Page 114 of Wildest Dreams

Winter looks up at me with raised eyebrows. “Are you not coming?” she asks gently, a little bit of her cute Kentucky twang slipping through.

I’m too nervous to head back to the lake right now, knowing that only one guy from our group is there doing who-knows-what.

Yeah. Tanner stayed back at the lake.

I swallow quickly and shake my head.

“I’m gonna hike a little with the guys,” I tell her, looking nervously up at my brother. He gives me a reassuring smile and a nod of his head.

I nod back at him, grateful for our twin synergy right now.

A light whizzing sound filters through the air and in the next second Connell’s head is whipping to our left. His arm slices through the air, grabbing the football in his large practiced grip before it can smack straight into my shoulder.

“The fuck?” he asks, tossing the ball in his hand as he shakes his head, glancing over to where his teammates are ‘teaching’ the hockey guys how to play.

Logan puts his hands in the air in surrender before pointing at Hughes, which makes Hughes drop his arms and groan“aw man”.

Connell snickers and hurls the ball straight at our attacker, who stealthily ducks it but then throws me a genuine apologetic smile.

Connell’s teasing throw says,try that shit again, I dare you.

He glances back toward Hunter and jerks his thumb over to his former hockey teammates, an easygoing smile on his mouth but a glimmer of real threat behind his eyes.

“Tell me he wasn’t actually aiming over here to get Ash’s attention,” Connell says.

Hunter’s eyes are playful as he glances between Connell, Hughes, and back again.

“What, you wanna give him a right hook?” he rumbles, a smirk playing on his mouth as he settles his chin comfortably on Fallon’s shoulder.

I breathe out a laugh and shake my head.

“He was just being an idiot, let it slide,” I tell my brother, casually admiring my twinkling nails as the sunlight catches and refracts against the golden sparkles.

Connell’s jaw muscle flexes as he gives me a direct unblinking look. He seems to think about it for a long moment and then he breathes out a deep exhale, shooting another glance to the guys still throwing the ball across the clearing.

“Fine,” he says curtly, dropping a heavy forearm over my shoulders. “But if he does that again his ass is grass, Aisling, I swear to God.”

Hunter grins, clearly relating to those over-protective older brother genes, and then stands to his full height, enveloping Fallon’s small hand in his large one. “Right, let’s head.”

Connell and Hunter do that secret dude hand-smacking thing while Fallon stares at me with her huge eyes and a mischievous smile that she’s trying to rein in – even though, after being roommates pretty much all through college, I know exactly what she’s thinking. She wants me to tell her every juicy Tanner-related thought in my head. I do a little sigh and give her a subtle nod.

Later, I mouth to her.

She looks fit to combust with excitement by the time that Hunter hauls her over his shoulder and begins carrying her back down the incline. I laugh and give her and Winter a little wave before turning back to my brother, who is using his arm over myshoulders to steer me toward the extremely testosterone-fuelled game of pass that’s happening right now.

“Fucker’s don’t understand the basic rules of football,” Logan says with an amused grin as we reach him, the ball hurtling through the air as he releases it from his large fist.

“Heard that,” Austin calls back to him, throwing the ball with a little more vengeance than before, and smirking when Logan has to jump up to catch it.

Logan thumps back to the ground and turns to smile at me, bowing slightly as he holds out the football like an offering.

“M’lady,” he rasps, before glancing up at me with a sexy wink.

“Alright, that’s it.” Connell swipes the football out of his hand, making his best friend grin as he confiscates the ball, and then he begins dragging me up the incline with him.

I offer Logan a quick grin over my shoulder, knowing that he’s just messing around, and he smiles back at me as he falls into step with his teammates. The hockey boys jog ahead of the footballers so that they can walk beside me.

Connell glances down at me with a slightly wary expression, casually tossing the ball in the air with his free hand.

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