Page 5 of My Brother's Best Men
He smirks that cocky smirk that I used to find so fucking hot back when I was a teenager, and I forget for the briefest moment where I am. Some time slip between yesterday and today? I can’t be sure.
Technically, Benny’s older than the rest of us, but only by three years, which isn’t muchnow.The age gap between twenty-eight and thirty-one isn’t all that big, but the age gap between sixteen and nineteen or eighteen and twenty-one…
He was always my brother’s hot older friend back then.
And Matthew is the baby of the group—five years younger than Benny. The two have always acted like they’re brothers rather than friends. Though Sam has always said Benny is like the older brother he never had. I’m pretty sure that’s how everyone sees him, honestly.
And I guess that was how I wassupposedto feel too, but…it wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
Benjamin Anderson was the guy I knew I couldn’t have, but who filled my fantasies more often than he probably should have.Especially during those long summer nights, when he and my brother and their friends would stay up all night swimming and partying, or those summer days when he’d parade through my house shirtless between video game sessions.
I’ll take those forbidden fantasies about him shoving me up against the wall or stumbling into my room in the middle of the night to my fucking grave.
My brother nods toward my suitcase. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited you’re here early, but…I thought you were supposed to arrive on Friday? At Paradise. Did your flight get changed at the last minute or something?” He drinks the beer he offered me
“Yeah,” I lie, tense. Well, it’s notentirelya lie. My flightdidget changed; it just wasn’t the airline that made that change…
“Change of plans,” I say, forcing a smile. “Your uh…guest room still open?” I bat my eyelashes at him, and I know I’m probably laying it on too thick, but I don’t want him to question me. Not here, and certainly notnow.I just want to crash on a soft mattress, pull up some warm covers, and block out the world until it’s time for my brother to sayI do.
But my life is never that easy. This isn’t some freaking romance novel. If it was, I wouldn’t be single and alone for my brother’s wedding.
Sam looks me up and down, twisting his lips. His gaze catches mine.
Shit. I know that look, that judgmental stare. He definitely knows something is up. Twin bonds are like that. Even when you don’t want them to, your twin always has a way of just knowing what’s going on, what you’re feeling or going through. It used to freak me out when I was little, but it’s kind of comforting too,to know that there’s one person in the world who gets you. Who you can never truly hide from.
But sometimes…it’s annoying as fuck. Like right now. When I knowhe knowssomething, but the question is whether he’s going to call me out on it or if he’s going to let it go.
I pray he lets it go.
“Mom and Dad know about this…change of plans?”
Well, I guess today really isn’t my lucky day at all.
I can feel the guys’ stares on me. I purse my lips. Of course he would bring this up now. Just when Ineedhim to go with the flow, he’s going to throw a monkey wrench in things. The last thing I want to do is get into what happened—especially in front ofthe guys.
Technically, I could stay with our parents until we leave for literal paradise. But I didn’t gothere. I camehere.Because I wanted comfort, not a thousand questions. Showing up at my parents’ place without warning would definitely get me a thousand questions, and I thought maybe Sam would just be excited to see me. That thesurprisewould be a plus.
Not to mention if Sam lets me crash here for a few days, maybe we both can avoid them until we leave, and I can just take some time to fucking breathe…to figure out what I’m going to do…
“What the hell does that matter?” I bite out, too spent from the exhaustion of my day. From finding Keaton with that girl…from the hellish flight… “Why do I have to run everything by Mom and Dad like I’m fucking fourteen again? Maybe I just wanted to spend time with mybrotherbefore everything starts to get crazy and your time is eaten up by everyone else.”
I don’t miss the way his eyebrows furrow, or the sudden frown on his face.
Shit.
Now I feel like an even bigger asshole.
He purses his lips. “I’m just saying, you know how Mom is about change.”
I do know. I know Mom hates it when things change at the last minute. It messes with her routine and schedule, and she gets super anxious. Another reason why I didn’t think calling her two days prior to my arrival at the drop of a hat was a good idea.
I have no clue how she and my dad found common ground, seeing as he’s the exact opposite. He’s chaos in a glass jar half the time. He’s the one I’d describe as spontaneous or whimsical, more able to adapt to the “swinging palm trees” of life, as he says. But where it matters, he can be stern and commanding. Like with me and my brother.
But even if I had called my dad and told him I was coming home early, it wouldn’t have mattered. I wouldn’t be giving him or her enough notice toadapt.
Seriously, how I was born into a family of super-organizers is beyond me.
The last thing I want to hear right now is my mother mewling about how she plannedeverythingaround me and my arrival and now nothing will go as planned, as if making sure the sheets are clean and whatnot is a huge chore, but I digress. She would act like my deciding to come early is a huge inconvenience, when literallyeveryone elseis flying in today and tomorrow. I canhear her now.“They were able to stick to the plan. Why couldn’t you?”
