She set her bag down on the front step and fished out a pair of sunglasses. It was a sunny day, but it felt good to me. Summer had always been my season. It looked good on her, too, and made her blonde hair practically glow. “Who’s winning?”
“We are,” Tonio said instantly, and for a selfish moment I wished Emma had arrived home a minute earlier. The answer would’ve been different then.
Emma smiled at Tonio. “How come your shirt’s off? I think Austin’s a bad influence on you.”
“Undoubtedly, but we’re playing shirts versus skins.” At Emma’s blank look, he elaborated. “It’s just a quick way to differentiate the teams. Denver and Knox are wearing shirts, so they’re one team. Austin and I aren’t, so we’re the other team.”
“That makes sense.”
I smirked. “Maybe Emma wishes we were playing skins versus skins.”
As I expected, the creamy skin on her face reddened, but then she said, “Maybe I do.”
The other guys laughed even though they were probably a little surprised like me. Emma had seemed so shy and inexperienced when we first brought her home. But now she was opening up and even flirted back from time to time. Austin thought it was good for her. He had a theory that she was pretty sexually repressed. Naturally, being Austin, he had all kinds of ideas of how we might help her get past that, but deep down I knew he was also concerned about her well-being. In Austin’s mind, no one could truly be themselves if they weren’t in touch with their sexual side. So, in a roundabout, totally Austin way, he was worried about her.
Without a word, I pulled my shirt off and tossed it to the ground. Oops. Now it was all dusty. Why had I thrown it down instead of putting it up on the porch? Occupational hazard of being a stripper, I supposed.
Knox took his shirt off, too, revealing a chest that was twice as big as an average man’s. Emma sat on the edge of the porch, stretching out her shapely legs to give them a little sun. Perhaps because she was there, we all played harder, passing the ball at lightning speed, leaping higher to block shots, and in general, showing off whenever possible. That’s what men did when there was a pretty lady around.
Much to my pleasure, I sank the next shot, and we were tied up with ten each. Unfortunately, that triggered Austin’s competitive side, and suddenly he and Tonio were working together as if they shared some kind of telepathic twin mind-reading skills of their own. Tonio had an opening and was about to shoot, but he saw Knox barreling down on him and passed the ball to Austin. I almost hit it away before it reached my brother’s hands, but then I noticed that Emma’s skirt had ridden up on her creamy thighs, and Austin scored. They were one up on us and within one point of winning. Crap.
I got the ball and passed it to Knox, a look of understanding between us. He wanted to win as badly as I did. We turned, we pivoted, and we did our best, but Austin was on me like glue. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get open.
Tonio tried to hit the ball out of Knox’s hands, and Knox spun on the spot. However, he couldn’t start dribbling again without breaking the rules. I struggled to break free from Austin’s guarding, and we got a bit carried away like we had when we were kids wrestling on the living room floor. Then Austin jumped a foot away from me, leaving me free. Before I could even turn, Austin shouted “I’m open!” to Knox, holding his hands out.
“Knox, no!” I shouted, but it was too late. Knox passed the ball to Austin, who put it cleanly through the net.
All three of the guys started cheering, which made me laugh in spite of my irritation. After a moment, Knox trailed off, looking confused. Then he watched as Austin and Tonio high-fived each other, and he cursed.
Over on the sidelines, Emma was laughing her head off. With her miraculous ability to tell us apart, she already knew that Austin had tricked Knox.
I walked over to the bouncer. “It’s okay, buddy. We’ll get them next time.”
“But he held his hands out and said he was open.” Knox sounded bewildered, which made the others laugh harder.
“What can I say? He’s always been the evil twin.”
By the time we’d cooled off inside, everyone was fine again, and Knox had even—somewhat grudgingly—laughed about what had happened.
I took a quick shower and then went in search of Emma. There was still another hour or so before the four of us would need to head to the club, so there was plenty of time to talk to her.