Page 47 of My Brother's Best Friends

“You didn’t have a problem with it earlier,” I reply.

Kellan gives me a pained look. “I didn’t know she’d hook me the way she did. Alex, Kay is… God, she is something else, entirely.”

“And to think Oscar worried she’d be the one falling hard. Look at us—completely whipped,” I say with a low laugh.

Kellan pauses. “We should talk about this later.”

“About what?”

“About Bryan. We should find a way to tell him. Ideally sooner.”

“Give it a minute,” I tell him. “We don’t even know where this is going. It could end as soon as we hop back on the plane, Kel.”

Worry shadows his eyes. “I don’t think Bryan will react well.”

“I mean, even if he doesn’t like it, there’s nothing he can do, right?” I ask.

Kellan switches the coffee pot on and a moment later it gurgles into action. “I don’t know. We’re not in the sixteenth century, so he can’t order her to stop seeing us.”

“True,” I agree.

“But he could feel hurt,” Kellan says. “Offended. Disrespected. Appalled, even.”

I stare at him in genuine dismay, injured by the words. The last thing I want to do is to hurt Bryan. He’s our best friend and has been since we were kids. “I was hoping we could all be one big, happy family.”

“Me too,” Kellan admits.

Oscar emerges from his room, tucking in his shirt. “Okay, I stalled him. He’s going to give us an hour to get ready.”

“Good,” I sigh deeply.

“I’ll hit the shower,” Kellan grumbles and stalks back to his room.

Oscar glances over at me, shaking his head. “What’s that about?”

“Telling Bryan about us.”

But I don’t want to dig deeper, so I raise my hands and walk away. A hot shower sounds perfect right now.

We’ve got to figure this Bryan thing out quickly, or it’s going to ruin everything.

But yet again, the final vote belongs to Makayla. She has the most at stake; as Bryan’s sister, her call matters more than anyone’s. For better or worse, the three of us are bound by ourbusiness partnership and shared success. Their sibling bond is sacred—nothing comes before it.

16

OSCAR

“We normally react better to unforeseen circumstances,” I tell Kellan as he comes back into the living room.

“I think Makayla’s got us twisted,” he concedes. “We haven’t argued like this in a while.”

Clearly, he’s had time to think.

So have I.

“I know sneaking around behind Bryan’s back is wrong,” Kellan says. “You’re not the only one who’s aware of the potential repercussions.”

The passion that ignites between Makayla and the three of us is instant and all-consuming, leaving us damn near incapable of thinking straight. Bryan walking in on us never should have mattered in the first place.

---