Page 79 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

That’s what I built this place on.

And right now, I’m keeping myself busy, elbow deep in an engine that’s not due for pickup until next month. Hank already double-checked the parts order. Fletcher’s finishing up a weld at the back bench, calm and precise as always.

There’s no reason for me to still be here.

Except I don’t want to go home yet.

Home means June. It means pretending nothing happened between us while I sit across from her at the kitchen table, Evan chattering to her about dinosaurs while she laughs like the world didn’t rearrange itself the night I walked her back to the Switchback and forgot every rule I’ve ever lived by.

I tighten a bolt that’s already tight.

Fletcher kills the welding torch and the sudden silence rings in my ears.

I don’t look up when his boots cross the concrete.

He stops beside me. “Got a minute?”

My hands are still on the wrench. “Yeah.”

I wipe my palms on a rag, finally straighten upright, and look at him.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“I slept with June.”

Huh?

The world narrows, as if someone reached into my chest and cinched a strap too tight.

I don’t blink. I just look at him, waiting for the punchline, the realization that, somehow, he knows about our night at the inn. But nothing comes.

“I… see.”

“It was bonfire night.”

That… actually makes sense.

It was the night she came home later than usual, cheeks flushed, hair tousled, wearing a smile she tried to hide but didn’t quite manage to.

I nod once, swallowing everything down. “Okay.”

“You gonna say anything?” he asks.

“What do you want me to say?”

His jaw shifts. “I wanted you to hear it from me.”

I believe him.

That’s Fletcher. Doesn’t sneak. Doesn’t take what belongs to someone else.

Except June doesn’t belong to me.

That’s the part I have to swallow.

“I mean, she works for you, right?” He shrugs. “And I thought it might be a little weird. Especially because I want to take her out.”

That one lands harder than the first part.