Page 5 of Seducing Bran
“No.” Ireland shook her head. “That’s embarrassing.”
“It won’t take much,” Cali said, and looked to Jaeg. “Right?”
“Nah,” Jaeg said. “I won’t make it obvious. I’ll tell him we want to show you around Tahoe. See if he knows of anything fun.”
Ireland folded the napkin she’d been shredding. “I guess that’s okay.”
“You see?” Cali said, and squeezed her hand. “It will be super chill. Hunt’s a nice guy.”
“When wasthe last time you got laid?” Hunt said.
His brothers were always bugging him about his personal life, and the conversation got old.
He pulled down the bill of his baseball cap. He could see just past the rim at the crowded pizza joint. “I don’t need to get laid. I’m content on my own.”
Hunt snorted. “Fuck content. Have our parents’ fates taught you nothing? Life’s too short. You gotta live it to the fullest while you can.”
Bran, Hunt, and their three brothers had lost their mother when they were kids. Poor Hunt had been a toddler at the time. Their father’s passing to cancer at a relatively young age too meant it was just the five of them now. No aunts or uncles or cousins to reach out to, since their father had cut off communication with extended family after their mother’s death.
Bran shot Hunt a look. “I don’t want the kind of fun you have.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bran tipped his head back and looked toward the ceiling. “Let’s see…first, there was Levi’s girlfriend.” Hunt hooked up with their oldest brother’s girlfriend when Hunt was only eighteen. That had been a nightmare.
Hunt shifted in his seat. “That was ages ago, and Levi has forgiven me.”
“Because he fell in love with Emily.”
“Exactly.”
Bran shook his head. Emily had knocked some sense into their oldest brother Levi, softening him and making him realize how important family was. She’d helped smooth things over between Levi and Hunt. Still… “There’s also the fact that you sleep with anything on two legs.”
Hunt curled his lip back. “Now that’s just rude. I have standards.”
Bran raised an eyebrow.
“Granted, not the same standards you do, but you haven’t gotten action in years. We’re all curious about your standards, given they prevent you from getting close to the opposite sex.”
Bran hadn’t asked for his brother’s opinion, not that it made a difference. He received regular feedback whether he wanted it or not.
It wasn’t so much that Bran had standards that ruled his life, but that he practiced a careful assessment of his actions before he did anything stupid.
Like he’d done in high school.
Which had changed the way he viewed the world.
But Bran wasn’t missing this opportunity to give Hunt a hard time. “My standards are simple. I choose understated over flashy.”
Hunt pointed at Bran. “And that’s your problem, right there. Nothing wrong with flashy. Flashy is fun. Remember that, brother?Fun? I seem to recall a time when you knew what that was, but it’s been so fucking long my memory is hazy.”
It had been a while since Bran had let loose. Because it typically equated to trouble in his book. Past experience proved his judgment sucked, so he chose to ignore fun altogether. “What’s your point?”
“Don’t you think it’s time you loosened up?” Hunt shrugged like a boxer preparing for a fight. “I don’t want to call you uptight, but…”
Bran rolled his eyes then scanned the restaurant for the waitress. Where the hell was his beer?
Bran’s brother Wes blocked his view and pulled up a chair. “I can’t stay long. Kaylee’s exhausted and I’ve got baby duties to take over so Kaylee can get some rest. What’d I miss? Heard you talking about fun.”
