“Okay.” I wrap my arms around his waist. “I’ll make sure we keep things light. And thank you in advance.” My teeth graze my lip over and over again with apprehension of what the night mightbring.
“For what? Spending time with the girl I can’t keep my hands off?” His voice softens, as doeshisgaze.
“For spending time with my psycho of a sister. Lisa is going to drill and grill you. Stay strong, my friend.” I give his rock-hard ass a squeeze. “Staystrong.”
Friar’s Corneris deficient of its fair share of Starbucks and Walmarts and doesn’t even register on the radar of any modern map. It’s one of those long-forgotten, one cow towns that is stuck in another era, another century, a simpler time when girls still get both a reputation and an ass whooping for looking at, let alonelivingwith amarriedman.
Levi drives as I point the way to the tiny home I grew up in, the one Lisa and her husband, Dave, now own andlivein.
No sooner do we pull up to the tiny baby blue bungalow than my younger sisters greet us on theporch.
I pull them both into a giant group hug. “Levi, this is Sadie. She’s a senior and graduates in two weeks. And this is Everly. She’ll be a senior in the fall.” They’re both blonde and beautiful, same blue-green eyes as ourmother.
“Future Briggs’girls?”
“That’s right.” Sadie gives him the side-eye while jutting out her chest, and oh my God, is she hitting onmyman?
“Down, girl. Let’s head inside, ladies, and get this show ontheroad.”
Lisa spots us from the kitchen and lets out a roaring whoop as she heads on over with each of her girls tucked in her arms. Karly and Kasey are four and five and small little blonde whippets at that. Lisa, however, is a blonde bombshell with big blue eyes, a big personality, and those heart-stopping looks of hers, I’m sure have already rendered Levi speechless. Lisa looks startlingly like our mother, and at times that’s been both a blessing and acurse.
Lisa stops shy of attacking me and feasts her eyes on the strapping god I’ve managed to drag inwithme.
“Well, hell—icopter.” She lands the girls down, and they scatter. Lisa promised herself she’d give up expletives for life once her little girls were born, and she’s holding strong in that department, but in lieu of that fact, she’s liable to get a little creative with the English language. “What the fudge? Or should I say, who the hells bells is this handsome man? Please say he’s mypresent.”
“Again—down, girl.” I wrap an arm around Levi, and he laughs while extendingahand.
“LeviMasterson.”
“Oh?” Lisa perks up, and I cringe because I know what’s coming next. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Raven Masterson,wouldyou?”
And there it is. Lisa knows Raven alltoowell.
“My God!” Lisa chirps, and my sisters gather around to gawk. “There she is hiding in your face!” The three of them let out a congratulatory whoop. “Raven came down to Friar’s Corner just about every single Sunday along with this one right here.” Lisa doesn’t take her eyes off Levi. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was salivating. “I don’t remember Raven mentioning a strapping olderbrother.”
“She’s got two.” I avert my eyes at the thought of two-timingChip.
“So, is this official?” Lisa’s left brow hikes in the air, and my stomach boils in its own acids. Dear God, that eyebrow has roasted and toasted the best of them. Please, Lord, let that be her one and finalquestion.
Levi and I share that deer in the headlights look and hem and haw our way through the next ten seconds while Sadie and Everly giggle up a storm.Traitors.
“Ah, so it’s new.” Lisa’s head tips back, and her eyes slant the way they do before she’s about to pull out the sword with which to gut you. “Say—you look about my age.” She winks. The wink of death. “Any exes under your belt yet? Have you taken the paralyzing plunge? You know, made anunholymerger?”
“Yes,” Levi flatlines, and that grin he’s been wearing since we stepped out of the car is quicklydissipating.
Gah! This is no time to tell the truth! I do my best to step in his line of vision and give my head a barely there shake. Abort!Abort!
Lisa chortles like only she can because she knows she’s got him. “What’s my little sissy trying to hide?” She wags a finger at him. “Let me guess. You’ve got two ex-Mrs. Mastersons hiding in the wings?Three?”
Ifonly.
Levi takes in a breath, his already massive chest expanding like an accordion. “I think maybe what Low doesn’t want you to know is the fact my divorce isn’t quitefinal.”
Oh.My.Shit.
You can feel the oxygen vacuuming out of the room as my three sisters, including Dave who seems to have stepped into the room at the entirely wrong time, suck in a never-ending lungfulofair.
“A married man?” Lisa laughs as she says it like only a madwoman can. Her stern eyes narrow in on mine, and I can feel the very real and sudden urge to bolt to my room. “Harlow Hartley, you have got to be fucking with me.” The entire room seizes. And there goes her, for lack of a better word—fucking record. “This is a joke, right? I mean, the next thing you know you’ll try to tell me the two of you are livingtogether.”
