The Stepbrother (Red's Tavern 5)

“Just send him some message and put the phone away,” Fox said.

“Judgmental much?” I said.

“Yeah,” Fox said, lifting an eyebrow. “I’m judging the hell out of you right now.”

“Why?” I asked. “It’s just a little fun.”

“We’re having a nice night here,” Fox said. “And you want to be talking to some stranger online instead?”

Usually when Fox argued with me, he was a little more casual and jokey. Right now, though, I could have sworn he seemed a little hurt, somehow. Maybe even jealous.

“All right, I’m going to compromise and just tell him I’m in the hot tub,” I said. “Leaving out the whole two other guys part.”

I replied on the app and then locked my phone, reaching up to the lounge chair nearby and placing it on my towel. Fox was still giving me a long stare that I couldn’t quite figure out, but I wasn’t going to dwell on too much.

“I’m going to get another margarita. Logan, Fox, anything else?”

“Another martini, please,” Fox requested.

Logan stifled a yawn. “Actually, I’m finally going to go read and head to sleep,” he said.

“I’ll allow it,” I said with a smile. “You’ve been a trooper up here with us, anyway. You swam and had to deal with me messaging a guy. I know I don’t believe in TMI, but that’s probably a little too gay for you.”

Logan shrugged as he stepped out of the hot tub, wrapping a towel around himself. “No, I’m gay, actually. But I think I’d just rather fall asleep reading my mystery book right now. G’night, Fox. Night, Sam.”

I was left with my jaw hanging open for the second time that night as Logan walked off back into the hotel.

I looked at Fox. “Did… did my twenty-one-year-old cousin just come out to me and say I’m not as interesting as a mystery novel?”

Fox finally cracked a smile. “I think that’s exactly what just happened.”

Christ, he looked good when he smiled. He looked good all of the time, actually, but this view was particularly striking, as he leaned back on the side of the hot tub, his arms stretched out on either side of him.

If he were some stranger I’d seen in the hotel, I would have been making it my sole mission to have him in my bed by the end of the night. I’d want to be exploring every inch of his body by now.

Apparently being in the city wasn’t helping me get my mind off Fox. In fact, it seemed to be making it worse.

I pushed my hair back, stepping out of the tub. “I am going to go get us those drinks.”

8

Fox

Sam came back with our drinks in his hand, walking around like he owned the place. There was only one other guy in the pool nearby who had just gotten out. He stopped to talk to Sam before heading back into the hotel. They were too far away for me to hear, but I could see the guy looking Sam up and down, and as Sam walked away, the guy very obviously checked out his ass.

My chest tightened as I watched it play out. What the hell was wrong with me? I’d been jealous when Sam was talking to the guy on the app and jealous now when some random man was checking him out.

I had always been the one who was nonchalant about everything—I never got jealous when past girlfriends flirted with people, and if anything, I was proud when I caught other men staring. Sure, I was pissed off when I’d found my friend fucking my ex, but “jealous” just usually wasn’t in my wheelhouse at all.

“One Absolut martini for you,” Sam said as he got back in the hot tub, sipping his own frozen margarita. “Why do you have that look on your face like someone just insulted your family?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I muttered. “What was that guy saying to you?”

“The guy? He was asking where I got my swim shorts. Said he liked them.”

“I think he liked the contents of the shorts more than the shorts themselves,” I told him.

“I sure hope so,” Sam said. “I work hard for this butt.”

I bit my lower lip. Sam’s confidence was one of my favorite things about him, but the idea of him going home with another guy suddenly made me feel protective. And the guy on the app from Kansas definitely didn’t seem good enough for him. They’d only exchanged a few lines, but it was obvious.

Sam deserved someone amazing.

I didn’t know the specifics, but I knew that Sam had gone through some difficult rejections lately. If even his mom was worried about his love life, something bad had to have happened. I didn’t want to see Sam get hurt, falling for some long-distance guy and then getting dumped later on.

But my mind was running a mile a minute, my thoughts spurred on by alcohol.