Page 98 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

"—was that you I saw at Marcus's site the other night? At the display village?"

Something in my chest goes very still. "That was me."

She claps. "I thought so! Hard to tell from where I was. My fiancé built the one across the way. Hunter."

"Well," Betty says, entirely too innocent, "one of her fiancés."

Aria elbows her. "Betty."

Her friend could not care less. "What? It's not a secret."

"What's not a secret?” I ask, trying not to sound too nosy.

Aria waves a hand, swatting the topic away. "It's nothing, I have three fiancés. Not a big deal."

I stare at her, trying to remember something my mother might’ve told me about this. But there’s nothing and I’m sure I’d remember. Because having three fiancés actually sounds like a very. Big. Deal. “Weren't you engaged a few years ago? Is he one of them?"

Betty snorts and gets a slap.

"I was," Aria starts, cryptically. "But no, he's not one of the fiancés."

"The three current ones are all his older brothers, though!" Betty shouts with glee.

My brain does one of its buzzing-noise things, then shuts down. Before I can ask any questions, someone raps sharply on the door. "You lot done in there? There's a line."

Aria pushes off the sink, already moving. "Are you here because your brother's part owner?"

"Nope. Coincidence. I didn't know Craig was bringing me here."

"Well, at least he has good taste," she says with a wink, and I follow, biting back the seven thousand intrusive questions I have about her relationships.

Ten minutes later, Betty is on stage belting out a song, head thrown back, clearly in her element. Aria and the man who was staring at her — Jaxon — have joined us for a round of axe throwing, and it's clear Aria is just as competitive as me when Jaxon and Craig nearly hurt themselves laughing at our trash talk.

"You're gripping it wrong," Jaxon says to Aria, watching her line up her throw. "You'll never hit centre like that."

"Says the man who just hit the wall," she retorts.

"That was a warm-up throw," he says, pretending to look insulted.

"For what, us? To get our insults ready?”

I cackle. "Oh, I like her."

"Don't encourage her," Craig says. "You're supposed to be on my side. We agreed on teams. Us against them."

I scrunch up my face. "We did not agree on anything. You just started calling us 'Team Winner' without consulting me. I would never join a team with such a loser name."

Aria throws her axe. Hits dead centre. I jump over to stand next to her. "And that is why I'm on Team Target This!" And without any prior consultation, exactly on cue, Aria and I both turn around and point to our butts and then dissolve into giggles, entirely missing when we try to high five.

It takes a good five minutes before either of us have composed ourself enough to be allowed to hold an axe in our hands.

I'm about to take my turn when something shifts in the room.

I pull my hand back, looking toward the door, having caught something at the edge of my vision.

"You right?" Aria asks, following my line of sight.

"I don't know," I say, trying to place what's wrong, when I see him, right at the entrance.