Coop started talking again, but I went into the kitchen, only half listening. I’d hardly eaten anything at the restaurant, and I was still starving. I pulled out the leftovers he’d brought home from his mom.
Part of my brain listened to Cooper—just enough to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. He talked a lot, but I was used to it. The trick was to listen for phrases that meant I needed to pay closer attention. Otherwise, I let it flow past me.
I started shoveling food onto a plate—chicken and vegetables with sauce that smelled spicy—but stopped dead when I heard him say Brynn. I whipped around to look at him. “What?”
Cooper blinked, his mouth half open, like he’d been about to say something else. “Brynn’s moving home, so we need to go help with her shit when she gets here tomorrow.”
“She’s already here.”
“How do you know?”
I shrugged and turned back to the counter. I was still all tangled up and I didn’t want him to see my face. “She was at Ray’s.”
“You had dinner with my sister and you didn’t tell me? That’s low, Chase. I didn’t even know she was in town yet. Mom said she was coming tomorrow. What the hell? You should have texted me. I would have come down.”
“I didn’t have dinner with her.”
“So you let her eat alone? Where’s your manners? I thought I taught you better than that.”
I shook my head, wishing we could stop talking about this. The more I thought about Brynn sitting in that back booth—her pretty smile, her shiny hair, her soft lips—the more confused I got. Especially because I couldn’t stop thinking about the guy she was with. That stupid little prick with his stupid beard and stupid hat. I hated the fact that he’d been touching her. Kissing her. Fuck that guy.
“She wasn’t alone.” I closed the plastic container with the rest of the leftovers and stuck it in the fridge with more force than strictly necessary. “She was making out with some douchey college kid in the back booth.”
Cooper stopped moving. It was always eerie when he did that. A still Cooper was never a good sign. “What?”
“Some guy was with her.”
“Did you say making out?”
I shrugged again, not wanting to relive the awfulness that was seeing Brynn kiss another man.
“You’re telling me some guy was making out with my Brynncess in the middle of Ray’s Diner?”
“Not in the middle of the diner. They were in the back.”
His blue eyes were focused, his body tense. When he spoke again, his tone was different. Flat. “Do you think they’re still there?”
“How should I know? Maybe.”
“Let’s go.” He grabbed his keys.
“Cooper, you’re not wearing any pants.”
He was already out the door. “I don’t have time for pants.”
Leaving my plate of food—damn it, I was still fucking hungry—I grabbed my coat and followed him outside. “Coop, what the fuck, man?”
He wasn’t wearing shoes, either, but he didn’t seem to care. He got into his truck, so I climbed in the passenger’s side.
“Dude, you need to calm down,” I said as he pulled out of the parking lot. “What are you going to do? Roll up into Ray’s in your underwear?”
Coop didn’t answer.
And that’s when I realized what I’d done. I’d just ratted out Brynn for making out with a guy that was probably her boyfriend to the most overprotective brother in the universe.
This was not going to be pretty.
Three
Brynn
Kieran propped his arm along the back of the booth behind me while I picked at the last of my fries. Ray’s Diner had the best food. There were lots of greasy spoon diners in Tilikum, the college town where I’d been living for the past two years. But I always missed Ray’s. It was near my family’s winery, and I’d grown up coming here. Kieran had never been, so I’d insisted we come after we’d dropped my stuff off at home.
I’d started my third year of college and decided to move back to Salishan. After my boyfriend cheated with my roommate last year, I’d moved to a studio apartment. Living alone wasn’t bad, but it was expensive. And a little bit lonely. I’d grown up in a busy house with three older brothers, plus a bunch of winery employees who’d always been like family.
So I’d decided to move home. I could still go to school; Tilikum College was only about thirty minutes away. This way I’d save money on living expenses. With the financial mess the winery was in thanks to my asshole father, it would take some of the pressure off my mom.
Plus, I wanted to be closer to my family. Mom had kicked my dad out after discovering he was having an affair. As if that wasn’t bad enough, that hadn’t been the first time he’d cheated. He’d been hiding an entire family from us since before I was born. I had an older half-sister named Grace and a little half-brother named Elijah. I’d met Grace once, when she’d come looking for Dad after he’d gone deadbeat on them. Roland had been in touch with her—her mom had needed help with Elijah’s medical bills. But we hadn’t gotten together with Grace again, nor had we met Elijah.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about the whole thing. It hadn’t been very surprising to find out my dad had been cheating on Mom. Seemed pretty obvious… which was sad. But a secret family? Who the hell does that?
I popped another fry in my mouth and licked the salt off my fingers. Kieran pulled out his phone to text someone. He was what my sister-in-law Zoe would call a fuck buddy. We weren’t really dating, and there was no expectation of commitment. It had been Zoe’s idea, really. After Austin had cheated on me, she’d suggested a fling to get over my broken heart. I hadn’t done it right away—the thing with Austin was months ago. But I’d met Kieran at a bar a few days after I’d turned twenty-one and had my first ever one-night stand.
Afterward, we’d exchanged numbers. We’d hooked up a few more times, and we had fun. He was hot, in a hipster kind of way. And he loved giving oral even more than he liked receiving—or having sex—which made him kind of a unicorn. I figured we could mess around a little until one of us wanted to move on.
I’d been with him a few nights ago, and mentioned I was moving home. He had a truck, so he’d offered to drive my stuff out to my family’s property. I didn’t have a lot, but it would save my brother Cooper the trouble of coming out with his truck.
I was buying dinner to thank Kieran for helping me move—and planning to thank him in other ways when we went back to the guest cottage my mom had offered to let me live in.
The front door flew open, sending a rush of cold air into the diner. I blinked a few times. Either I was seeing things, or Cooper was stalking down the aisle between the booths. In his underwear.
Nope, I wasn’t seeing things. It was my nightmare come true.
Kieran was on the outside seat of the booth, still looking at his phone, oblivious to the insanity about to descend on our table. I heard Jo say something to Cooper—and was that Chase behind him?—but Cooper kept walking, his eyes fixed on Kieran. I had the weirdest sense of relief that superpowers weren’t real, and Cooper didn’t have laser vision or something. Kieran would already be dead.
I reached my arm across Kieran to block whatever Cooper was about to do. “Cooper, what are you doing?”
He stopped next to our booth and kept his hard stare fixed on Kieran. “Stay out of it, Brynncess.”
God, I hated it when he called me that. It had been cute when I was little, but he still treated me like I was ten. “Stay out of what? Where are your pants?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Cooper asked, effectively ignoring me.
Kieran looked up, his brow furrowed with confusion. “Um, I’m Kieran.”
“Outside,” Cooper said.
“Cooper, stop.” I kept my arm straight across Kieran’s chest.
My arm was as useless as my protests. Cooper grabbed Kieran by the shirt collar and hauled him out of the booth.
“Whoa, what the fuck.�
�� Kieran tried to get free of Cooper’s grip, but my brother was unnaturally strong.
“Cooper,” I whisper-yelled, trying not to cause a scene. Or trying not to make the scene Cooper was causing worse.
Cooper paid no attention to me. Just forced Kieran to walk in front of him down the aisle of booths toward the door. Chase cast a glance my direction—why did he look so guilty?—and quickly followed Cooper.
There was nothing else for me to do but go outside. I didn’t want to make this worse in front of the other patrons. But as soon as I was in the parking lot, I was going to lose my shit. I took my purse off the seat and rushed outside after my psycho brother and his dumbass roommate.
“I’ll be back in a second to pay,” I said over my shoulder to Jo.
Cooper had Kieran backed up against his truck. Chase stood off to the side. Something about his expression struck me as odd, but I didn’t have time to contemplate what was going on with him.
“This is what you need to know.” Cooper got right in Kieran’s face. “Brynn Miles is precious and no jack-monkey like you is going to defile her in public.”
“Defile me? Cooper, what the hell?”
He ignored me. “Have some fucking respect. You don’t make out with a girl like her in a goddamn diner.”
Kieran held up his hands. “Hey, man, I don’t even know who you are.”
“I’m her brother,” Cooper said. “And a skinny prick like you doesn’t deserve someone even half as special as my sister. You think you can treat her like that? Fuck no.”
“He treats me fine,” I said, although I knew it was useless.
Kieran looked past Cooper at me. “Sorry, Brynn. I’m out.”
Cooper stepped back and crossed his arms. If I weren’t so angry, I probably would have been able to see the humor in the situation. My ridiculous brother standing in a parking lot in a t-shirt and underwear—he wasn’t even wearing shoes—staring down the guy he apparently thought was defiling his little sister.
But I was angry, and I did not see the humor.
Kieran slipped away and practically jogged over to his truck. Without looking back at me, he got in and peeled out of the parking lot.
My heart raced, and my cheeks felt hot. I was going to kill him. Kill him dead.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, enunciating each word slowly.
Cooper turned, and his mouth hooked in a grin. “Hey, Brynncess.”
If I could have shot fire out of my eyes—or better yet, out of my fingers so I could burn my brother to ash—I would have. “Hey? That’s what you’re going to say to me after running off my… my…” What the hell was I supposed to call him? “After running Kieran off?”
“I was protecting you from that dickhead.” Cooper crossed his arms. “You’re not very appreciative, Brynncess. I came all the way down here to make sure your virtue remained intact.”
“In your underwear,” Chase said.
“Exactly.” Cooper nodded to him.
“My virtue? What the hell does that even mean? Kieran helped me move.”
Cooper’s confident smirk faded, and he glanced between me and Chase a few times. “Wait. You mean you weren’t making out with him in there?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Chase said he saw that asshole defiling you in Ray’s Diner,” Cooper said.
My eyes moved to Chase. He looked like he wanted to disappear. “You told him?”
“I just mentioned that you were here,” Chase said.
“No, you distinctly said some guy was making out with her in Ray’s Diner,” Cooper said.
“Oh my god. Cooper, you can’t do that,” I said. “You can’t pick a guy up by his shirt and drag him outside and lecture him about my virtue. My virtue was gone freshman year of college, buddy. And you just screwed me out of an orgasm tonight. Maybe two. I hope you’re happy.”
Why did Chase suddenly look like he wanted to kill someone? And Cooper? God, you’d think I’d just told him I was a serial killer.
“Brynncess, don’t talk like that,” Cooper said. “You’re too young.”
“What?” I was practically shrieking, but I didn’t care. “Too young? Cooper, I’m twenty-one years old, and probably more mature than you and your jackass sidekick put together. How can you stand there—in your underwear, I might add—and judge me? How many girls have you slept with? Don’t give me that sexist bullshit about it being different for guys. That’s a load of crap. You can fuck anything with a vagina and people think you’re awesome. I have a fling with a guy who likes to go down on me and you have to step in with some hypocritical moral code? Kiss my ass.”
I turned around and stalked toward the street. Salishan was a long walk, but my car wasn’t here. I still owed Jo for dinner, but I’d call her after I got home and give her my debit card number. I had to get out of here or I was going to wind up saying something I’d regret.
“Brynncess, don’t,” Cooper said. “I was just trying to help. At least let me take you home.”
“Nope. You’ve done enough helping for one day.”
“Brynn, wait.”
I paused, because that wasn’t Cooper’s voice; it was Chase. I whipped around, glaring at him. “What?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
I stared at him for a few seconds. It felt weird to make sustained eye contact. Usually it felt like Chase looked right through me—like I didn’t exist.
“Go home, Chase.”
There was no reason for Chase to look so stricken, so I must have been imagining it. I turned back around and started up the road. These shoes were terrible for walking, but barefoot would be worse. I’d just have to deal with the blisters. Maybe I’d make Cooper go to the store for bandages. It was the least he could do after the shit he just pulled.
I was well down the road before I looked back. I could see the big red Ray’s Diner sign casting a warm glow over the street, but no Cooper or Chase. Knowing Cooper, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him following behind me in his truck at two miles an hour. Maybe he’d circle and pass me a few times until I gave in and let him drive me home. The raw spot already forming on the back of my foot made that a tempting possibility.
God, my brother. He was insane. He always had been. I figured he’d gotten the majority of the fun-genes out of the Miles boys, leaving Roland and Leo without their share. But fun as Cooper was—and he really was a blast—his protective thing was killing me. It had only gotten worse since Dad had left. I guess it made sense. Cooper had always watched out for me and now he seemed to think he needed to be my father.
I wished he’d let me be a grown-up. Although none of my family did. Yes, I was still young. But I was putting myself through school with only a little bit of help from my mom. I was on track to finish my business degree early. While Cooper was out drinking and banging random chicks, I was home studying. I’d worked for everything I had, took care of myself, helped my mom. I didn’t act like a child, so I didn’t understand why they still treated me like one.
Okay, walking home in very cute, but very uncomfortable, heels was not my most mature moment. But Cooper made me crazy.
“Hey, sweets.” A black sedan slowed to a stop on the empty street. Zoe, my oldest brother Roland’s wife, leaned out her window. “Need a ride?”
“Oh, thank god.” I adjusted my purse and hurried around to the passenger’s side.
“A little far from home for a walk,” Zoe said. “Cute shoes, though.”
I set my purse in my lap and fastened my seatbelt as the car started moving again. “Thanks. I had a little Cooper incident. Were you just driving by?”
Zoe glanced at me. “Not exactly. I was in the car, but a certain goofball boy texted me a few minutes ago, so I detoured over here.”
“I should have known Cooper wouldn’t let me walk all the way home alone. God forbid I not have an escort.”
“It wasn’t Cooper,” Zoe said.
I raised my eyebro
ws. “Chase?”
Zoe nodded.
“That’s weird. Maybe Coop didn’t have his phone on him.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. But Chase texted that you were walking home from Ray’s, and he was worried about you because your shoes looked like they’d give you blisters.”
“Chase said that?”
“That he did.”
I tilted my feet to look at my shoes. I hadn’t worn them to move, of course. They’d been sticking out the top of one of my bags, and after Kieran and I had unloaded his truck, I’d changed into them. Felt like wearing something sassy. It was weird that Chase had noticed what I was wearing. Chase never noticed anything. Not about me, at least.
I’d known Chase my entire life. He’d been best friends with Cooper since before I was born. He was like another brother to me.
Except… he really wasn’t. He’d never been very brotherly. He’d always ignored me. Chase wasn’t a brother; he was just Cooper’s best friend.
Granted, for most of my childhood and adolescence, I’d harbored a mountain-sized crush on him. It wasn’t until I’d gone away to college that I got my head on straight. I’d been such a dumb little girl. Sure, Chase was finger-licking sexy, but who carries around an unrequited crush on her brother’s best friend for years with zero encouragement from the guy?
This girl, apparently.
It would have been next to impossible for me to date in high school anyway, so it wasn’t like I’d missed out on much. Every guy in town had been scared of my brothers—especially of Cooper. There hadn’t been a bad boy bad enough to risk going after Brynn Miles. Not with my psycho brothers around.
So I’d daydreamed about Chase Reilly, imagining that one day he’d notice me. I’d written our names in little hearts in my journal. Pretended I was destined to be Brynn Reilly. I’d even practiced my signature with his last name, over and over. How embarrassing.
Thankfully, Chase had never found out. And I’d grown up enough in the last couple of years that I was so over it.
Forbidden Miles Page 2
