Lincoln Hayes has no clue what I have planned for him.
I’ve always been the girl next door.
Invisible to my brother’s best friend.
Time after time, I watched him take other girls out.
Not once has he ever looked in my direction.
Or so I thought.
I’m not little anymore, and I know exactly what I want.
I’ll make sure Linc doesn’t see anyone else but me.
At least for one night.
Just long enough to get him out of my head and into my bed.
Kennedy Townsend is everything to me. Always has been, always will be.
Loving her is my darkest secret.
Nobody will ever compare, and I haven’t even had her. Yet.
She’s all grown up now, and there’s nothing standing in our way.
Except maybe her brother.
Doing the right thing doesn’t seem so easy anymore.
And when she refuses to leave? I don’t stand a chance.
Not this time. No matter how hard I push.
I can steal one night, right?
One little fling with the woman who sets my world on fire.
What the f*@k could go wrong?
HMA
Even in the darkest moments, you remind me to smile.
Chapter One
Kennedy
“Maybe I should change into something different?”
Honestly, I looked more like I was ready to crawl into bed than to go pick up Remy from the airport. The black leggings and oversized shirt could almost pass for regular attire, but with the way my curls just stood out in any direction definitely gave me crazy cat lady vibes.
“You’re gorgeous,” Cassie said from her spot on my bed, where she was comfortably curled up with my cat. “You’ve always been gorgeous and no one is going to notice that you look like shit, especially on Valentine’s Day.” She was too busy scrolling on her phone to see the death glare I shot at her.
I sighed, and then did the only thing I could think of to help my hair catastrophe. I put my mess of curls into a bun on top of my head using three hair ties. Yeah, my hair was that thick.
“Why aren’t you going again?” I glared at my sister in the mirror. “Got a hot date or something?”
“Actually, Yes.” Casper, our other sister and Cassie’s twin, walked in with a flourish. “We’re going on a double date for the holiday. At this rate we’re going to be late.” She swatted Cassie on the leg and snapped. “Hurry up. Let’s go.”
“It’s noon.” I looked at my phone just to make sure time hadn’t passed so quickly that I wasn’t aware of it. “Why are you going on a date at noon?”
Cassie smiled broadly, looking all the world like the evil twin she was. “Because,” she said serenely. “How else are we going to make them work for it if it’s not the middle of the day?”
“So gross.” I shooed them away. The very last thing I wanted to hear in the entire world was my seventeen-year-old little sisters talking about their sex lives. Let alone how they planned on making guys work for it.
“Seriously, though.” Casper interrupted my thoughts. “If you don’t want to go alone, we can reschedule. Picking up Remy is way more important than guys that we can just see tomorrow.”
Touched by her willingness to reschedule her life just for Remy, I waved her away. “Go. You guys deserve to have a night out . . .” I rolled my eyes. “Or day.”
“You do too, Kennedy.” Coming from Cassie, the compliment meant so much, but we were definitely in it together. “The world isn’t going to end if you take a break. You’ve been working so hard.”
She was right. I was working full-time, going to school, and managing to get ahead—finally. Though I couldn’t stop, not now. Not when I was so close to getting away, escaping. Putting everything that happened behind me, once and for all. Only a few more weeks left.
“Hey.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Casper was standing right in front of me, and she’d just scared the hell out of me. I took several deep breaths while I waited for my heart rate to return to normal.
“We know you don’t want to talk about it. Not yet, at least. But we’re here and nobody deserves to walk around with that much on their shoulders at eighteen. Especially you.”
Good thing I hadn’t put any makeup on yet. Suddenly I was a hot mess. Tears streamed down my face and hiccups racked my body, on top of everything else.
“Oh my gods.” .” I gasped. “Why can’t you guys just go already?” Laughing through the tears, I tried