My best friend’s warning about his little sister burned in my pocket with my cell.
This week was about to punch me right in the dick.
ChapterTwo
Charlie
I never thoughtfor a second Saint Nick would agree to my proposition. I mean, yes, he’s saint-worthy. So freaking squeaky clean I had the unshakable urge to spin my tires in a pile of mud and coat him from head to toe with unexpected fuckery.
Despite his golden boy ways, he’d never once extended his saintly gestures to me.
Not that I’d earned them. I’d spent a lifetime torturing him, doing anything and everything to get a rise out of him. Just aching to see one perfect strand of hair slide out of place. Just once.
He was just so inherently… good. Everything he touched turned to success. Nothing handed to him, just a natural ability to try something and in no time at all, excel at it.
Nick approached everything with unflappable patience and dedication, soon after he slid effortlessly into mastery.
No strutting or bragging.
His accidental perfection was unsettling.
Which meant he was the absolute perfect solution to thwart my mother and whatever she had up her sleeve with Daniel.
If he didn't drive me out of my mind before then.
Sunshine danced over his skin, glinting on the facial hair he’d let grow in. Even the awkward stage between sexy scruff and neat beard was perfect.
He was completely oblivious to it. And wasn’t that a punch in the tit? He was simply indifferent to his benevolence.
My proximity to Nick always seemed to highlight my inadequacies. Or so I thought. But perhaps proximity was the key. After all, if they believed I managed to snag him, that had to be points in my favor, right?
Well, feigned proximity. Whatever got us through the weekend. The bare minimum of polite PDA when we were in the company of our families and that was it.
I certainly didn’t expect to earn me favorite status. Chance had that position locked tight by being selfless and going into the Army. Then when he had the opportunity to get out, he went career. Welp, there was no way in hell for me to compete with that.
And Eve, well, she worked in a predominantly male field as a carpenter and wouldn’t be caught dead at one of our parents’ dinner parties, rubbing elbows with our parents’ friends, our dad’s business associates, or God forbid, fending off some of the prospects our mother marched her way. No one even dared hint at her putting on a designer dress. They probably feared her coming at them with a nail gun. But she got a pass because she spent so much time sick as a kid.
So that left me. The one who couldn’t be set up, steered in their direction, or settle down.
The one who actually loved her job as a massage therapist, a career choice my mother told me more than once was beneath a McAllister.
Basically, I was the fuck up.
Nick could be my arm candy… and my mom adored him, so it was a win-win. She’d be planning our babies before our heads hit the pillow tonight.
Our boots clicked over the damp asphalt as we made our way to the resort to meet our families and check in. We had maybe five minutes before we jumped under the microscope of two nosy mothers.
“Okay, so we need some rules.”
His lips quirked. “I’m pretty sure only one of us needs rules. Lots of rules.”
“Funny.” I adjusted my garment bag on my shoulder. “If you plan to sell yourself as my boyfriend, especially to our mothers, you’ll have to treat me like I’m not Nair headed straight for your balls.”
His head swung to mine, and he pierced me with a wary stare. “Is that a move from your playbook I haven’t encountered yet?”
“Yet, but we’re young. There’s still time.” I patted his shoulder and laughed at his horrified expression.
His assessing gaze raked over me, and his mouth turned down at the corners. “Maybe I just have a healthy fear your vagina has teeth and I’m not dumb enough to go anywhere near that nightmare.”
