Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,205

on, aren’t you?” Her smug grin tells me that I’m being quite obvious.

“I can’t help it. Honestly, I thought he was so annoying.”

“Thought?” And now I want to smack that grin off her face.

“Forrest is still the cocky jerk we all think he is. But … I’ve spent a lot of time with him. I think I understand him more now than I did before.”

She takes a minute to examine a spot on her wineglass and looks up at me. “I think people underestimate Forrest. His family most of all. But more on that in a minute. So, you guys have been hooking up behind everyone’s backs for years?”

“Not years. Well … I guess technically, yes. But not consistently. It only really became consistent the last couple of months. First, there was the night at the bar, and then your wedding, then Lily’s wedding …”

Her fist flies into the air, almost in a victorious manner. “I knew it! I knew when you mentioned you had bedded someone around the time of my wedding that it might be Forrest. I have a bit of psychic in me, you know. And I’d mentioned something to Keaton before our wedding, about how Forrest seemed sweet on you.”

“There is nothing sweet about what Forrest and I have. We are friends with benefits, fuck buddies … whatever you call it, that’s what we are. This isn’t a relationship,” I admonish her.

“I don’t know about that.” Her singsong tone annoys the crap of out of me.

“Presley, don’t get this twisted. We have dirty, hot sex. There aren’t dates, he isn’t looking to become an instant father. Hell, I don’t even think I want to get married again.”

“Funny how this talk just went from, ‘this isn’t a relationship,’ to ‘I’m not sure I want to get married again.’” Her know-it-all expression grates on my nerves.

My somber look is directed right at her. “You’re trying to mess with my head, and it’s not going to work.”

“Maybe it should!” she says a little too loudly, and I point to the ceiling, trying to remind her that the boys are sleeping.

“What does that mean?” I drain the rest of my wineglass.

“So, back to me saying that people underestimate Forrest. Especially his family. And maybe even you. Forrest can be immature, self-centered, a brainiac … we all know this. But what people overlook is that he is fiercely loyal. Do you know that he once drove four hours when Bowen’s truck broke down out of state? Or that, when Diedra couldn’t get to the office because she had the flu, he answered the phones at Keaton’s office for a whole week?”

I hadn’t known those things.

But Presley isn’t done. “How about the night you came over to eat dinner at Eliza’s? Forrest stayed to help her clean up, their bonding activity has always been washing and drying the dishes together. And when their father was alive, Forrest tried his best to teach him everything he knew about computers. Even if Mr. Nash was just trying to spend some quality time with his son. Forrest might have some crass language and a fuck-you-world attitude, but he’s the first to try to defend it. He’s a cop, for Christ’s sake.”

All the points she’s making are valid, but I still brush them aside with sarcasm. “Well, he’ll find a wonderful woman someday, I’m sure of it.”

She pokes me in the arm, a jab of her pointed fingernail indenting my skin. I yelp, but she ignores me.

“Don’t be an idiot. He has found one, and if you’re being truthful, you knew from the moment you started this that there could be feelings involved. Forrest has had a thing for you since he was like, seven. And I know you, Penelope. You may come off like a modern woman, one who can fuck without forming attachments. But you married your high school sweetheart. You were prepared to only love one man for your whole life. You may think you have all the people you grew up with fooled when it comes to your flippant attitude toward love and sex, but I’m the outsider, remember? I see your heart without having known it for a lifetime. And that heart,” Presley points to the organ beating in my chest. “she wants to be loved. She wants to be adored and have a partner who is here for whatever she needs. She wants her boys to have a father. And she also wouldn’t be sleeping around with someone she vehemently