Page 63 of Smokin' Situation

“I’m not going anywhere with him,” Jay hissed, fighting against our cousin’s hold. They may have been of similar build, but Reid was scary when he was mad.

“You don’t have a fucking choice,” Reid growled, pushing him inside when he got to the front door. “The two of you are going upstairs to talk before you turn this into a three-ring circus, and you’re both going to calm the fuck down and work this out before I let you leave the guest bedroom.”

Hazel stomped toward me, pushing past and knocking her shoulder against mine, as she headed toward Annie. She was crying beside the truck, and I instantly felt like shit as I watched her friend wrap her arms around her.

They disappeared out of sight just before I turned and followed Reid as he pushed my brother up the staircase, thankful the people in the backyard hadn’t noticed Jay’s dramatic hissy fit.

“Do I need to find one of those huge T-shirts our moms used to shove us into together as children until we could get along? Cause I’ll stuff your asses into one if I have to.” Reid marched my brother down the hallway with a tight hold on the back of his shirt and pulled open a door at the front of the house, hopefully out of earshot of the people in the backyard.

“Why am I the one being manhandled?” Jay whined, bracing one hand against the door frame and trying to shrug off Reid’s tight grip. “I’m the innocent one here.”

Growling, I fought the urge to use my foot to get him inside and pointed. I was about to lose my shit.

“Because you were raised better than this,” Reid hissed, shoving my brother inside. “What you just did to Annie was disrespectful as fuck.”

“But she—”

“She didn’t know who I fucking was, dipshit.” And since I honestly hadn’t given a shit who warmed my brother’s bed, I hadn’t put the details together. Until now. “And I thought she was just a bartender you hired to run your booth at the festival. You never talked about her, how was I supposed to know what kind of arrangement you two used to have?”

“Used to?” He rounded on me as soon as I followed him through the doorway, shoving his palm into my shoulder.

“Yeah, used to, asshole. When was the last time you two were together?”

He paused, a line forming between his brows. “It’s…been a few months. But that’s your fault too, because you have been sucking all the oxygen out of my place for the last few months.”

“Thanks, asshole,” I muttered, pacing in front of the window. “Nice to know how much of an inconvenience I was to you while I was recovering from nearly dying.”

Glancing out the pane of glass, I could barely make out where Rhey was still wrapped around Hazel with her head down behind a few of the cars. Fuck, I wasn’t even sure what to feel right now.

“That’s not…” he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face roughly. “You know I was okay with you staying there, but I couldn’t exactly invite her over to fuck with you there. I’m not a total asshole.”

“You sure about that?” His mouth opened and then closed again as he swallowed down whatever answer he was about to shoot back at me. “Cause you’re acting like one right now.”

“Well,” Reid interrupted from the doorway. “Now that you two are talking instead of yelling, I’m gonna leave you to it before people come looking for us. Try not to kill each other.”

“No promises,” I shot back, and our cousin shook his head, quietly pulling the door closed. This wasn’t the first time he’d had to referee a blow up with one of my brothers. The Harding men were short-tempered and competitive, which didn’t always make for the most level-headed conversations when one of us was riled up.

“I just don’t understand how you two could do this to me?” he hissed, and I rolled my eyes. Always the fucking victim, and he knew it pushed all my buttons.

“Are you in love with her? Or just fucking her?” I growled, pinning my brother with a look that even had him shrinking back.

As the baby of the family, Jay had spent half his life getting what he wanted because he thought he deserved it. Well, fuck that shit. I wasn’t giving this up without a fight. I wasn’t givingherup without a fight.

She wasn’t some toy he’d claimed first and refused to share. She’d never been his. Not really. Not in any way that mattered.

Not in the way I felt every time I saw her.

I’d been where he was. Feeling possession of a woman that I couldn’t—or wouldn’t—commit to. I’d had my fair share of friends with benefits over the years. You weren’t unmarried and closing in on forty without having been in relationships, friendly, physical or otherwise.

But I’d also seen a few of those same women fall in love with someone who wasn’t me. And I didn’t act like a jealous little prick and selfishly hold on to someone when I couldn’t give them what they needed.

And there was one thing I knew for sure. Annie deserved to be loved. And I was gonna be the undeserving fucker who gave it to her. Gave her the part of me I’d never truly given to someone else.

Sure, I thought I’d been in love once or twice. But not like this. Not to where I wanted to tear my fucking baby brother to shreds at the thought of him going anywhere near her.

“Oh, so you steal my girlfriend while I’m out of town and suddenlyI’mthe bad guy?” he scoffed.

“I didn’t steal anything, you selfish little prick. She told me about this guy she’d been hooking up with who would never be more than a friend. Wasn’t aware that made her your girlfriend.”

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