Swoon: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

She’s all mine, motherfucker! Every bit as much as that motherfucking penny!

“Cut!” Gary yells. And everyone on-set applauds and whoops. “Great job, Colin. Excellent.”

Trembling, I look at my director to find him smiling. The other actors tell me that was a great take, and I thank them softly. Eventually, my gaze lands on Amy in the far back. And when it does, I know, even from this distance, she’s sobbing.

When our gazes mingle, Amy smiles through her tears and blows me an enthusiastic kiss with both hands, and I can’t help smiling broadly in reply. Amy’s reaction was the one I wanted to see most in this moment—even more than Gary’s. Amy’s the one I trust to tell me the truth. Not in words. But with that expressive face of hers. The girl can’t hide a single emotion, no matter how hard she tries. And thanks to Amy’s face, I know I kicked ass. I know it. Which means I can finally breathe deeply for the first time today.

“Let’s do that again,” Gary says calmly. “Just to have some options during editing.”

“You got it,” I reply. I find Amy’s face in the back again and wink, before returning to Gary. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

Twenty-Four

Amy

“Colin was amazing today,” I say. “He’s as good as any actor you could possibly name.”

Colin throws his head back next to me and laughs uproariously. “Don’t lie to them, Ames!”

“I’m not! You were incredible.”

Colin and I are at his house, sitting on his couch while catching up with the new Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien on FaceTime. At the beginning of our call, we talked about the wedding and honeymoon, from which Logan and Kennedy returned last night. After that, we talked about Laila’s birthday party—although Colin and I didn’t mention what we did in Laila’s guest room. And now, we’re telling the happy couple about the first two days of shooting on Colin’s movie.

“I can’t wait to watch tomorrow’s big scene,” I say, clapping my palms together excitedly. “Private Sherman is going to die a bloody, dramatic death!” I turn to Colin next to me on the couch. “Do you know if Gary’s sticking to the planned shooting schedule tomorrow?”

“Yeah, he said it’s full steam ahead. After we get my death scene in the can, he said we’ll resurrect me and shoot all my earlier non-speaking scenes for the rest of the week.”

“What are your non-speaking scenes?” Kennedy asks.

“Group scenes, basically,” Colin replies. “I think there’s going to be a montage of basic training. You know, stuff where everyone in the unit shines their boots, cleans their guns, and does physical training. I think there’s gonna be some ‘man-candy’ stuff, too. Shower scenes showing our asses or whatever.”

Logan laughs. “Sounds like they know how to sell tickets to half their audience.”

“Yeah, the half that includes me,” Kennedy says, giggling.

“And me!” I add enthusiastically, and instantly regret it. That was okay for me to say, right? It doesn’t mean I’m having sex with Colin, if I’m excited to see his bare ass in a shower. Kennedy said the same thing and she’s not secretly screwing Colin.

Oh, God, I’m terrible at lying and keeping secrets! Colin should have made me sign an NDA. Then I’d know for sure how to keep my big mouth shut.

Logan says to me, “Are you still staying at Colin’s house?”

My heartrate spikes. “Yeah, that’s most convenient for me, since we’re driving to the same place every day.”

“Don’t worry, I hooked Amy up with my best guest room,” Colin quickly adds.

I feel myself blush at the lie. Why are we lying to Logan, again? Especially when all Colin’s friends know the truth? I know Logan used to be intensely protective of me when we were much younger. But I can’t imagine he’d lose his mind to find out Colin and I are sleeping together. He knows I was with Perry in college for a year, so he can’t reasonably think I’m still a virgin. And even if he did think that, so what? I can have sex with anyone I want and that’s none of my big brother’s business.

“You guys wouldn’t believe the way Amy has organized my entire house in the short time she’s been staying here,” Colin says, drawing me from my thoughts. “Everything is labeled and organized, top to bottom.”

“Oh, I believe it,” Kennedy says. “When Amy came to visit us for a weekend, she packed a label maker with her.”

“What the fuck, dude?” Colin says. “You didn’t pack a label maker to come to my house! I feel cheated.”

“Don’t,” I reply. “I bought one with your credit card.”

Everyone laughs.

“Amy’s made herself indispensable to me on the set,” Colin says, smiling at me. “I didn’t even think I’d want a PA this week. I figured I’d introduce Amy around and let her loose to charm the right people. Instead, she’s been running around like crazy, doing a million things for me. Making herself useful in ways I couldn’t have predicted. While also charming all the right people. Honestly, now that she’s been on-set with me, I can’t imagine doing this gig without her.”