Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,186

to start.

“You use humor as your weapon, and your brain as the axe that cuts us all in half. It’s your party trick, we get it. You’re not as socially skilled as the rest of us, even less than Bowen is which is saying a lot. But somewhere along the line, you lost your filter. The one that stops you before you go over the edge and really wound someone. I’m not sure what’s going on, brother, but when you want to talk, you know where to find me.”

Then Fletcher rises, pushing in his chair before he follows the rest of my family out. They leave me alone with my empty beer, ruminating in the damage I’ve just done.

I shouldn’t care, my life motto strictly goes against giving a shit when I’ve offended someone. Except … I never really thought my brothers would turn their backs, especially not for something so minor.

As Gerry sets another beer down to replace my old one, an honest voice in the back of my head whispers what I already know.

This wasn’t a little fuck up. I really hurt Lily, and Penelope in the process. Though, she doesn’t know that yet. Not that I have any doubt she’ll find out.

14

Penelope

Over the course of the next two weeks, I work, take care of my boys, sleep when I can catch some, and nourish with whatever food I can shove in my mouth.

And when I can fit it in, all puns intended, I let Forrest fuck me sideways.

Our mutually beneficial agreement is going so well, I’m not sure why I didn’t enter into this with someone sooner. I get a bunch of great sex, no strings, no one I have to explain to my kids, and the freedom to live my life as a single woman. My mood improves with each meet up, and it’s not just because I’m getting regular orgasms.

No, Forrest and I have an easy banter to our encounters. We work well together in the sack, which is something that’s actually quite hard to come across in a partner.

“Good job in there, kid.” I pat his leg, panting, as he flops onto his bed.

“For someone who just gave you two orgasms, I think you can lay off the ‘kid’ nickname, yeah?” Forrest is out of breath but manages to shoot me an annoyed glare as we lie side by side.

It’s only the second time I’ve come to his place, and it’s only because it’s a Friday night and Marion has the boys. Before I started hooking up with Forrest, I’d spend my kid-free weekend nights eating Swedish Fish in the bathtub with a glass of wine while I propped my phone up on the closed toilet as some trashy reality show streamed on it. Or I’d settle into bed extra early, burying myself beneath the sheets with an eighties romance movie … Mystic Pizza was a favorite.

“Fine. I’ll give it a rest. But just for tonight. I have a rep to protect.” I smile, running my hands up and down my naked stomach.

“One that involves basic things like guaranteed pumpkin spice lattes on the first day of fall?” Forrest props himself up on an elbow, smirking down at me.

Christ, the man is gorgeous. When he takes off those Clark Kent spectacles before we go at it, my stomach always does this roller-coaster flip that makes my entire body feel as if it’s falling from twenty stories high. The nude length of his body is on full display, and my eyes digest him hungrily.

“Are you ever not confident?” I ask, genuinely interested.

Forrest shrugs, scratching his hand over the perfect smattering of a happy trail down his torso. “I figure, why not be proud of what you have if it’s this good?”

And there he goes with that cocky mouth. “I’m serious, though. Do you just always feel that you’re the smartest one in the room? There must have been a time in your life when you felt less than?”

Because if he hasn’t, I’ll just be more annoyed than I usually am at him. I think part of the reason he bugs me so much, when he’s not screwing my brains out, is that the man literally has no flaws. He walks through life not only acting like his shit don’t stink, but truly believing that it doesn’t.

While I might put on a brave face, there are so many times where I falter behind the mask. Honestly, we all do … it’s just how much we admit