabin .

There was a cluster of cars parked in an open field off to the side of the house, but it was the familiar black motorcycle sitting near the house that had me side eyeing Tripp.

“This is your aunt and uncle’s house?”

“Yeah. They moved out here about five or six years ago. Our family has owned this land for a long time, but they never wanted to sell it to developers. I’ve only been here a few times, but they kind of took over as the host of family gatherings during the summer since they have a pool and a huge fire pit. ”

He slipped out of the driver’s seat, meeting me at my open door and offering me a hand down from the truck.

I’d worn a pair of slip-on sneakers, so at least I didn’t have to deal with heels outside, but it was nice that he was still trying to be a gentleman.

Although I had a feeling that it was just who he was without trying.

Hand in hand, he led me around the side of the house; the music getting louder as we turned the corner, and the backyard came into view. There was a good-sized clearing behind the house that slowly blended into the surrounding forest.

“Annie?” Hazel’s surprised voice carried from the edge of the pool, and my eyes widened when I saw Reid standing right behind her, his head tilted to the side as he stared at us.

Hazel glanced over her shoulder at her much taller boyfriend and some kind of unspoken communication passed between them.

He nodded and stepped away to head toward a makeshift bar set up on the back patio.

Hazel wrapped a towel around her waist, slid her feet into a pair of sandals on the pool deck and headed in my direction.

“I’m gonna need to steal your guest,” she told Tripp as she hooked her arm in mine and steered me back toward where we’d just come from. “Reid is over by the bar if you want to get a drink, Tripp. ”

“Where are you taking me?” I asked as she walked around the side of the house and led me to the covered front porch .

“Annie, what are you doing here?” She didn’t look mad, just curious. But there was a certain edge to her question that suddenly had me on alert.

“Tripp invited me. This is his aunt and uncle’s place.” Suddenly, puzzle pieces that hadn’t seemed to fit before now started clicking into place.

“And this is Reid’s parents’ house,” she said pointedly, knowing that it’d confirm my suspicions.

Oh, fuck. How did I not see it until now?

Maybe because I was blinded by a distractingly charming, brooding firefighter and hadn’t stopped to think about how small Sage Springs really could be sometimes.

“Fuck.”

Her eyes widened, and she slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, fuck. Kind of like I’m assuming you’ve been doing with Tripp , judging by the relaxed smiles on both of your faces and the interlocked hands I just witnessed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was Reid’s cousin at the festival?” She’d been in the medical tent with us after I collapsed, you’d think this would have been something she would have told me.

Oh, by the way, the hot firefighter you’ve been flirting with all morning, who also carried you unconscious through a festival full of over half the town’s residents, is the older brother of the guy you’ve been casually screwing for the last seven years.

“I didn’t know. His family calls him Tristan.

How was I supposed to know that Tripp and Tristan were the same person?

I don’t exactly keep tabs on the new recruits at the fire station.

He hasn’t been home much the last several years, and he barely left Jay’s apartment while he was recovering from his accident,” she replied, and I tried to scan my memories of the last several days for other clues.

You’d think I would have connected the dots that the reason he felt so familiar was because, until a few months ago, I’d been sleeping with his brother.

Or that he was a firefighter who was injured and returned home to a community that, while it had almost ten thousand residents, wasn’t that big since a good chunk of those were people who owned a rental home here.

“Oh, my God. What am I supposed to tell him?” Now that my brain had put together the pieces, there wasn’t any shoving this kind of discovery back into a neat little box.

“Does he know you were seeing you know who? ”

“Haz,” I whined, suddenly wanting to flee. “Do you think I would freak out this much if he knew I was sleeping with him? ”

“Okay, probably not. But he knows you weren’t celibate, right?”

I nodded, but I could feel the anxiety building in my system.

Meeting Tripp— Tristan —had felt like it was meant to happen.

Like we had both just been in a holding pattern in our lives until we found each other.

When Hazel and I had talked in February while things had become complicated between her and Reid.

I’d told her all about how Jayden was just a placeholder, and I knew I was the same for him.

We weren’t emotionally invested in each other like people in a genuine relationship were. Friends but not soul mates.

We’d both been on the same page, but now the page had turned.

“Just…wait here. I’m gonna go get Reid. Maybe he can give you some advice about how to handle this, because we both know this is too much for my chaotic brain to handle.

I could barely handle sneaking around with my brother’s best friend and the fictional persona he created to convince me to fall in love with him. ”

She disappeared into the house, and I stepped down onto the driveway, pacing back and forth while I waited.

I had no idea what Reid would say to excuse himself from his cousin, but I hoped the several dozen family members in the backyard would distract him long enough so I could figure out the predicament I’d gotten myself into.

Tripp was right. I was a mess. And this mess was about to lose him.

Closing my eyes, I tipped my face up, letting the sun warm my cheeks as I tried to figure out how to keep him once he discovered exactly who I was .

He hadn’t put the pieces together either. Which meant he was just as oblivious as I was, or Jayden hadn’t told him about me. That wouldn’t have upset me if this were anyone else, but now I felt like it was a vital piece of information that could have prevented this.

But the longer I paced, the more I realized I didn’t want to prevent this.

I didn’t regret our time together.

I wouldn’t change the fact that I was falling for him.

And I couldn’t imagine my future without him.

The screen door opened behind me, and I blew out a breath as a pair of hands grasped my waist, a face tucking into my neck. But instead of the scruff that’d left marks on me this morning, the skin was smooth, my heart stopping when I realized the person behind me wasn’t the man I needed right now.

“I missed you, Annie,” he hummed into my skin, and my eyes shot open, panic flowing through my veins when my eyes connected with those of the man coming around the side of the house.

Tripp was a few feet away, a beer bottle halfway to his mouth, and a look of confusion painted across his handsome features.

Oh, shit.