Sin City Baby

“It's always about the sex with him.”

“Not when it comes to her, it's not,” I said.

We watched as Hadley wrapped her arms around Jared's shoulders and tried to pull him down into the water, his face almost perfectly placed at breast level. I could tell that Jared was just going with it, not rushing to pull his face away from her tits.

“You're not the only one who loves her, you know,” I said.

Gabe didn't answer me. He didn't even look at me. His gaze was fixed on Hadley and Jared. There was a heaviness in the air. A tension. On a night when it was supposed to be all about having fun.

“Come on, let's break them up,” I said, playfully punching him in the arm as I walked over to the pool.

Gabe stayed back, drinking his beer with one hand, his other hand in his swim trunk pocket. He looked brooding as he stood there, even to me. As soon as Hadley looked up at me, her gaze fell past me, to Gabe and her smile wavered. She waved hesitantly but got no response.

“What's wrong with him?” she asked me.

I stepped into the pool, thankful the water was heated. It was the beginning of summer, but it still hadn't gotten warm enough for the nights not to turn chilly just yet. The warm water felt nice as I lowered myself into it, and I let out a long sigh of satisfaction.

“What do you think is wrong with him?” I asked.

She sighed, and a frown pulled the corners of her mouth down.

“What should I do to make things better?” she asked me, her blue eyes pleading for an answer. “Can I make things better? Or is i

t all just too far gone already?”

Jared and I shared a look. “Truthfully? I'm not sure,” I said. “Until he's willing to admit he still has feelings for you, there's not much any of us can do. We just have to wait it out and wait for him to sack up and talk to you.”

She nodded, then climbed out of the pool. She padded over to Gabe, who's eyes were bulging out of his head as he watched the way her breasts bounced around in the tiny little bikini. He was doing his level best to keep his eyes focused on her face, but he was having more than a little trouble with it. I expected her to say something, or maybe demand that he relax and have some fun. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his. She kissed him, and he didn't fight back. Her hands moved through his hair, kneading at the back of his head, while their tongues explored each other's mouth. Right in front of us.

“Shit,” Jared said beside me.

“You can say that again,” I muttered.

I felt my stomach drop and a sliver of pain pierce my heart. I should have been happy for my brother. I should have been the first over to congratulate him. Hadley was the love of his life. I knew it, but I felt sick at the same time, as I watched them kiss.

When the kiss ended, Hadley slapped him on the cheek playfully.

“Now snap out of it, grumpy,” she said. “We're supposed to be having fun.”

The look on Gabe's face was one I hadn't seen in a long time. He was smiling like a kid on Christmas, his eyes were wide and happy. He was happy. Actually happy.

I had no right to be jealous – Hadley wasn't, and had never been my girlfriend. I had no claim to her, nor any right to be upset that she was kissing another man. Deep down though, I'd always had feelings for her. It was irrational, of course, but seeing her kiss my brother sent a spike of jealousy straight through me.

As it did for Jared, obviously. He looked just as sick as I felt.

“Well, I guess there goes our chances,” Jared mumbled, tipping back the bottle of beer in his hand and finishing it off.

“Not that we ever had a chance to begin with,” I said, joining him in the drinking.

CHAPTER EIGHT

JARED

Damn. I knew, deep down, that Hadley only thought of me as a friend. Yet, for a brief period of time, I had hope that maybe there'd be something more there between us. Gabe was being his normal difficult self, getting in his own way and stepping on his own dick with Hadley. He just couldn't seem to admit that he still had feelings for her.

While I didn't want to cause any problems between him and me, I also couldn't deny my feelings for Hadley. She never really saw me back in the day. I was kind of invisible in her eyes, nothing but the wild, younger brother of her boyfriend. Now, I was something more – or so I thought, at least. I was worried though, that to her, I would always be Gabe's baby brother, nothing more. She would only ever see me as that.

Even Evan seemed bummed, which surprised me a little. He'd always kept to himself, didn't really show any sort of feelings for Hadley, and always seemed so into Rebecca. I honestly never imagined that he actually did feel something for Hadley. However, now that we were both watching her and Gabe making out, judging by the look of almost horror on his face, his heart was shattering every bit as much as mine was. With the both of us watching their every move, Hadley led Gabe to the pool, hand-in-hand. We'd taken a few shots before Evan and Gabe joined us, and Hadley was already pretty tipsy – her eyes were a little bit glassy and her cheeks were flushed.