Page 16 of Summer with a Brother's Best Friend
Polishing off my beer, I set my glass on the bar and throw enough money down to cover our drinks.
“Where you headed?” he asks even though I know his mind is still stuck on a certain cake baker with girl-next-door looks and a sassy mouth.
“I’m taking Reece and Vienna to the Book & Barrel.” This gets his attention as he gawks at me.
“What did you do to deserve that?” he asks incredulously.
“I lost a bet,” I admit with a shrug and a grin.
“You lost a bet, and now you need to take my sister and her best friend to the bookstore?”
“Yep,” I say, popping thepand shoving my hand in my front pocket as I stand. “I owe them each a book too.”
“What the hell kind of bet did you make?” He laughs, his expression filled with amusement, and I’m happy he’s at least distracted for a moment.
“They bet me that they could kick the keg on the English Breakfast Tea Stout running a special with Choco-Love pairing chocolates.”
“That’s a good one. Did Noah make it?”
I nod. Noah Drake and I hadn’t socialized too much over the years, but I had to admit the guy was something of a genius when it came to chocolate.
“Dark chocolate truffles with a dark, sweet, cherry in the middle surrounded by a raspberry cream filling and edible gold sprinkled over each one. Have you ever seen edible gold? It was insane.”
“That isveryspecific,” Maddox says with a wry grin.
“I said it so many times it’s burned into my brain. I also walked over there as soon as they opened the next day and asked for a box for myself.”
And Reece.
But I don’t say that part out loud.
“And how long did it take for the girls to win?”
“We didn’t even make it to eight o’clock,” I say, thinking back to how everyone had raved over the idea. It had been a hit, and I’d already talked to Noah about a repeat event.
Maddox snorts and shakes his head. “So now you owe them a drink and a book?”
“Yeah,”—I glance down at my watch—“and now I gotta run.”
“Have fun with that.” He snorts into his beer, but I can’t help but grin.
Oh, I plan to.
13
ISAAC
“Icannot believe you agreed to this,” Vienna says as we walk the short distance to the Book & Barrel, the former church turned bar and bookstore. It’s a nice night, and the large bay doors are open, laughter spilling out into the street.
“What? I brew beer so I can’t like wine?” I ask with faux irritation as Vienna rolls her eyes. She has siblings, and because I know she’s missing hers, I try my best to be as annoying as I can.
Because I’m nice like that.
“I’m just saying this seems a little…high-class for your beach-bum taste. You give off more of the beer-helmet vibe.”
I chuckle, letting her and Reece walk in front of me toward the bar. They’re in sundresses and the platform sandals that women somehow justknowhow to walk in without risk of serious injury.
Even though they’re only supposed to be here for the summer, both of them brought enough shoes to last a year. I doubt I’ve had that many shoes in my entire life. It’s probably a bad comparison though because my lame sneakers are no matchfor the sexy as hell wedges with ribbon tied up both Reece’s calves.
