Mia brings me water and she walks up with a Shirley temple.
“You can drink tonight, you know. I’m driving. Go nuts.”
“I’ll have one soon, but Shirley was calling my name first.” Mia smiles and I watch as she moves around the dance floor with Bree and some other girls.
“Mom and dad love her, you know.” Gretchen’s voice pulls my attention away from the dance floor and over to her.
“Yeah? Is that why they gave us a cabin with one bedroom? Trying to force us together?” My eyebrows crease, and Gretchen just shrugs.
“How are you? I know it’s probably pointless to ask this, but we all saw the game.”
“I’ll be alright, Gretch. Don’t worry about me,” I say, holding my fist out for a bump.
Taking care of my younger sisters has always been my role. Being their big brother is a job I don’t take lightly and I need them to know that regardless of whatever I’m dealing with, being there for them will always be a priority. I don’t need them worrying about me.
“I know you like to act tough, Nate. But it’s okay to let yourself rest.”
“You sound like that one,” I say, gesturing my finger to Mia. “I am resting though. This is me resting. Believe me, the last week has been filled with rest and relaxation.”
Gretchen tucks a piece of blonde hair behind her ear and pulls out her book, placing it on the table in front of her.
“Also, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to settle down, Nate. You’re almost thirty… have you considered it at all?”
I sigh. My sister may have just turned twenty-one, but she’s already on the fast track to middle-aged. Gretchen wouldn’t know a fun, wild night if it was staring her in the face, which coincidentally, it is right now.
“And you just turned twenty-one, why are you sitting here like a bump on a log, hanging out with your brother when you could be doing that?” I ask, pointing to Bree and Mia now on a stage.
Wait, what? Why are they on a stage?
I stand up to see why they’re the only two women in this whole bar standing on a stage, only to realize they’re actually standing on the bar and some guy just handed them microphones. Are they… singing?
“What the fuck are they doing?” I ask myself, but Gretchen, of course, hears me.
“Tell me again how I should be over there, doing that?”
I roll my eyes at her and toss a napkin on the table as I get up and walk over, close to the two of them.
Music starts and it’s a song I recognize. I’d bet one hundred dollars Mia requested this one. I walk a little closer to the bar where there are now too many men staring at my sister and my best friend and my mind is confused as fuck. Mia struts down the bar holding the mic in one hand and a beer bottle in the other while another few girls hop up there too. I’m going to let Mia have her Coyote Ugly moment, but then I am yanking her off of this bar so goddamn fast. Maybe coming out tonight wasn’t the best idea. Now that I’m having to face these feelings for Mia, I can’t stand the thought of someone else even looking at her.
Mia laughs through lyrics and then whips her hair around, causing her brown strands to fall over one shoulder and she seductively bends down, spreading her legs at the end ofthe song. Like every other man in this room, I’m completely mesmerized by what she’s doing. She blushes as she stands, covering her face with her hand once the song is over and bends down to hand the mic to a bartender behind her before she spots me and waves. Fuck, she looks so happy. Like she just had the time of her life up there for three minutes.
Bree hops off the bar at the other end while I see Mia bending down again to talk to the bartender, her ass would be hanging out of those shorts if not for the flannel around her waist. I’m walking up closer to where she is when I see a hand reach up towards her thigh, nearly touching her. I move towards her and shove my body against his, not enough to cause a scene, but enough so that he knows to back the fuck up.
“Hands. Off,” I say, causing him to falter a few steps back. I grab Mia’s waist, pulling her down in one quick motion.
“You can’t just hop up on bar tops, Mia,” I grumble.
“They said we could for the song. You know, it was part of the whole vibe.” She shrugs and tries to walk away, but my hand reaches around her waist, holding her in place.
My lips are centimeters from her ear as I tilt my head down to whisper, “Don’t bend over like that on this fucking bar giving everyone down here a show.”
“I have this around my waist.” She pulls at the flannel.
“I don’t care if you were wearing a goddamn tracksuit and wrapped in a Snuggie. Don’t bend over like that again.”
Mia stares at me for a second, almost tempting me as she leans in just a tiny bit closer. “Is this you being protective or possessive?”
“Both,” I growl out beside her ear.
