Page 41 of Only Ever You

Bashhmphed.But he couldn’t deny there wassometruth to Matt’s cut off assumption. Ten percent at most. The remaining ninety sat chatting in the other room.

Matt carried on. “Faye’s smart?—”

“You barely know her.”

“She’s going to realise sooner or later how you feel about her.” Another foot of the space between them closed when Matt moved. “If you didn’t really want to tell her then you wouldn’t have invited her here.”

Maybe I was just being nice,Bash almost argued back, but what Matt said wasn’t entirely false.

They glanced at the door as a burst of laughter echoed from the kitchen.

Bash didn’t want any more ribbing about his feelings, or his lack of guts to express them. “We need to go before someone comes knocking.”

“Yeah. It’s not as if we need to make it obvious we’re talking about something,” Matt said, casually tucking his hands into his jeans pockets.

Bash dragged his hand down his face for the second time today. “If you say one word to Faye, I swear?—”

“Relax. I won’t say anything. But this secret of yoursisgiving me licence to hang it over your head until you sort it out.”

Bash didn’t doubt his brother would do that every single second he had the chance to. “Isn’t blackmail against your Hippocratic oath?”

“It’sdo no harm, notdo not embarrass your little brother about his crush.” That final word was said a little too loudly, given the bat ears in the kitchen.

“One word of this,” Bash huffed, “and I’m telling Saira the truth about that gift you gave to her for her birthday this year.”

Matt narrowed his eyes. “One, you were supposed to have erased that from your memory. Andtwo, you wouldn’t dare.”

Bash feigned ignorance, musing, “How does one ‘accidentally’ buy strawberry flavoured massage oil online?”

“I didn’t realise it was in the cart!” Matt hissed like a hackled cat. “It was just supposed to be the matching lace—You know what,we’re not talking about this.”

“Hm. Good.”

“Good.”

They stared at one another. Then laughs burst from their chests.

“This is ridiculous.” Matt shook his head of hair sprinkled now with salt as well as pepper. “We’re too old for this.”

“And I really don’t want to be thinking about that gift.” There were some thoughts about a sister-in-law that a man should just never entertain. Bash had nieces and he was well aware of where they’d come from, but that was the ultimate extent of where knowledge regarding his brother’s marriage should end.

“Good. I don’t want you thinking of it either.” Matt patted him on the back. “Let’s go.”

They found the rest of their family squirrelled away in the kitchen. Bash’s gaze landed on Faye first. Across the marble island,she was propped up upon one of the stools, and he caught the flash of relief softening the edges of her features when their eyes locked, like she’d nervously waited for him to return. He knew it was a big ask to put her in with the wolves of his family, but his heart filled with the knowledge of how right she looked sitting amongst them.

“Where were you two hiding?” Saira asked, eyeing both brothers.

Matt wrapped his arms around her middle and cuddled up behind her. It was sickly sweet and Bash hated how much he envied it – the casual affection his brother didn’t have to think twice about giving.

“Oh, just … settling a bet.”

Matt’s reply was a bit too on the nose for Bash’s liking. The man could’ve said anything at all, and he’d gone withthat? Never mind socks, Bash was going to get him a lesson on subtlety for Christmas, since he’d clearly inherited none from their father.

He slotted in next to Imara, and whilst everyone else looked at the PDA, he slid the plastic tray of Chocolate Fingers on the counter closer to his niece. She rose on her toes giddily and her shoulder bumped his waist as she reached for them.

As natural as water flowing downhill, he sought out Faye again, and knew by her inwardly pursed lips that he’d been caught out.

“Mamie??*” Maya bounced around the island to Michèle, back from staring out of the sliding doors at the early sunset. “Can we hang up the socks now?”

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