“You know exactly what we’re talking about.” James laughs.
“I had to turn around the minute I saw my sister get all handsy with you. Why would you do that in front of me?” August gestures to himself with both hands, giving me a disapproving look.
“I was just following her lead.” I bite back a smile.
I start to think about us dancing under the mood lighting, the base vibrating off the floor and into our bodies. I can still feel the handprints she left on me as she moved them around my upper body.
When her hand landed at the nape of my neck, I wanted to go feral. My body felt like it was on fire, but at the same time, the desire that poured out of me when I slid my hands over her waist and hips. I let myself go a step further when I passed the hem of her shorts and landed them on her bare thighs.
Teenage Rowan would lose his absolute shit if he saw that happening.
I felt myself get hard when she presses her ass into me, and even though I knew I should have stepped back and taken a breather. My body didn’t want to leave hers. It just pressed in closer.
“You guys looked like you were about to eat each other's faces.” Beau joins the laughter with his brother.
August groans to Beau, hitting him on the shoulder with the back of his hand. “Dude.”
I roll my eyes before saying, “Nothing happened.”
eighteen
ELLIE
“So much happened,”I tell the girls.
I give Addie the rundown, already knowing Riley and Hailey were there. The touching, grinding, stroking. The way my heart practically leaped out of my chest. How we were so close to kissing, and I was scolding myself in my head for even thinking about wanting him to land his lips on mine.
And I’m almost positive I felt something on my ass. But I’m not going to share that with them.
“I can’t believe I missed this!” Addie shouts.
Hailey looks at her with pinched brows.
“You want to see your brother and Ellie make out?” Riley replies.
Addie slumps her shoulders and rolls her eyes. She pushes her hair out her face and composes herself. “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean that I wish I saw Rowan almost beat the shit out of a guy. My brother can’t hurt a fly. Remember when I saw a spider crawling on top of his desk at work, and I told him to kill it?”
Addie pops a piece of a chocolate bar into her mouth. “He got the creepy thing in a glass and brought it outside to put on a bush. Who does that? So, when I say I wish I were there because my brother was staring down at a guy who was being rude to you, I’d pay money to see that fight.”
“The guy wasn’t rude to me. Just, a little aggressive, I guess. He wanted to continue hanging out, and I didn’t want to. That’s when he grabbed my wrist, and I didn’t even hear Rowan come up behind me.” I shrug. “Do I attract assholes or something? All the guys I’ve met outside of Dove Point are creeps or jerks. The many dates I’ve gone on, I could write a horror book about. Like one time, I went on a date with a guy whoseemednormal, only to tell me that the government was watching us and that they put a chip in our brains when we were born.”
Hailey lets out a cackle. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah, I stayed the entire time because I was too scared to abruptly end the date. I smiled, nodded, and never saw him again.” I shiver.
“Okay, going back to what we were originally talking about,” Riley states. “Did you want to kiss Rowan?” She leans from across the floor with a gleeful smile.
“I’m not going to lie and say no.”
Addie shrieks.
“You know, it’s weird that you’re excited over your friend and older brother almost kissing,” Hailey says to Addie with a worried expression.
“It’s not weird! If they get back together, then Ellie is my sister again!” Addie can’t hold her excitement.
When Rowan and I dated in high school, Addie took that as us planning to get married and started calling me her sister. It was very cute, and of course, I never told her to stop. Rowan didn’t either. The day we decided to end things, Addie took it harder than the actual couple who split up.
“We’re not getting together,” I say in defeat.
