Page 44 of Make the Play

“She just worries about you,” I tell him. His eyes finally find mine, and he gives me a soft smile.

“She’s right. She would know a little something about that,” Landry teases, tossing his arm over my shoulders.

“Well, you better get changed and hurry up. The guys were ready to send a search party,” Landry teases. He pulls me a little closer. “The things we do for our little sisters.” He kisses my cheek and turns us as we make our way back outside.

I make a beeline for the loungers off to the far side of the pool and take up residence. I spot Sloane on the other side, and she casually strolls over to sit beside me. The guys are laughing and horsing around as Landry jumps into the water, making a huge splash. A few minutes later, Knox walks out of the house and does the same, yelling, “Cannonball!” as he barrels into the pool, ensuring everyone gets soaked in the process.

Everyone except Sloane and me. We’re sitting too far away to be heard or to get wet, which is by design. She’s been quiet, but I know she’s dying to ask questions.

“Are we going to sit in silence all night, or are you going to tell me what happened?”

“When?” I don’t turn to look at her, or I’ll crumble and spill all—not that I won’t anyway—but I need to make her work for it.

“Corie!” she scolds quietly, so as not to be heard.

“Fine, but you can’t get all excited. This needs to appear to be a normal, non-exciting conversation. If you can’t handle that, we’ll wait until they’re all gone. You also need to keep this between us. No one can know about this. No one.”

“I can handle it,” she assures me. “And I’m your vault, bestie. You know I’ve got you.” She reaches over and squeezes my arm.

“We kissed.”

“I know that.”

“No, I mean we kissed again.” It feels off calling it a simple kiss because it was more like an avalanche of lust and desire rolling through my body. Her eyes widen, and I give her a quick rundown of what happened and what I proposed. It’s still hard for me to believe that I’m doing this. There is so much on the line.

“As long as we’re smart about it, for however long whatever this is lasts, it will be fine.” I’m not sure if the words are for her or me. I’m pretty sure I’m saying them for both of us.

“Two things: first, get it, girl.” She winks. “And the second, Corie, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“No. No, I’m not sure this is a good idea. What I do know is that I’ve never felt this way. I’ve never craved a touch, a kiss, or hell, just being in a man’s presence.”

“Do you think it’s just your crush from all those years ago?”

“At first, I did think that, but this is different, Sloane. I can’t explain it, but it is.”

“I’m worried you’re going to get your heart crushed. Not just, hey, this jackass cheated on me, and I’m mad about it, but broken into a million tiny pieces that you might not ever be able to put back together.”

I laugh humorlessly, “Oh, that’s going to happen,” I tell her. “He’s too magnetic. He’s too… everything.”

“You do realize you’re with most of the world’s dream guy, right?” She chuckles.

“Yeah, but they’ll never know it. He’s going to wise up and realize he wants more than his best friend’s little sister. I’m just along for the ride until he does.”

“You’re more than that,” Sloane says, her voice hard. “Stop letting what that jackass Conner did to you dictate how you see yourself. He was a loser you didn’t even care about. Not really. Sure, you liked the guy, but that’s as far as it went, unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“No. I mean, he was nice enough, and it was nice to have someone who was connected to all of this”—I wave my hands in the air at the house—“world. It was the idea of him that had me agreeing to date him, not the man himself. Although he’s an asshole, he is easy on the eyes.” I try to lighten the heaviness of the conversation. Besides, it’s true if you like the look of aGQmodel.

“Sure, I’ll give him that, but that man has nothing on the five of them.” She nods toward the pool.

“Nope,” I agree. Sloane is right. Millions of women would give anything to be in our position at this very moment.

“Um, Reid, bud, you’re dripping all over me,” Sloane says with a laugh.

I turn to look, but a shadow falls over me, and then a drop of water. Looking up, I see a smiling Knox standing above me. “What are you doing, Beckett?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer. Sloane squeals with laughter, but I can’t look at her. I can’t tear my eyes away from Knox as he bends down and grips my hips, tossing me over his shoulder. Lifting my head, I see Reid racing off toward the pool, and he jumps in with Sloane in his arms.

I smack Knox’s ass, fighting him like I’m supposed to, but let’s be honest here, I don’t want him to put me down.

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