Swoon: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone

“Not the way I did it, honey.”

He laughs and arches an eyebrow. “Tell me more.”

I blush. “It’s embarrassing.”

“The best stories always are, my dear.”

I pause, and ultimately decide I’m enjoying having Colin’s playful, undivided attention too much not to tell him the full story. I take a deep breath, gearing up. And then, “It was, like, day three of the tour and I was playing a drunken game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ with a small group of crew guys. And I guess I didn’t realize people aren’t usually completely honest during that game, because I stupidly didn’t hold back.” I snort. “I wound up answering ‘never’ so many times, one of the crew guys flat-out asked me if I was a virgin.” When Colin’s eyebrows ride up, I quickly add, “I’m not. I had a boyfriend for almost a year in college. But, obviously, based on my answers to all those raunchy questions, it seems my boyfriend and I weren’t anything close to ‘adventurous.’ In fact, it became obvious during the game my paltry sex life had been embarrassingly unadventurous. Not to mention . . . ahem . . . embarrassingly ineffectual.”

Colin grimaces.

“Yeah. My ex and I lost our virginity to each other, so I kept thinking it’d get better once we both got more experience. Unfortunately, that never panned out.”

Colin grimaces. “Yeesh, Ames. Did you realize you were waving a red flag at a horny herd of bulls during that game?”

“Shockingly, I did!” I giggle. “And I was glad to do it. I actually wanted to make it abundantly clear I was highly interested in turning some of my ‘nevers’ into ‘I sure have’s!’ during the tour. But after that, nobody even flirted with me, ever again, like they’d been doing the first few days. In fact, after that, they mostly ignored me.” I roll my eyes and sigh. “That’s how I knew I’d thoroughly embarrassed myself during that game and scared everybody off. Either that, or I’d only imagined they were flirting with me in the first place. Most likely, I just wasn’t attractive enough for such experienced guys to—”

“No, that’s not it. No, Amy. I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that wasn’t it.”

My heart is racing. I know Colin is only reassuring me to be nice, but hearing him impliedly call me attractive feels pretty damned incredible. “You want to hear the most embarrassing thing of all?” I ask, my confidence bolstered.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

“Caleb overheard the whole game! He heard every embarrassing word I’d said!”

“You mean he was playing the game with you guys?”

I shake my head. “No. We were playing in this lounge area in our hotel, not realizing Caleb had been lying on a couch in the corner when we came in. I only found out he was lying there, eavesdropping, when I got up to throw away a pizza box after the game!”

Colin hoots with laughter. “Nice of Caleb not to announce himself.”

“Right?” I palm my forehead at the memory. “You should have seen the smirk on that motherfucker’s face when our eyes met. I knew, right then, he’d heard every word I’d said and found all of it highly amusing.”

Colin furrows his brow, which isn’t the reaction I was expecting.

“What?”

“What’d Caleb say?”

“Nothing! That was the weirdest part. He smirked at me, and then got up and grabbed my hand. He was like, ‘Time for bed, Drunk Amy.’ He dragged me to my room and tucked me into bed. Said he’d stay with me until I fell asleep. And I guess that’s what he did because in the morning, I woke up and there was water and ibuprofen on the nightstand, and Caleb was gone.”

Colin narrows his eyes, looking like he’s trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

“What is it?” I say, confused by Colin’s body language.

Colin smiles. “Are you leaving something important out of your tale, Ames? Hmm?”

“No. What do you mean?”

Colin’s smile turns lopsided and wicked. “You can tell me the truth, Ames.”

“About what?”

“You had a little tour fling with C-Bomb, didn’t you?”

I gasp. “What? No.”

He’s not buying it. “Come on, dude. C-Bomb is a lot of things, but ‘patient’ isn’t one of them. ‘Nice’ isn’t one of them. He’s not the kind of guy to hold a drunk girl’s hair. Especially not a drunk PA’s hair. And especially not a drunk PA who’s as sweet and inexperienced and starry-eyed—and, yes, attractive—as you.”

My heart is exploding in my chest. Colin thinks I’m attractive enough to have had a tour fling with the legendary drummer of Red Card Riot—a man known to enthusiastically, ahem, appreciate women? Well, color me complimented!

“You really think I had sex with C-Bomb?”

“I sure do.”

“Thank you! Wow!” I take a minute to gather myself. “That’s so sweet of you to say!”

“Well, did you?”

I sigh. “Unfortunately, no. I swear it on the soul of my dead dog Fluffy. Remember him? In fact, Caleb didn’t so much as flirt with me throughout the entire tour. And nobody else did, either, unfortunately. Not after that game. The whole crew treated me like the tour mascot, from that day forward. I was everyone’s kid sister. Frankly, it was totally demoralizing.” I furrow my brow, suddenly realizing something horrendous. “Wait a second. Are you telling me Caleb has a weakness for sweet, inexperienced, starry-eyed women?”