The Off Limits Rule (It Happened in Nashville 1)

Another part of me, however—the side that’s learning to come out of hiding and go for the things I want—that part wants to tell my brother to stick his “good intentions” where the sun don’t shine and let me live my life. I think I would if it didn’t seem important to Cooper to gain Drew’s blessing. So, for now, I go along with the off-limits rule.

Jessie presses her lips together and shakes her head. “My pregnancy hormones are raging too much to have a conversation with you where you stick up for your brother’s bad choices.”

“You’re grumpy and need some chocolate.”

She narrows her eyes into slits. “No. I. Don’t. And I’m not grumpy.” She looks to the side, grinding her teeth into dust before she looks back to me. “But if I did h

appen to want chocolate, where would I find it?”

I bite down on my smile because I’m afraid she might punch me if she sees it. Pregnancy hormones should never be underestimated. “Top shelf in the pantry.”

She rolls her eyes because she’s now a teenager who’s committed to being annoyed with her parent even though they are doing something cool. “Okay. I probably won’t even want it, though.”

“Uh huh.” I step forward to yank my period panties out of her hand one final time then pull open the top drawer of my dresser, digging for my saggy, disintegrating, pathetic excuse for a bra. “You go and don’t eat that chocolate while I go change into my chastity belt.”

I’m almost to Lucy’s house when my phone rings. I answer it over my truck’s speaker without bothering to look at the caller ID because I know who’s calling. “Hey, beautiful, I’m almost to your place. Traffic was terrible.” Did I just call her beautiful? Was that weird? I’ve never been the guy to call women by little pet names like that, but it just kind of slipped out. What’s happening to me?

“Awwwww, hello to you too, handsome.”

Annnnnd I should have looked at the caller ID.

“Drew. I thought you were someone else.” Your sister.

He chuckles. “I got that vibe. I mean, we both know I’m good-looking, but out of the two of us, you’re definitely the beautiful one.”

“Well, that’s just not true. Your eyelashes are longer.”

“You have nice cheekbones, though.”

“Eh—they’re okay. Your teeth are straighter. And they’re so pearly white.”

“Thanks for noticing,” he says, sounding genuinely grateful. “Wait…should we just get married?”

“Probably.”

“This conversation has taken a weird turn.”

Speaking of turns, I’m about to pull into Drew’s driveway to secretly pick up his sister and take her on a fake date that will be entirely too real to me and lie to him about the whole thing. I’m a great friend. “What were you calling about? And how are you even calling me right now? Aren’t you in a remote part of Costa Rica?”

“Yep. I have trouble getting service in my own bathroom back home, but Costa Rica’s got me three bars.” There’s some commotion in the background, and I hear someone ask Drew about checking vitals on a patient. “I gotta go in just a second. We’ve been non-stop here. I just wanted to check and see if you’ve seen Lucy at all this week?”

“Why would I have seen Lucy?” Whoa there, tiger, let’s take that defensiveness down a notch.

I can hear the quizzical smile in Drew’s voice when he says, “Relax, man, I wasn’t trying to accuse you. I just haven’t heard from her in a few days, and she hasn’t returned my emails, so I was checking if you’ve seen them around at all?”

Gosh, I’m a crap friend.

After tonight, though, I’m buckling back down. Lucy and I will take a major step back from each other until I get everything settled with Drew. I’ll help her show off a little in front of her baby daddy, and then it’s back to friends only.

“Yeah, I mean, I’d be happy to drive by your place right now and make sure everything looks alright if you want.” In fact, the door to the house is opening, and Lucy steps out, allowing me to confirm that, yeah…everything’s looking real good.

“I thought you were on your way to pick up your date?” Drew asks.

“Oh yeah, I am. Your place is kind of…in the neighborhood, so it’s cool.” Ah, shoot. I’m becoming a worse liar in my old age.

“You alright? You sound a bit weird all of a sudden.”

By weird he means I’m breathing heavy and slowly losing my mind at the sight of Lucy in a little black dress. Must be new. This one definitely wasn’t in her closet the other day. I gotta get off this phone before he somehow assesses my blood pressure over the line. “Yeah, I’m good. Listen, I gotta go, man. Don’t worry, I’ll watch out for Lucy.” Won’t take my freaking eyes off her for one second.