Page 8 of Forgotten Desires

“I was invited.”

She huffs. “I walked into that one.”

“I wanted to see you,” I answer honestly. “I didn’t realize Rowan was your brother until he mentioned it the other day, then before I knew it, I changed my entire schedule to be here.”

“You changed your schedule?”

I feel a little stupid admitting that, but it’s the truth. “Yes. To see you.”

“Kind of an insult to the bride and groom.”

I smile. “I’ll make it up in the wedding gift.”

The teasing—just a few seconds of it—and I’m taken back to when we met.

“Come on, Crew!” Ford yelled as I ran toward the football he’d purposely thrown at the sorority girls who were tanning next door.

It was definitely not a bad view. “Sorry, girls!”

A few giggled and the others rolled their eyes as they went back to sunning themselves.

I reached where the football landed, squatted down to look for it, and I saw a pair of long, tanned legs before me, with one foot tapping. Slowly, I let my gaze travel her body, up over her flat stomach, to where a very nice rack was waiting above.

“Hello there,” I said, coming to my full height.

The little redhead looked up. “Hi. Did you lose something?”

“My ball.”

She put her hand on her hip, extending the football with the other. “I figured. Be more careful, not every girl here grew up with a houseful of brothers who threw things.”

“A houseful?” I asked, intrigued.

“Well, three, but if you factor in when they had friends around, the number grew.”

“Crew!” Ford yelled and I lifted my hand up, not even turning to look at him. “Bro!”

The gorgeous girl raised one perfectly arched brow. “You’re being paged.”

“He can wait.”

“He looks pissed.”

I grinned. “Good. He threw the ball at you girls—this is his punishment. He can wait. Now, what’s your name?”

She looked off to the side before meeting my gaze again. “What’s it worth to you?”

“My life,” I said rather dramatically.

“Your life? My name is worth that? Wow, I’m pretty damn important.”

“You are.”

She smiled. “Brynlee.”

“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”

That caused her eyes to roll. “Dear God. Does that work on girls at whatever college you go to?”

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