Page 30 of The Other Guy

He looks up at me and quickly puts his phone away. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

I cross my arms over my chest and plant my feet. “You come here, surprise me, pull me into the ring, and almost kill both of us because you need to blow off some steam,” I tell him with a raised eyebrow, daring him to argue with me which he doesn’t so I continue, “and now you want to go eat something and you won’t stop staring at your damn phone so tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Your cousin Harper is frustrated and has been texting me about it for some reason.”

“What’s going on?”

“She’s been with her boyfriend for a while now and she wants him to put a ring on it, her words, and she thinks he’s taking too long. One of her friends told her to give him an ultimatum so she did and it didn’t settle well. Now they’re fighting.”

Harper is the baby of the family and to say everyone is a little protective over her is an understatement. “And she’s talking to you because going to her big brothers or me wouldn’t result in anything pleasant?”

He shrugs. “Probably. She asked for my opinion and I let her know that guys don’t do ultimatums. So now she’s upset that she listened to bad advice. And I feel bad for her because she’s hurting. I don’t like seeing her upset ever, but especially over this. And I really don’t like lying to her. Or her dad.”

“Uh, what are you lying about?”

“Grayson has been planning to propose for a few months but uh… he’s terrified to ask Barrett for her hand in marriage because Harper’s also pregnant. He came to me at Balance and hoped to talk it out. His uncle Walker was with him and couldn’t stop laughing.”

I bark out a laugh as we move toward the door to head out for lunch. “Barrett’s going to flip when he finds out everyone’s been hiding this from him.”

“Right? I can’t wait to see his face and Grayson is scared shitless.”

“Does he know that Barrett wouldn’t harm a fly?”

“Of course he doesn’t.”

“So you going crazy in the ring earlier was more about being scared of Barrett’s reaction when he finds out you knew all along?”

“Of course it was.”

I say goodbye to the few people in the gym and Dad and I walk out to the parking lot. I climb into his passenger seat, still laughing over the fact that Harper is trying to hide something from her dad. Then… “Wait, does Aunt Tess know?”

“Nope,” he says, grinning and puts the pickup in drive. “Burgers?”

“Sure. Sounds good. And your sister is going to kick your ass, you know that, right?”

“It’s going to be awesome.”

It doesn’t take long to get to the small restaurant that’s a local favorite for burgers and fries.

After taking our seats, we each place our order quickly. The waitress has barely turned her back when he has his hand out, making a give it to me motion.

“What?”

“The phone. I want to see this.”

“No. No, you don’t. Some of the women have sent pictures.”

He sits back. “And you didn’t delete them?”

Crap. I probably should have.

“It’s not like I go back and look.”

He gives me a look. The Dad Look. The one that has me shrinking in my seat and feeling like a teenager again.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Time to put a stop to it.”

“Damn right it is.”

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