Page 21 of My Brother's Best Friends

“Good luck swaying her back into the fold,” Kellan says, shooting me a look. “Your approach was a tad abrasive, to say the least.”

“I’ll make amends.” I pause and level him with a hard look. “Are you going to lunch like that?”

“You’re unusually cranky. Did somebody forget to get in a power walk this morning?”

I follow him out to collect the glasses and bottles from the balcony. The hot tub is still bubbling, and for a moment I wish I were in it.

I pause over the kitchen sink, bottles in hand, then pour the remaining champagne into a clean glass and down it in one hearty gulp.

“Feeling better?” Alex asks, holding back a chuckle.

“My apologies,” I say. “But I’m not sorry that I stopped this.”

“We should apologize, too,” Alex says, and Kellan begrudgingly agrees with a nod. “We share everything. It wasn’t our intention to keep Makayla from you.”

“In fact, she did ask about you,” Kellan adds.

My eyes widen. “She did?”

“Yes, she did,” he says.

“I know what this is about,” Alex says, cutting in. “I can still read you like an open book, Oscar.”

I raise a skeptical eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Well, you’ve already pointed out that you want us to take our time wooing her, and I agree. But it runs deeper for you. You want to know what Makayla’s like all grown up. You want to know how we managed to convince her to go all the way with us so soon. You’re wondering if she didn’t feel something for you way back when, and if so, why she’d be so eager to get it on with Kellan and me.”

“I don’t,” I insist. “None of those things are relevant. I’m just glad I stopped the three of you from making a big mistake.”

“The only mistake was not bringing you in sooner,” Kellan concedes.

“It still wouldn’t have happened like this,” I argue.

I head back into the lounge, not caring whether they follow. He’s hit a sore spot and he knows it. I never saw Makayla as a likely romantic partner, but I was always very aware of her whenever she was around. I’m not sure if Alex and Kellan felt the same way, but I definitely don’t want her to do anything she mightregret with either one of them. She’s not like the other girls, and that’s what scares me.

“Makayla can make her own decisions, and did it ever occur to you that maybe this isn’t the first time she’s thought of us that way?” Alex asks, coming up beside me.

I release another heavy sigh and flip on the TV, aimlessly scrolling through channels. I’m not sure there’s anything I want to watch, but I welcome the distraction.

“I understand that we surprised you,” Alex admits.

“We haven’t seen her for years,” I reiterate. “I leave you alone for five minutes and you’re already all over her.”

“You didn’t see her in the hot tub,” Alex says. “We talked. We got reacquainted. We didn’t just pounce on her.”

I don’t want to argue with him. I’m tired and the meeting ran late.

“I’m getting a headache,” I say. “It wasn’t bad enough that we’ve got too much work while we’re out here—now there’s this, too.”

“Take some aspirin,” Kellan suggests, nowhere near ready to fully concede. “It will be fine.”

I nod and wander away from the chaos my brothers have created. This is a disaster. We’re supposed to split this holiday between light work and relaxation, enjoying the luxurious comforts of this Swedish resort, yet all I seem to be doing is work.

Why can’t I just take the afternoon off and lounge naked in a hot tub with one of the most beautiful women on the planet? Whydo I always choose to be the righteous one when every inch of Makayla promises the sweetest kind of sin?

“I’ll see you both in a bit.”

Leaving Alex and Kellan to get dressed for our lunch with Bryan and his fiancée, I retire to my room for a while. It crosses my mind that I’m next door to Makayla. She’s probably in there cursing my name.

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