Page 61 of Smokin' Situation

“Fuck.”

Her eyes widened, and she slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, fuck. Kind of like I’m assuming you’ve been doing withTripp, judging by the relaxed smiles on both of your faces and the interlocked hands I just witnessed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was Reid’s cousin at the festival?” She’d been in the medical tent with us after I collapsed, you’d think this would have been something she would have told me.

Oh, by the way, the hot firefighter you’ve been flirting with all morning, who also carried you unconscious through a festival full of over half the town’s residents, is the older brother of the guy you’ve been casually screwing for the last seven years.

“I didn’t know. His family calls him Tristan. How was I supposed to know that Tripp and Tristan were the same person? I don’t exactly keep tabs on the new recruits at the fire station. He hasn’t been home much the last several years, and he barely left Jay’s apartment while he was recovering from his accident,” she replied, and I tried to scan my memories of the last several days for other clues.

You’d think I would have connected the dots that the reason he felt so familiar was because, until a few months ago, I’d been sleeping with his brother. Or that he was a firefighter who was injured and returned home to a community that, while it hadalmost ten thousand residents, wasn’t that big since a good chunk of those were people who owned a rental home here.

“Oh, my God. What am I supposed to tell him?” Now that my brain had put together the pieces, there wasn’t any shoving this kind of discovery back into a neat little box.

“Does he know you were seeingyou know who?”

“Haz,” I whined, suddenly wanting to flee. “Do you think I would freak out this much if he knew I was sleeping withhim?”

“Okay, probably not. But he knows you weren’t celibate, right?”

I nodded, but I could feel the anxiety building in my system.

Meeting Tripp—Tristan—had felt like it was meant to happen. Like we had both just been in a holding pattern in our lives until we found each other. When Hazel and I had talked in February while things had become complicated between her and Reid. I’d told her all about how Jayden was just a placeholder, and I knew I was the same for him. We weren’t emotionally invested in each other like people in a genuine relationship were. Friends but not soul mates.

We’d both been on the same page, but now the page had turned.

“Just…wait here. I’m gonna go get Reid. Maybe he can give you some advice about how to handle this, because we both know this is too much for my chaotic brain to handle. I could barely handle sneaking around with my brother’s best friend and the fictional persona he created to convince me to fall in love with him.”

She disappeared into the house, and I stepped down onto the driveway, pacing back and forth while I waited. I had no idea what Reid would say to excuse himself from his cousin, but I hoped the several dozen family members in the backyard would distract him long enough so I could figure out the predicament I’d gotten myself into.

Tripp was right. Iwasa mess. And this mess was about to lose him.

Closing my eyes, I tipped my face up, letting the sun warm my cheeks as I tried to figure out how to keep him once he discovered exactly who I was.

He hadn’t put the pieces together either. Which meant he was just as oblivious as I was, or Jayden hadn’t told him about me. That wouldn’t have upset me if this were anyone else, but now I felt like it was a vital piece of information that could have prevented this.

But the longer I paced, the more I realized I didn’t want to prevent this.

Ididn’tregret our time together.

Iwouldn’tchange the fact that I was falling for him.

And Icouldn’timagine my future without him.

The screen door opened behind me, and I blew out a breath as a pair of hands grasped my waist, a face tucking into my neck. But instead of the scruff that’d left marks on me this morning, the skin was smooth, my heart stopping when I realized the person behind me wasn’t the man I needed right now.

“I missed you, Annie,” he hummed into my skin, and my eyes shot open, panic flowing through my veins when my eyes connected with those of the man coming around the side of the house. Tripp was a few feet away, a beer bottle halfway to his mouth, and a look of confusion painted across his handsome features.

Oh, shit.

Tristan

Whattheactualfuck,was the only thought in my brain as I stared at Rhey in the middle of the gravel drive, my brother’s hands possessively holding her waist while he whispered in her ear.

She looked downright panicked, and I suddenly felt like a gigantic fool.

How could I not have seen this coming? Of course, the woman who’d seemed like my perfect match had been fucking my brother for who knew how long. Because that was just how my fucking life worked.

I find someone who finally made me feel like I might have some purpose in my life, and she just gets ripped away. By my spoiled, emotionally stunted brother, who took nothing in his life seriously.

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