Breaking Bro Code (The Line Up #4) - Misti Murphy Page 0,31

you to go. They all want you to go.”

I forgot that he’d managed to wrangle my sister’s number out of her that time he ran into us during one of her visits, and that they stay in contact. “I can’t.”

“Because he’s marrying Jessa, right? The Jessa? It must be hard to deal with the fact that the woman who broke your heart is marrying your brother.”

“Yes. No.” It’s complicated. But not in the way he thinks, because I’ve never told anyone the truth about Jessa and me. Not even Jessa.

I just left. Moved across the country and pretended she didn’t exist. I wouldn’t even know where to begin explaining it to him. To anyone.

“It makes sense,” he says. “She was important to you.”

”I don’t have feelings for Jessa,” I snap. That all shattered into nothingness before I left, and I promised myself I would never do something as stupid as fall in love again.

So even if Lily wasn’t my best friend’s little sister and completely off-limits I still wouldn’t go there. Because she is the kind of girl that a man should fall for. Not me, but some other guy. Some nice guy who will treat her right and put her first and adore every freaking inch of her, including her freezing cold toes. Honestly, I’m going to hate that guy on sight, but whatever, he’ll be good for her. Hud and I are on the same page about that.

Even if the very thought makes me want to stick a fork through my eyeball to block out the image of her with someone else.

“Do you two have a moment?” Cal joins us in the storeroom. He looks tired and his dark hair is sticking up on one side, like he’s tugged on it repeatedly all afternoon while sorting through paperwork.

“Yes.” Anything is better than our current conversation.

“What’s up?” Hud asks.

“We have a problem at the L.A. club. Our manager was in a surfing accident. He was attacked by a shark.”

“Damn. That’s awful.”

“You’re kidding.” Hud whistles through his teeth. “Do they know what kind of shark it was?”

“I don’t think they know.” Cal shakes his head.

“I can’t believe you asked that.” Sometimes I really don’t understand how Hud’s mind works. I turn to Cal. “Is he okay?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Cal tugs at his hair. “It sounds like it was pretty serious. His wife was frantic. I need one of you to go out there for a few weeks. Assess whether we need to hire someone to fill in for him until he’s back on his feet. And run the show until that issue is resolved.”

“I’ll go.”

“You’ll go?” Hud blinks.

“You’re sure?” Cal asks.

“Hud should stay here with Jane being on bedrest. It makes sense that it should be me.” I shrug, like it isn’t the closest I’ve come to going home since I left at eighteen. But it’s not about my family and my brother and Jessa. It’s about Lily. As soon as Cal asked, I knew I had to go.

To see her.

Chapter Eleven

Lily

“How’s the little bean?” I ask Lewis via video chat. It’s Friday night and I’m curled up on the sofa with a bowl of cheese puffs, beer, and The Witcher on Netflix. Kiki went out to dinner with her boyfriend and Lewis flew back to Chicago yesterday to go to the ultrasound with Trix this morning, so I’m alone in the house we’re staying in.

Lewis won’t be back until Sunday night, so we’re chilling via Facetime. Me in my favorite pajamas—the ones with the taco sauce stain on the shorts and the picture of a yellow chick with an eye patch on the top along with the words pew pew madafakas—and him surrounded by framed posters of The Avengers and drinking out of a skull like an evil overlord with a bit too much facial scruff and a monochromatic flannel wardrobe.

“Kind of looks like an alien.” Beaming, he puts his mug down and lifts out of his seat to take his wallet out of his pocket. He pulls a thin, shiny piece of photo paper out of it—the corners are already curled, probably from showing it to everyone he’s come across today—and holds it to the screen.

The image is grainy, but I’ve seen so many pictures of my nephews at this point I know what I’m looking at. “Aww, look. He or she is going to have their daddy’s huge head.”

“Big cranium. Big brain.” Nothing is going to dent how happy he is. He carefully tucks the image back into