Page 43 of Vegas with my Brother’s Best Friends

“Take these back to the guys. Meet you over there,” Jackson says as he shoves the water bottles into Derek’s hands.

Derek’s jaw clenches, and I pause for a second as Derek and Jackson stare at each other.

Derek works out a decent bit and is pretty tall, but he’s nowhere near the size of Jackson. One of them works behind a desk all day. The other climbs into burning houses.

Derek glances at Tyler and Marcus as they stare him down too. “Fine.”

My eyebrows raise as I watch Derek walk away. “You guys are being a little obvious, huh?”

Jackson steps toward me, his hand reaching out. He doesn’t touch me, though. He just grabs Derek’s untouched beer off the bar and takes a sip. “Sorry, did you want to talk to him?”

“No,” I say. “But he doesn’t need to suspect anything either.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Jackson replies. “All he’ll know is that we know the truth.”

“The truth?”

“He hurt you far more than you let everyone else believe,” Jackson tells me before stepping away from the bar.

I grab his arm to stop him. “Don’t say anything to Ryan. Don’t say anything to anyone.”

Jackson looks down at my hand on his arm. “We shouldn’t get close like this.”

With a huff, I release him. “Please, Jackson. I don’t want to ruin this week by telling my brother that his best man is an asshole.”

“I’m not saying anything,” Jackson assures me before moving closer to Tyler and Marcus. “Come on.”

Tyler flashes me a sympathetic look before following Jackson.

Marcus lingers behind. “I can stay if you want to talk.”

He’s always so kind. And Tyler is so funny. And Jackson is so protective.

They’d all be great dads, but I don’t know if any of them actually want kids. Marcus seems like he would want them the most, but what if I’m wrong? What if how he grew up makes him not want kids?

It’s not like I can bring up the topic of kids with them without inciting suspicion.

“It’s fine,” I tell him as my face softens. “Thank you. I just need to cool off and sit down.”

Marcus glances at the group about to drop down into the water before looking back at me. It doesn’t seem like he even wants to budge from that spot.

“Okay,” he finally says before rejoining the others.

I turn back around and take a long sip of water, listening to Sarah and the others laugh and sing to the music completely off pitch. Sitting alone at the bar is obviously drawing too much attention to me.

Breathing through the churning in my stomach, I head over to them, putting a smile on my face as they cheer at the sight of me. Before I can say anything, a fancy cocktail glass full of alcohol is pushed into my hand.

“Turn the music up!” one of the girls shouts, a few of them standing from their chairs to playfully dance and take videos of themselves.

Sarah clinks her glass against mine. “Having fun?”

I take a fake sip and nod. “Oh, yeah. Nonstop thrill ride.”

“I saw Derek talking to you. What did he want?”

“He was just asking if I was going snorkeling with the group,” I reply, internally wincing at how easy that lie rolls off my tongue.

I’m getting better at doing that lately. I’ve been forced to.