Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,95

to be badgered about Bowen anymore.

She lifts her hands in surrender when she’s the one who came to pick the fight. “All right, all right. I’m just saying … that looks like an opening to me.”

Her arms wrap around me once more before she walks out of my library, and I wonder if she just came in here to rile me up. Probably. Mothers didn’t exist if they weren’t stirring the pot most of the time.

I hated to admit that her little pep talk had given me a reason to act.

Then again, I’d never disobeyed an order from my parents. And this was, by all means, an order.

I was both aggravated with my mother, for interfering and using the cancer card on me. But I was also re-energized about talking to Bowen. About getting the answers I deserved.

And gosh darn if that wasn’t her plan all along.

11

Bowen

“Oh, come on, guys … can we just have a night where no one gets punched or arrested,”

Keaton whines as Gerry sets two shot glasses down in front of Forrest and me. It’s our second round of Johnny Walker, and if my rich little brother was buying, I wasn’t saying no.

I’d had a hell of a week, what with the increased nightmares, two fire calls I’d been present for, and the whopping quarterly taxes on the shop I’d had to pay … fuck yes I was ready for some stupid decisions.

“Who says this is going to get out of hand?” Forrest snickers as he sputters from the poison sliding down his throat.

Because when my brothers and I got together, trouble always followed. There were four of us; big, egotistical males all cocky and daring in our own ways … there was bound to be shenanigans.

Obviously, Fletcher wasn’t with us tonight. He’d bowed out of nights at the Goat & Barrister since getting out of rehab, which was a decision I respected and was happy he made on his own. He seemed to be making good choices these days, and I hoped he stayed on this path.

“Come on, big bro, drink up.” Forrest sets a shot each in front of us.

“Ah, what the hell.” Keaton shrugs, slamming it back.

“That’s a change of attitude if I ever saw one.” I cough as the alcohol burns my nostrils.

“Presley is on her way over, and she wanted us to have a ‘fun, drunk night’ as she puts it. Says we’re getting too boring and married. Have to keep my woman happy.”

Forrest laughs. “While that makes me want to cringe, I think it’s hilarious she called you boring. Maybe she really does see the real you.”

“You invited the girls?” The annoyance in my tone is not hidden.

Or lost on them. Keaton rolls his eyes. “Lighten up, Bowen. They’re all in the wedding party, and she’s my fiancée. There are plenty of other people in this bar, you don’t have to talk to Lily if you don’t want to.”

The door at the front of the bar creaks with an arrival, and speak of the devil, Presley, Lily, and Penelope all walk in.

And Christ, if she doesn’t look fucking hot.

Lily never knows how truly seductive she is, and that’s part of the appeal. In tight jean shorts that fray at the edges, a pretty blue tank dotted with flowers, and those summer wedge sandals that make a woman’s legs look impossibly long … fuck I want to do so many inappropriate things to her.

My dick begins to harden in my jeans because the alcohol is loosening my inhibitions and damn it if that long, curling brown hair wouldn’t look perfect tangled in my fingers.

Shut up, cock. I can’t let myself anywhere near her, or I’ll definitely do something stupid tonight.

“Ladies,” Forrest greets them, his eyes lingering too long on Penelope.

Presley saunters over to Keaton, kissing him noisily. Lily stands off to the side, waves at my brothers, and then walks off farther down the bar to ask Gerry for a drink.

“Dream on, little Nash.” Penelope flicks her long blond mane over her shoulder, and her very generous breasts shift in her white sundress.

Forrest places an elbow on the bar. “Let me buy you a drink and we can talk about those dreams I have.”

I snort because the pickup line is terrible. My little brother has always had a hard-on for Penelope, ever since he saw her in a bikini at the local pool when he was twelve.

Of course, she was eighteen and completely in love with Travis. Honestly, even now that