Griff's Place (Havenwood #4) - Riley Hart Page 0,4

into things I wouldn’t usually do. Ever since that first hiking trip, it had been this way, and I wasn’t even going to let myself think about that incident this summer, when I’d met up with a guy at a hotel only to realize he was a Josh Westbrook lookalike. Sometimes I couldn’t work out why Josh seemed to want me around either. Why had he cared if I’d come to Richmond with them? But we were good friends, better than we’d ever been, so I guessed it made sense.

“Excuse me,” I said as someone bumped into me. Chase and I were carrying beers back to our friends.

We got back to the group and handed them the drinks.

“What were you guys talking about?” Chase asked.

“How my brother is going to steal my best friend,” Kellan replied.

“Hello pot, meet kettle,” I teased. Josh and I were just friends. Kellan had fallen in love with Chase.

“He didn’t steal me,” Chase replied. “You’ll always be my brother, Griff. You know that.”

I nodded. “Yeah, but I like to give him shit.”

“Aw, does that mean you really do think of me as your bestie?” Josh rested his arm over my shoulders. “I’m touched. And don’t worry, boys, there’s enough of me to go around. I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to have a pair of brothers, only it wasn’t friendship in my fantasies.”

Kellan and Chase laughed, but the back of my neck prickled with awareness, like somehow, Josh touching me had made something weird start firing off inside me.

“You’re gross.” I tried to pretend I wasn’t standing there analyzing imaginary signals in my body. It happened fairly often after the hotel incident, which made sense once I realized what I’d done.

“You love me, Griffy. I make your life more interesting.” Josh leaned over and gave me a playful kiss on the cheek. It was as if his lips seared my skin, and I jerked back.

“I don’t know where those lips have been.” I wiped my cheek. Stop thinking about the hotel, stop thinking about the hotel. That must be why I was reacting to him this way.

“Always busting my balls,” Josh replied.

Callum and Knox disappeared to dance after that. I tried to ignore Josh and pay attention to my beer. If I tried hard enough, maybe I could fade into the background. The group was all chatting around us until eventually Kellan and Chase went to dance too. What would I do if someone asked me to dance?

“You gonna dance with me or what?” Josh questioned as if he could read my thoughts. My back shot straight, and for a moment I lost my words…which was dumb. It was a fucking dance. “Friends can dance with each other, ya know.”

Yes, they could, but what about friends who searched Grindr to find a guy who looked like said friend? “What? It’s not that. I don’t give a shit about that. It’s just not my thing,” I tried to play it off.

It wasn’t long before a guy came up—a beautiful blond guy with plump lips and a confident smile. “You here with anyone?” he asked Josh, and my gut twisted.

Josh’s eyes shot toward me. What the fuck? I didn’t want him to feel like he had to babysit me. I could handle a damn bar on my own. It was the only reason I could think that he wouldn’t say yes. Josh always wanted to hook up. “You should go have fun. That’s what we’re here for, right?” Sex was a lot more fun to him than it was to me.

“You can come along,” the dude said.

“What? No,” jumped out of my mouth. Did Josh do that kind of thing often? Sure, it wasn’t him who’d asked, but I couldn’t help wondering. “Go have fun. You don’t have to babysit me all night.”

Josh watched me, something…confusing in his gaze, almost like he was trying to tell me he’d stay. If I asked him to, he’d stay. When I didn’t reply, he shrugged and left.

No matter how hard I tried not to, my eyes kept finding their way to Josh and the guy kissing and dancing.

Every once in a while, he’d look at me too.

CHAPTER ONE

Josh

“Come on. You can do it. You got this. Only five more,” I encouraged the client who’d hired me for personal training. I continued to spot her as she finished up on the bench press.

When she was done, she grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from her face. “That