and girl, knew how to cook, clean, do laundry. What about you? Do you cook?”
“Not well,” she chuckled. “But I can make a mean grilled cheese.”
She walked by a picture that was stuck on my fridge. It was from the last time all of my siblings were together for Harmony’s college graduation.
“I still can’t believe that you have so many siblings. I always wanted brothers and sisters…” Her voice trailed off wistfully.
“Yep. My dad likes to joke that he wanted his own baseball team, but I think they just kept trying until they got a girl.”
She smiled as she studied the photo. “I saw pictures at your mom’s house, but I figured that it must be your cousins or something. Or a blended family. Your mom looks amazing for having nine kids.”
“She does, and she knows it, too.”
Her head tilted to the side as she continued looking at the photo. “So, where do you fall in the birth order?”
“I’m number four.” I walked over to her and when I pointed at the picture my arm brushed against her shoulder. Just that tiny, innocent graze had all the cells in my body lighting up with awareness.
Damn, what was this girl doing to me?
I cleared my throat and did my best to ignore my throbbing groin. “This mountain of a man is my oldest brother Sawyer.”
Her face lit in recognition. “I saw him at the birthday party yesterday.”
“He’s hard to miss.”
“He didn’t say much.”
“He really milks the strong, silent type thing.” I moved my finger to my second oldest brother. “Next up is Wyatt. He lives in D.C. but travels a lot for his job, so he rarely comes back here. He’s a genius, literally, his IQ is off the charts.”
“Wow.” She seemed genuinely impressed.
“Then there’s Jackson, he was the one behind the camera yesterday.”
“Oh, right. I actually worked with Jackson on Long Road Home. It was one of the first films I ever did, before I got Sunset Bay.”
I wondered why he hadn’t mentioned that yesterday. For some reason, it rubbed me the wrong way. I wondered if something happened between them. The thought of that, even if it was ten years ago, made me feel something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Jealousy.
Doing my best to shake it off, I continued. “Then there’s me, the good looking one.”
She chuckled.
“And JJ—”
“He played for the Long Beach Waves, right? My friend Gen dated another player on the team. I remember meeting JJ at a few parties back in the day.”
Fuck. JJ hadn’t mentioned that he’d met her before either. Had something happened between the two of them? My mind was going wild with speculation.
Now both of my brothers were both happily married men. But in their day, JJ was a man-whore and Jackson was considered the “wild” one. I shook it off. They were my brothers, I’m sure if something had happened, they would’ve let me know. Not that it would matter. She was only here for the week and I was pretty sure I was just a distraction for her.
I needed to remember that.
“This is Cooper, he wasn’t there yesterday. He’s on a book tour with his wife.”
“Oh, is his wife an author?”
“She’s a relationship therapist who’s written some books on the subject.”
She tilted her head to the side and her hair fell back over her shoulder, revealing the sexy slope of her neck. My mouth watered at the sight. I wanted, so badly, to lean down and press my lips to the smooth skin just below her ear.
“What’s her name?” she asked, oblivious to my wayward thoughts.
“Dr. Vanessa Cupid.” My voice was deeper than it had been. Standing so close to her, in my kitchen, was a much greater temptation than sitting beside her on the dock.
“Oh my gosh!” Her face lit up. “I’ve read all of her books! And I listen to her podcast.”
“I’ll let her know you’re a fan.” I cleared my throat once again doing my best to ignore the tightness in my chest that being this close to Sasha and not touching her was causing. Stepping forward I pointed to my youngest brothers. “And then my youngest two brothers, Travis and Trace. They were nicknamed TNT because of an unfortunate dynamite incident when they were kids. My dad liked to joke that it stood for trouble and terror. I think my parents were just so worn out by the time they had them, that they let them run wild.”
“I mean, I can’t blame them.” She