Page 66 of My Fiancé's Brother 2

“My bag is an Hermès Birkin.” I paused thoughtfully. “I don’t really like Prada bags. They sometimes come across as a bit kitsch, don’t you think?”

I somehow managed a smile, hiding the fact that my insides weremelting and I was about a heartbeat from breaking down. “Looks like you don’t need my help. See you out there.”

My eyes scannedthe backyard for Jackson. I wanted to leave the BBQ now. I spotted him standing drinking a beer and talking to two men. My mind was reeling from the conversation I had just heard. Jackson went running with Harper? I had a vision of them alone on some isolated running path, both of them moving with grace and athletic beauty.

Were they planning on getting back together? What was their end game? Why had he asked me to trust him when he was still seeing her? I stood there in the middle of the lawn unsure what to do. Did I ask him about it? Maybe those women were just unkind? Perhaps there was some rational explanation?

“Hey, Emily. You look lost.”

I felt dazed. I looked around to see Forbes and Guinness smiling at me. Unsure of my next moves in the next five seconds, much less the rest of my life, I turned to them.

“Hey.”

“Where's your drink?” Forbes looked at my empty hand.

“I’m good right now.”

“We were just talking about your husband’s river monster experience.”

My mind recalled a fishing show about deadly fish. “River monster?”

“This is a crazy story.”

“Totally crazy,” Forbes added.

“What happened?” I asked, wanting to buy some time just to calm my nerves. I felt so anxious that I vibrated.

They shared a glance. Guinness hesitated.

“You can tell me,” I said with a bright, fake smile. “I’m totally up for a story about Jackson.”

Especially one that didn’t involve a certain ex-girlfriend.

He grinned at me. “Well, we were on a mission, and we needed to make an approach via water. So we were eyeballs deep in this huge nasty black river. I’m telling you, it was all kinds of awful. It wasn’t quite night, but definitely on the dark side. Suddenly, MacDog signals for us to stop moving.”

Guinness had my full attention.

“It was highly unconventional for MacDog to direct us to halt the mission. So we all stopped, and MacDog just slowly sinks under the water. We can’t see him. There are some ripples but nothing else. He's gone for over a minute. The rest of us are just looking at each other wondering what the fuck he's doing. He comes back to the surface and pushes this huge rope away from him.” Guinness’ big arms demonstrated the motion. He paused. “Except that wasn’t a rope. It was a 14-foot dead anaconda. The biggest snake I have ever seen.”

“Fucking huge,” Forbes added.

My hand covered my mouth. I had no words.

Guinness laughed. “Apparently this snake had wrapped itself through his legs and was making its way around his waist, so he went underneath the water so he could quietly kill it. Not a single splash. MacDog is such a beast.”

“I fucking hate snakes,” Forbes said. “I probably would have screamed like a little kid.”

I stared at them in horrified fascination. “What was he doing in the river where there were snakes?”

They looked at each other. “Well, that was just part of the mission.”

My mind played the image of Jackson, his face painted like a warrior, coming out of the water, silent and deadly so that he could approach some enemy camp and engage in a deadly fight. It scared me so much that it took my breath away. Blame it on my hormones or my fear of Jackson dying, or the fact that I was so over my head at thisBBQ but my eyes filled with tears. I looked at the sky and blinked, mortified that I was crying in front of Jackson’s buddies.

“Oh shit,” Forbes said.

I gave a half laugh. “Sorry. Just ignore me. I cry all the time.”

Forbes punched Guinness in the arm. “Brilliant dude.”

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