A Christmas Break - Annabelle Jacobs Page 0,1

bad as Christian.” He laughed as he took my money, then turned to serve someone else, leaving me with my handsome stranger. Who apparently wasn’t a stranger at all.

One-night stands weren’t my thing, so I was pretty sure we’d never fucked. I could count those I’d slept with on one hand. So where did I know––

“What the fuck are you doing here? You never go out.” An arm slung over my shoulder and my brother’s wide smile caught me like a deer in the headlights. I looked from him to . . . to . . . ahh fuck. “Jasper.”

Jasper laughed around the neck of his beer bottle. “At last!” His eyes were still full of mirth, but it faded as my dawning horror obviously became apparent. Fuck, that was my little brother’s best mate I’d almost hit on.

“You here with Christian?” my brother asked, looking around for him.

“Yeah, he’s over there.” I waved a hand in Christian’s general direction and reached for our drinks, desperate to get away.

Jasper spoke before I made my escape, and I froze in my tracks.

“Hey, Cole, Finn didn’t recognise me until you appeared.”

I waited to see if he’d add, “And he was eyeing me up like a filet mignon,” but thank fuck, he left it there.

“I’m not bloody surprised, with that tan and all this hair.” Cole ruffled Jasper’s hair then pulled him into a sideways hug.

That and the extra bloody stone in muscle. The last time I remembered seeing Jasper, he’d been skinny, pale, and with a haircut worthy of the military. He’d also been at school.

“Are you even old enough to drink?” I blurted out.

Jasper sent me a withering stare that I fully deserved. “Yes. I’m the same bloody age as Cole. But thanks for telling the whole bar you think I’m underage, you wanker.”

I noticed a few guys looking over and realised I might’ve been overly loud. But fuck that, they were way too old for either my brother or Jasper, so I wasn’t all that bothered.

“I’m going to take these over to Christian before he dies of thirst.” I nodded at the drinks I was carrying. “You boys have a good night.”

But not too good I wanted to add but managed to hold my tongue. They were both twenty, they weren’t about to listen to anything I had to say.

Oblivious to my furtive looks at Jasper, that I couldn’t quite seem to stop, Cole shot me a smile and leant in close to whisper in my ear. “It’s good to see you out, Finn. I’ve been worried. You need to forget about that arsehole and start enjoying yourself again.”

I might’ve got prickly at anyone else saying that to me, but Cole was one of the nicest people I knew. Snapping at him would be like kicking a puppy. I gave his arm a squeeze. “I’ll see you at Mum’s for lunch tomorrow. Try not to be too hungover. I doubt she’ll appreciate you decorating her border plants again.”

Cole pulled a face and looked at the bottle in his hand. “Yeah, good point. I’ll only have a few tonight.”

I snorted at that and patted him on the shoulder as I left them to it. Cole was as lovely as they came, but he was still twenty and prone to making bad decisions when alcohol was involved.

When I set the drinks down on the table in front of Christian, he had a knowing look.

“Don’t say a word,” I muttered, but of course it fell on deaf ears.

“I see you ran into your brother.”

“Yep.”

“And Jasper.”

“Him too.”

Christian laughed and reached for his shot. “Cheers.”

I barely managed to choke it down when he added. “He’s hot as fuck now, right? I mean they both are, but—”

“Oh my god, stop. That’s my baby brother you’re talking about.”

“He’s twenty, so’s Jasper. Hardly babies anymore, Finn.”

True, but still. I eyed him suspiciously. “Don’t get any ideas about Cole.”

“Pfft. He’s like a brother to me, and you know it. But I have eyes.” He took a sip of his beer, then pointed the neck at where my brother and Jasper still propped up the bar. “I was talking about Jasper, anyway. Travelling has brought out the best in him.”

Ahh, that’s why I hadn’t seen him in ages. I vaguely remembered Cole going on about Jasper saving to go travelling round Asia or something like that. Looked like he managed it. That would explain the tan and the messy hair. “He looks older than twenty,” I mumbled, more to myself