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"Couldn't sleep."
"Hmm." He tosses me a water bottle I don't need. "Something keeping you up?"
"Work."
Colston snorts from the bench. "Sure. Work."
I lean against the wall. I should leave. I should go to my office, get ahead of the board meeting, review the trust addendum Christian sent last night. Instead I stand here, because apparently some part of me wants the normalcy of my brothers giving me shit at five in the morning.
"Heard you were trending," Colston says, resettling the bar on the rack and sitting up. "Bold move. Very grabby."
I shoot both of them a look. My fingers twitch at the memory of her ass cheek in my hand. The way she pressed into the grip instead of pulling away. The small sound she made against my mouth that the cameras couldn't have caught but I will apparently hear for the rest of my natural life.
"Don't start."
"Oh, we've already started," Levi says cheerfully, pulling up something on his phone. "You should've seen the group chat."
"So," Colston says after a minute, "do you like her?"
"No."
Levi snorts. "You should have seen him in his office when I asked her if she was single. Just about threw me out the four-story window of the arena."
"I don't have time for this."
"You kissed her in public," Levi says. "You have time for this."
"She kissed me."
Both my brothers go silent for half a beat.
Then Levi says, "Sure."
Colston nods solemnly. "Compelling legal defense. We don't believe you."
"She already moved in," I say before I can stop myself.
That gets a real reaction.
Levi whistles low. "Holy shit. That's fast."
"It was necessary. The engagement had to look real, immediately."
"Right," Colston says. "And the hand on her ass was part of the rollout strategy."
Levi laughs so hard he has to grab the pull-up bar for support. Colston crosses his arms and shakes his head, muffling back a chuckle.
I let them have it. They talk around me for a few minutes—about the Hawkeyes' upcoming series, about a Foundation gala Everly is planning. Normal Kauffman noise. The kind that should be comforting.
It isn't.
Because underneath all of it, my brain is still running its own parallel conversation. The feel of her thighs on either side of mine. The way she tasted. The sound of her breathing when she pulled back and looked at me like she'd surprised herself more than she'd surprised me.
"I'm heading up," I say, pushing off the wall.
"Hey," Levi calls after me. I stop and glance over my shoulder. His expression shifts—still amused, but with something quieter underneath. "Sienna texted me too. She said she's surprised you didn't warn her first."
My jaw locks.