Becca
“Are you okay, honey?” Mom asked as she came out on the front porch where I was sitting on the swing.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Just checking on you.”
My father popped his head out of the door. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“I’m literally on the front porch,” I said. “It’s not like I went very far.”
He laughed even though the comment really wasn’t that funny. There was something strange going on between the two of them and it put me a little on guard.
“Are you hungry? Can I make you a snack?” Mom asked.
“We had lunch half an hour ago,” I said.
Dad came out and sat down on the swing beside me. He was silent for a few seconds, just gliding along and looking around casually like this was a totally normal situation unfolding. Finally, he looked over at me.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Like I just told Mom. What’s going on? Why are you two checking on me so much?”
They exchanged glances. There was a significance in that look, something they didn’t need to say because it had obviously already been discussed. That was a look I was pretty familiar with. I’d been on the receiving end of it quite a bit when I was younger.
Their protectiveness was not a new phenomenon. They had been attempting to shield me from the world and only stopping short of wrapping me in bubble wrap because of the expense and risk of noise complaints going way back. But this felt like it was building up to something. Or orbiting around it in a desperate attempt not to actually mention it.
I couldn’t decide which would seem like the worse situation.
“We’re just concerned about you,” he said.
“Why?”
“Well, it’s just…” he started.
“Considering the day and all, we figured you might be having a hard time,” Mom said, finishing the thought for him.
I cocked my head to the side and gave each of them a questioning look in turn. “What do you mean considering the day?”
Their eyes snapped to each other, and I noticed a shocked expression flicker across both of their faces.
“You didn’t even think about it?” Dad asked.
I shook my head, not knowing what he was talking about. Then suddenly, the date popped into my mind. I really hadn’t thought about it. Not even when I was standing in the airport thinking about the fact that I should have been arriving for my honeymoon rather than getting to Astoria.
I thought about the fact that we decided to wait a few weeks after our wedding to go on our honeymoon, but I had conveniently skipped past the most significant reason. We wanted the time to decompress and just enjoy the first little bit of being married. But we also wanted to be on our honeymoon on this particular date, the anniversary of when Steven proposed to me.
Mom swooped in and perched herself on the edge of the swing beside me. It definitely wasn’t designed to hold all three of us, but she was going to make it happen. Her arm clamped around my shoulders, and she squeezed me in tight.
“It’s alright, baby. I know this is hard for you. We’re here for you. Let me make you something to eat and we can talk,” she said.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Thank you, but…”
“She doesn’t want to talk about it,” Dad said, adding his arm to the mix. “And that’s perfectly okay. We’re here. We don’t have to say anything at all. We can just sit together.”
We fell into a tense silence for a few seconds, and then Mom looked at me.
“Hungry yet?”
Yep. That was it. I had officially reached my quota for their hovering for the afternoon. They were treating me like I was so fragile I was going to break at any second, and it was getting on my last nerve. I knew they were worried about me and wanted to make sure I was getting through all this alright, but there was only so much of their overactive concern I could actually take.
Wrangling free of their arms, I stood up from the swing. “Actually, I had plans this afternoon.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket to ostensibly check the time. “And I’m running late. But I’ll see you later.”
I rushed inside before they could ask any questions. I threw on a pair of shoes, grabbed my bag, and ran out. Dad had already handed over the spare keys to his car and said I could use it whenever I needed to, so I hopped behind the wheel. I had every intention of buying myself a car as soon as I had money coming in. In a lot of ways, that was an even higher priority for me than finding my own place to live.
I drove away from the house with a wave out the window and took the first turn in the neighborhood to get out of their view. Then I hesitated. I had no plans. I didn’t even have any contemplations for what might be plans. The only thing I had come up with for that day was to sit on the porch swing and read.
That thought gave me the idea for where I should go, and I did a few complicated turns and twists to get out of the neighborhood without driving back past my parents’ house. A few minutes later, I pulled into the parking lot behind the local library.
I went inside and perused the shelves for a few minutes, waiting for a title or cover to jump out at me. A couple of books on the new-release rack caught my attention, and I took those along with a few tried-and-true favorites. After checking the books out, I realized there could be another benefit to being here at the library.
Tucking the books away in the reusable tote I snagged from the counter, I headed deeper into the library and the small study rooms lining the back wall. I didn’t make it all the way there before pausing. Ahead of me, Tyler stood near one of the shelves, holding a book and flipping through the pages like he was sampling it.
I brought my bag into the study room and used the sliding indicator beside the door to show it was in use. Then I snuck back to where Tyler stood and slipped up behind him before he noticed I was there. I put my hands over his eyes and felt him take hold of my wrists.
“Guess who,” I said.
“Um, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark?” he said. He used his grip on my wrists to move my hands away from his face and turned around to look at me. Lowering my hands, he let out a theatrical, muffled sigh. “It’s never Elvira.”
We both laughed softly. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been thinking that I need more exercise in my life, so I thought I would come do some cardio,” he said, deadpan.
I shook my head at him. “You’re just full of the sassiness today, aren’t you?”
“Always,” he said. “Actually, I love reading.”
“Really?” I was surprised by the revelation. “I never knew that about you.”
“It’s the dark and mysterious mystique I have going on. There are countless things you don’t know about me,” he said in an affected deeper voice and slight accent.
I paused for a few seconds, then pointed at him. “Oh. Was that the dark and mysterious mystique?”
“Yes.”
“Very mysterious,” I said.
Tyler grinned at me.
“I’m trying to find a new book that just got released. It sounds amazing, and I’ve been waiting for it to get here so I can check it out,” he said. “How about you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to pick up some new books to read, do some research on a local therapist in the next town over who has offered me an interview for a paid internship, and to escape my parents,” I said.
That made Tyler laugh. “Good things all around.”
I pointed toward where I had put my bags. “I’m actually all set up in a little study room over there. Why don’t you go look for your book, and when you find it, come join me?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in just a few minutes,” Tyler said.
I went into the study room and logged into the computer integrated into the counter. I pulled up some information on the therapist and the practice where I was considering working.
I was reading through it when Tyler appeared at the door.
“Did you find the book you were looking for?” I asked.
Tyler shook his head, looking disappointed. “No. And I asked the librarian about it and she said somebody had just checked it out.”
I narrowed my eyes at him slightly. There wasn’t anybody else anywhere near the checkout counter when I was up there checking out my books.
“What book was it?” I asked. He told me, and I shook my head, leaning down and pulling the title out of my tote bag. “That’s why you couldn’t find it. I checked it out, already.”
He gave another of his theatrical sighs. “Of all the libraries in all the towns, why did you have to walk into mine?”
“You should take it and read it first. I have a tower of books to read.”
He held the book up. “Thanks. I’ll bring it back to you when I’m done with it.”
“Well, if it’s bad, just bring it back here and drop it off. You can save me the hassle. Be my personal CliffsNotes.”
“You mentioned that internship a second ago. What was that all about?” Tyler asked.
“I’ve always wanted to be a child psychologist. That’s actually what I went to college for. But then I met Steven and managed to let him distract me. I stopped really focusing, and I got good grades and all but never started looking for a job. I figured it was just going to be a brief thing. I was just taking a little bit of a break. And that break turned into years. But that whole attempting to get married without a groom showing up to the ceremony thing happened. Now I have plenty of time to try again,” I said.
“That’s awesome,” he said. “You’re going to be a great psychologist.”
“Well, we’ll see. Let me get through the internship first. Actually, let me get the internship first. That’s what the interview is for. There’s this fantastic therapist the next town over, and the practice is offering a paid internship that would cover my first full year. If I got it, it would be an amazing experience and really get my foot in the door to either work in that practice or to be headhunted by another one,” I said.
“Or to go into private practice,” Tyler said.
“That is a huge dream. It would be incredible,” I said.
We spent a good portion of the rest of the afternoon there in the study room. Only I didn’t finish my research, and he didn’t so much as crack the book he had been planning on reading. We were too busy talking. I found it so easy to talk to him, so comfortable and natural.
And I had to admit it felt pretty damn nice.
9
Tyler
I realized when I got home that my mood was, again, better than usual, and I knew exactly what the cause was. My time hanging out with Becca in the library was absolutely the reason for it, and I was enjoying replaying portions of the conversation over in my head as I got my things together for a shower before work. Then I made the mistake of opening my phone, seeing a notification of a picture Becca liked on my wall.
That led to me clicking her profile.
Which led to me perusing her pictures again.
Which led to me spending entirely too much time while the water was already running and steaming up the room staring at pictures of her.
By the time I got in the shower, there was no use. My mind was already swirling with fantasies of her body, of the way she felt pressed against me in a hug but removing the barriers of the clothing. Of her ample ass pressed against my hips, my cock sliding between the cheeks and searching for her opening. Of entering her tight, wet pussy and filling her, of grasping her breasts in my hands while I pounded her.
My hand slid down to grasp the base of my cock and stroked. I didn’t waste time going slowly, letting the tension that had been building since I saw her in the grocery store explode as I stood in the shower, the orgasm making my knees weak so that I nearly sank to them under the running water. I held myself up with one hand on the wall, so I didn’t end up on the tub floor and stroked the last drops out.
I felt a fair amount of guilt and shame over what I had done, but at the same time, I tried to pass it off as a harmless one-time thing. Now that I had gotten that out of my system, I wouldn’t be so distracted and enamored by her. It felt so wrong because of who she was, but it also felt so right. It was stupid to continue denying that I liked her, or that I absolutely was crushing on her, but there was no chance of it going anywhere. The best I could do for myself was to occasionally give myself the release of fantasy as I needed it.
And boy, did I need it.
My drive to work was overcast with the thoughts of how impossible a relationship would be. My logical self argued with the rest of me about how pointless all these thoughts were. How pointless being obsessed with her was. How pointless even thinking about the thoughts I was having about her was. She was, and always would be, relegated to a fantasy that I could jerk off to in the shower. The end. Nothing else could happen, and I needed to get that through my head.
I pulled into the parking lot of the bar with a pall over me. Not only was I starting to feel upset about how I felt about Becca, but also, I frankly didn’t want to go into the bar. I sat there, staring at the front door through the front windshield, realizing that I didn’t want to go in.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t proud of the bar, or what my brothers and I had accomplished, or how much it had grown. And it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy all the time I was getting to spend with my brothers, or the benefit we were all having in making money to support each other and our mother. I just didn’t have the passion I once had to cross through those doors and go through another day of slinging drinks and feeding people.
But I couldn’t just up and leave. I couldn’t leave my brothers in a lurch like that, and I couldn’t waste the hard work and effort I had put into the bar by just leaving. Maybe ever.
I sighed heavily and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Walking across the parking lot slowly, I tried to take in the bar in its entirety, both outside and in. What was it about that place that bugged me so much recently? What was it I wasn’t getting from the business?
Ava was behind the bar when I got in, setting things up for the evening and doing level checks of what liquor we had and might need soon so she could place the order. She smiled when she saw me, and I walked up to her and sat down on one of the stools. I still had a half-hour before I needed to be ready to go, and an hour before the bar opened for the evening.
“Hey, Tyler, what’s up?” Ava asked.
“Nothing much,” I lied. “Are those pretzels?”
“You mean the bowl of pretzels I have here every night? Yes.”
“I never noticed them before. You mean our guests have been getting free pretzels with their drinks?” I asked.
“Yes,” she responded deadpan, “like almost every other bar in America.”
“Really?”
Ava shook her head and went back to inspecting the liquor. I grabbed a handful of the tasty pretzels and made to stand and walk away when I heard Ava say something.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“How’s Becca?” Her back was to me, so I couldn’t judge her facial expression, but it seemed like there was a hint of a smile in her voice. I did not like that at all.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean, what do I mean?” she asked, turning to face me now. The smile was most certainly there.
I just stared at her. “Oh, come on,” she said, putting her clipboard down on the bar. “I saw you two the other night. You were flirting. A lot.”
“No, that’s not what was going on at all,” I lied.
“Yes, it was.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yes, it was.”
I glared at her a little. “Ava, I was not flirting with Becca.”
“Tyler,” she said in a patronizing tone that, if I were honest, was only mimicking my own, “I am a girl. What’s more, I am a bartender. I know when men flirt. You were flirting with her.”
>
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “She’s Nick’s sister.”
“And that somehow makes her not a beautiful woman who also just so happens to be single now?” she asked. I went quiet, and she nodded. “Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.”
“If we were flirting,” I said, and raised my voice to talk over whatever interjection she was opening her mouth to make, “and that’s a big if. If we were flirting, it was simple, silly bartender stuff. Nothing real.”
“Tyler, come on,” she said.
“I’m serious,” I said. “She’s Nick’s sister.”
“You’ve already said that, but it shouldn’t matter if it’s fate.”
I laughed. A lot. Like, way too much, and way too loudly.
“No, Ava, Becca and I are not fated to be or star-crossed lovers in a Shakespearean drama. She’s my best friend’s little sister, who yes, is very attractive—”
“I didn’t say ‘very.’”
“—but is also rebounding from being left at the altar by her fiancé and is most likely not interested in me for the same reasons I cannot possibly be interested in her,” I finished.
Ava pursed her lips in a mocking grin and raised her eyebrows before turning around to face the liquor again. “Whatever you need to tell yourself,” she tossed over her shoulder.
I grumbled and stood up, making my way for the back again. The second I got through the door and into the kitchen, all the run-ins from before started rolling through my mind, and my focus settled onto each one like bricks through water. Each interaction with Becca had been more impactful than the last, and each one had only solidified my attraction to her, and what felt like her growing attraction to me, too.
But that couldn’t be. She was rebounding from the loss of a love she thought she had and a future she was on the cusp of beginning. Whatever attraction she might have felt for me was likely purely physical and had no depth to it. And my attraction was likely spurred on by the taboo nature of her being Nick’s sister and the fact that I had carried a little torch for her ever since she was college age.
His Best Friend's Sister: A Secret Baby Romance Page 5
