Payback's A Bitch (Awkward Love 6)

“Relax, I’m just messing with you,” I assure him. “It’s good to see you’re taking it easy for once.”

“Yeah, the last time I took this long off work was after the accident,” he admits.

A wistful look crosses his eyes as we both just sit there in silence. It feels like so long ago, but it’s only been two years. We’d been at the beach with a group of friends, drinking and having fun, when Lewis and a few of the guys decided to jump off a cliff. Lewis jumped too far to the right and landed on a rocky embankment. Watching his body slide into the rough water was the scariest moment of my life.

When he didn’t surface, I did the only thing I could think of; I dove into that water and kept searching until I found him. He was unconscious, so I dragged him onto the sand and did what I could to revive him. I’d never been so relieved when he spluttered up a mouthful of water. Then he looked up at me and said:

“The lengths you’ll go just to make out with me.”

We both thought that by some miracle, he’d managed to scrape through unharmed—then he realized he couldn’t feel his legs. After a month in the hospital, then another three in rehab until he was back home, but he was paralyzed from the waist down. It was a hard blow for someone who had just been hand selected for the national hockey team.

Lewis living next door to me isn’t an accident. I wanted him to know he always has support, if he ever needs it, but he could still keep his independence. Not that he’d ever ask for help, because he’s the most stubborn bastard I’ve ever met.

“So, what have you been up to?” he asks, dragging me out of my daydream.

“Oh, you know. The usual.” I grin at him. “Chasing perverts away from my stepsister. Well, soon to be stepsister,” I correct myself.

“Ah, the stepsister,” Lewis murmurs. “She’s pretty hot, huh?”

One look at that smirk and I narrow my eyes. I don’t like where this is headed one bit.

“She’s okay,” I answer as casually as I can.

“Come on, man. She’s more than okay.” Lewis chuckles.

I sigh because it’s true.

If there’s one thing I can say about Darcy, it’s that she’s sexy as hell. I pretend I don’t know much about her, or that I don’t care, but when my father proposed to her mom, I was curious about her. Over the course of a few weeks, I learned a lot about my future stepsister and one of my biggest problems with her is that she just doesn’t realize how attractive she is. She does these stupid little things for a laugh that are one day going to backfire on her and she’s gonna end up seriously hurt.

“Okay,” Lewis says slowly. He grins because he knows this is going to be juicy. “Why did the guy need chasing? You can’t tell me that and not tell me the rest?”

“He was hassling Darcy,” I admit. “She placed some stupid ad and he thought he’d turn up and ‘register’ his interest in person.”

“What … with no contact?” he laughs. “Who the hell does that?” Lewis chuckles. “Fuck, even you wouldn’t do that.”

“Of course I wouldn’t,” I scoff.

I’m offended he’s even suggesting it. I mean, there was that time I flew to Spain to chase that chick I met outside the airport, but that’s completely different.

“I’m too much of a gentleman.”

I grin at Lewis as he rolls his eyes.

“So?” He presses. “What happened?”

I shrug and lean back against the couch, resting my hands behind my head.

“I had to follow him back to his place.” I chuckle. “Where I discovered he was married with a few kids.”

“Are you kidding me?” he says, laughing. “You are, aren’t you? You’re feeling sorry for the poor guy in a wheelchair and inventing some stories.”

“Trust me, even I couldn’t think this shit up.”

I find the ad again, then hand my phone to Lewis.

“Here. Check this out.”

He laughs then glances up at me.

“This has been a joke, right?” he asks. “She wouldn’t place this.”

I smirk. “I’m pretty confident she’s is not responsible for this.”

“Still…” He glances at me, a glint in his eyes. “Hey, do you want to send me the link for the ad?”

“Fuck off,” I say as he chortles to himself.

“Why not?” he reasons. “I’ll do anything twice is very tempting … I can think of a thing or two she can do for me.” He nods at me. “Hey, too bad I didn’t lose a leg in the accident, huh? I hear pegging is quite the rage these days.”

“You’re a sick son of a bitch.” I chuckle.

“The real reason you don’t want me emailing her is because you want her all to yourself,” he teases. “Admit it, man.”