I’ve just been dissed.I feel the back of my neck heat up.And I can’t help but notice the stark difference between the annoyance she has for me and the way she’s been gazing dreamily at Kirk.
I scan the space for an unused chair.“You need this?”I ask the occupants of a nearby table, grabbing the chair before they can answer, spinning it around, and dragging it to our table.I straddle the seat backwards, fold my arms over the top rung of the seatback, and drop my chin to my forearms so that I can stare.
Unfortunately, this gives me a front-row seat to this shocking display of human sexual interest.Summer hands Kirk my spoon and says, “You can share mine.I’ll never be able to finish this in one sitting.I’m more of a nibbler.”
Nibbler?
Oh, okay.I get it now.I’ve slipped into an alternate universe.Opposite Land.Hell.A twisted and sick place where Summer nibbles and knows how to flirt.Those are two additional things I thought she was genetically incapable of doing, along with the blushing.
I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands.
“Kirk’s in asset management,” Summer tells me while looking at him.
And your ass is the next resource he’d like to manage.
“Do you even know what that means, Summer?”I hope to sound like I’m well-versed in the world of finance.I think I just came off sounding like a dick, instead.
“It means I make a lot of money,” Kirk says, then laughs.Summer laughs too.“But that’s neither here nor there.”
Here nor there?I’m revising my opinion of my dude Kirk.
He’s a sociopath.
He slurps down a spoonful of ice cream and says, “How about you and I go for a dip in the pool, Summer?There are private cabanas and a swim-up bar and live music.You can meet up with your brother later.Maybe even tomorrow.”
Summer’s eyes flash at me, then she looks away.
Got it.
She’s told ole Kirkster that I’m her brother.This situation really should be making me laugh.I’m not laughing.
In fact, it’s all I can do not to throw something across the length of the restaurant.
Breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four…
But it’s all good.I’d probably do the same to Summer if the tables were turned.Maybe I evenhavedone the same when I was younger.And hey, if Summer’s into Kirk the ass manager, who am I to stand in her way?She’s a fully grown woman who deserves to have fun with a good-looking finance bro, if that’s what floats her boat.
It’s just that I’m having a really hard time believing that’s what floats her boat.
Maybe it’s for the best.If Summer’s busy with Kirk, I can get busy with Bryttni and salvage this New Year’s Eve from clusterfuck status.Which means I really shouldn’t cock block Summer.I should walk away from the couple and let nature take its course.
But I can’t.
This dude could be bad news, one of those dudes who seem totally normal at first but then slowly reveals the depths of their depraved psyche.
I stand up.“No.”
Summer’s expression shoots daggers at me.A spoonful of cookies and cream with sprinkles slides off her spoon and lands with a splat on her shirt.
“Let me help you with that.”
As Kirk paws at Summer’s chest with his napkin, I nail him with the high-powered photon beams of loathing now firing out of my eye sockets.
“What were you saying, Duncan?”He withdraws his hand from Summer’s personal space.
“Name’sDeclan.”
“Okay.”
