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My brother groans and drops his chin to his chest. “Seriously? This again?” When he looks up at me, I’m careful to keep my face unchanged and stoic. “Fine.” Carl sets his legs to his thighs like he’s about to stand up. “If you don’t want her, then it’s cool if I do, right?”
I can’t help my face. It hardens with jealousy at just the thought of him trying to go after Sunny. Carl points at me like he’s seen proof of alien existence. “See? I told you. You’re into her. So, make a move already.”
I look away, annoyance charring my chest. “It’s not that easy.”
“Sure, it is. Take her off to show her some stars and get close,” he scootches closer on the log, “then lay one on her. Come on, man, have a backbone.”
“She works for me.” I lean forward, bracing my forearms against my legs. “It makes things complicated.”
“Not that complicated. Eight hours a day, she’s your employee, the rest of it, she’s your girlfriend.”
I shoot him a glare. “What do you care? You’ve never helped me out like this before.”
Calling him out on it makes him younger brother uncomfortable. “Mom and I talked recently. She seemed to think I should give this brother thing a solid try.”
“Yeah, she’s had that talk with both of us about a thousand times, what made it sink in this time?”
Carl scoots away, no longer comfortable with the conversation. “When I heard you sing.”
“The karaoke bar? Seriously?” I’m sure my face is a billboard for my disbelief because Carl feels the need to explain it further.
“I was looking to humiliate you. I was making you come up on stage and sing and figured you’d screw up and make me look even better, but then,” he digs his hand into his hair and combs through, “you were awesome. People loved you. They loved us. I guess I got to thinking, if I was wrong about that, maybe I might be a little wrong about you.” His shoulders bounce once in a noncommittal shrug. “Maybe having a brother wouldn’t be quite as bad as I thought.”
Sunny
It all started when Mandy took me away from Rhett when fireball was over, claiming she needed a friend and a drink. But not five minutes into our supposed girl time, Austin crashed the party and stole new friend’s attention.
I meant to ask her about the job helping out with day rides, but as soon as Austin got involved, Mandy became distracted. I try to stay with them for a minute, but all their affectionate moments leave me feeling like a third wheel. Instead, I back off, leaving them to their fun.
The VW Beetle looks nothing like it did when I gave it to Nick months ago on the beach. He’s not only painted it a royal blue shade, but he’s added a new chrome bumper and painted the luggage rack lime green. Far cry from the rusted out, smoking hunk of junk I sent flying from the dunes.
My fingers slip over the smooth topcoat around the back of the bug. My bag feels heavy. I need to hide this evidence somewhere, but so far, I haven’t had much a chance. Now that I’m alone, I don’t have a storage space.
Unless…
I stop myself. I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Nick. But if he didn’t know about it. If no one ever knew about it…
I drop to a knee, running my hand under the new bumper. It dips into an empty space, just big enough for what I need. Not wanting to stop long enough to think, I pull the package from my bag and reach underneath.
“Hey, Sunny. What’s going on?” Carl’s voice might as well belong to a cop with the way I jump to my feet.
“Nothing.” I rise up, pulling the bag strap over my shoulder again. “Just looking at Nick’s new car.”
Rhett arrives a few seconds after his brother. “Reminiscing?”
I laugh nervously, though our joke is lost on his younger brother. “Something like that.”
“Hey Carl,” a timid blonde calls from a few feet away, “do you think you could play a few?” She holds his guitar out for him.
Carl shrugs like he’s doing her some great favor and takes the guitar. “I could probably manage.”
I catch my lip between my teeth, twisting it back and forth as I realize that girl time ended faster than I ever expected.
“And then there were two.” Rhett steps in beside me. “Unless you’re looking to be alone.”
As soon as he smiles, I can’t help it, I do the same. “I’d love some company. Apparently, the girls don’t like me much.”
Rhett at least gives me the satisfaction of pretending to think about it. “Nah, it’s the guy’s fault. It’s almost always the guys’ fault.”
