Page 35 of Stunner (Whiskey Dolls 3)

My heart sank as my sister looked at me with a shit-eating grin. “You need to get that, lover boy?”

“Nah, just leave it,” I grunted, then proceeded to drain my beer bottle before moving to the fridge for a second.

“What?” Hardin squeaked. “What do you mean,just leave it? That’s your dream woman calling, right there, and you’re going to ignore it?”

The slice of pizza I had just enjoyed was suddenly sitting in my gut like a brick. “It’s not a big deal,” I muttered as I started on my second beer. “Just leave it alone, will you?”

I should have known better than to think she’d let it end with that. “Nuh-uh. No freaking way.” Pushing her plate aside, she leaned closer, resting her forearms on the counter. “What’s going on with you, big brother?”

I let out a sigh of my own, feeling the same weight on my chest that had been there since Jackson’s unexpected visit three days earlier, just pressing and pressing, making it difficult to breathe. I hated myself for it, but the truth was, I’d let him get in my head. Everything he’d said about me not being good enough, about Asher expecting more, it had been eating at me for days.

It wasn’t just her calls I’d been avoiding either. It had started with texts the night she got home with Triumph, and she’d made sure to send one a day since then. I felt like the biggest asshole in the world for not responding, but every time I picked up the phone to start a reply—which was at least once every fucking half hour—Jackson’s words filtered back in and stopped me.

A year and a half ago I’d dreamed of this very scenario. Now I was panicking and fucking everything up in the process. I knew it, I just couldn’t seem to stop it.

“I don’t think it’s going to work out,” I said, staring down at the bottle as I peeled at the label with my thumbnail.

“What are you talking about? How could you possibly know that before anything’s even happened?”

“That’s not quite true,” I admitted, thinking back to that kiss that almost happened. Remembering the beauty of her smile as she looked up at me, the intoxicating way she smelled, how her beautiful golden eyes grew glassy the closer I got, it heated my blood and made my skin uncomfortably tight.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep my body in check. I was a grown-ass man, damn it. I could control my erections. Or atleast that had been the casebeforeAsher. It was bad enough I’d jacked off over a goddamn kiss that hadn’t even happened, coming all over my stomach hard enough I’d seen stars. I didn’t need to get turned on while my sister was standing right in front of me.

“What are you talking about?” She sucked in a gasp and slapped her hand down on the countertop. “Something happened between you guys, and you didn’t tell me?” she asked in a voice laced liberally with accusation.

I lifted my hands in a placating gesture before her head started spinning in circles. “All right, calm down, crazy. It wasn’t anything major. We just almost kissed.”

Her chin jerked back in confusion. “What does that mean? How do youalmostkiss someone?”

I explained the situation with Asher’s dog, then waited not-so patiently as Hardin spent the next two minutes cracking up.

“Glad I could provide you with some entertainment,” I deadpanned as I slapped the lid closed on the pizza box and slid it across the counter, farther away from her. “Just for that, you don’t get any more of my pizza.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said through giggles as she tried to get hold of herself. “I’m stopping now. Sorry.” She closed her eyes and pulled in a calming breath. “All right, continue.” She waved me on.

I told her about Asher mentioning her club’s party and how I’d offered to go with her as her plus-one. I told her how fucking incredible I’d felt after she left, knowing things were finally moving in the direction I’d wanted them to move in for so damn long. Then I told her about Jackson showing up, and how he’d managed to ruin that good mood with minimal effort.

“Oh, you sweet, clueless,idiot!” she snapped while reaching across the counter and smacked me in the side of my head.

“Ow! Jesus!” I rubbed at my stinging scalp. “What the hell was that for?”

“For being a complete and total dumbass,” she cried. “I can’t believe you let that raging hemorrhoid, Jackson, get in your head like that.”

“You have to admit, he had a point.”

“No he didn’t!” she exclaimed.

“Come on, Hard. Think about it. You know I can’t give her the same kind of lifestyle he could.”

She threw her arms out wide. “Wow, okay. I think your stupidity just reached the terminal stage. I’m not sure you can be saved.”

Well that stung. “What? Why?”

She rolled her eyes and blew out a loud, obnoxious raspberry. “Because she was building up to asking you out, you big dummy.”

I opened my mouth to object, only to suddenly start second-guessing everything I’d been thinking for the past three days. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“Of course I do. I’m a woman, aren’t I? She was telling you about the party, making sure to mention the whole plus-one thing, as a build-up to asking you if you wanted to go with her. You just beat her to it. You think she’d do that if she gave a fat flying crap about what lifestyle you could provide her?”

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