Cocky Score (The Hawkeyes Hockey Series)

I don’t get home on Sunday until the next morning, around 2 a.m. Autumn was asleep, and I didn’t want to wake her up. The next morning she had an early meeting with Erika, her boss, and then I had to go to a meeting with my physical therapist like I do every week, and a meeting with my agent this afternoon.

Fitting everything in and getting to Lake’s on time is going to be tight.

I hurry through therapy and my meeting with my agent so that I can get back in time for the fights but my agent was running late, and now so am I.

I shoot Autumn a text.

Even though I like the idea of her waiting at home for me and us taking the elevator together up to Lake’s, I can’t let her miss her brother’s big title fight in the event that I’m even later than I planned. Absolutely everything has taken longer than I was expecting today and the meeting at my agent’s office is no exception.

When I walk in the door of our temporary apartment, I can still smell the essence of her… like freshly brewed coffee and something sweet like vanilla.

I make quick work of changing my clothes from the team issued practice sweats and t-shirt, to nicer jeans and a v-neck white t-shirt. I wet my hands under the bathroom’s rubbed bronzed faucet and then quickly run my wet hands through my thick blonde hair to get it to look a little styled. I spray on a small amount of cologne, the same kind I’ve worn since high school and then pull on a pair of boots.

I race out of the apartment and head for the elevator. As long as the earlier fights didn’t end ahead of schedule, I still have a half hour before Isaac’s fight starts.

I blow out a breath the second that the large stainless steel elevator doors shut, and I push the button for the Penthouse floor and then input the code that Lake gives out to guests.

Three penthouses take up the entire top level of the building. One is occupied my Lake, one by Ryker, and one by Coach Bex. Without the code from either Lake, Ryker or Bex, you can’t access the penthouse level, the elevator won’t allow you access the highest level unless you enter it.

When the elevator doors open at the penthouse floor, I step out and head for Lake’s apartment door. The landing for this level is different than the others below. Although it still carries through the same high-end carpeting on all landings, the painted solid white doors on the penthouses are wider and taller and the hardware on this floor are a brushed gold finish, instead of the rubbed bronze that all the apartments below have. Where all the other floors have hallways that lead to the many apartment doors on that floor, this landing has a large almost hexagon shape with access to three doors Penthouse doors and then a fourth that leads to a private gym and a large outdoor rooftop common space for all three penthouses to use.

It almost feels like you’re on a game show and you have to pick a door to see what’s behind it. Today, I’m picking door number 802, Lake’s apartment.

I push through the door, knowing that Lake keeps it unlocked during events at his apartment. It’s not as if random people can access his apartment without the code for the elevator anyway.

I grip the brushed gold finish door handle and open the apartment, pushing through the heavy door. My sights immediately go in search of the beautiful brunette I’ve been waiting to see for the last few days since I’ve been out of town.

The heavy door swings back slowing with a soft close feature while I continue in further into the apartment.

Reeve sees me first, standing by the large open concept kitchen, living room, dining room, and balcony that’s four times the size of me and Autumn’s apartment. He’s standing next to Seven, who has he back to me. Reeve holds up his beer and nods at me as a hello. Seven looks over his shoulder quickly to see who Reeve saw, and then sends a nod at me too, then turns back to their conversation.

‘Hey man! Welcome,’ Lake says, standing behind the couch, facing the TV, almost half an ice arena away from me in the large living room.

His hand is working some universal remote that probably control this entire house.

‘Thanks. I meant to get here earlier but… agents.’ I say simply taking more steps into the apartment.

Ryker and Brent, who are sitting on the living room couch waiting for the main event to start give a knowing nod at my explanation from the living room for my tardiness. It seems agents with no sense of time management run rampant in sports management.

I see Penelope, Autumn and Tessa standing at the massive kitchen island, snacking on the spread laid out in front of them. I head there way, looking to get closer to my fake girlfriend and roommate.

A massive charcuterie board of meats like salami slices and prosciutto wrapped in cheese sits in neat piles. There are cubes of colby jack and pepper jack cheese, along with a round of brie cheese that looks as though it’s still melted, with crispy baguette slices get to it for spreading the brie on. There’s a huge array of veggies like carrots, celery, sliced bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and fruit galore… strawberries, blackberries, kiwi, grapes, sliced apples, and sliced pears. Within each section of food are several dips, both sweet and savory. A little cup with toothpicks to use to stab a piece of food sits in front of the gigantic board.

Lake had to have ordered this because even though he can cool, this is way too far out of his capabilities.

I take in Autumn as I round the island and head for her and Penelope.

She’s dressed in a pair of black leather second skin pants and a cream long-sleeve sheer blouse with a black crop top…tube top… whatever the hell, top… thing on under. She looks sophisticated but also sexy as fuck with a pair of black heeled ankle boots with her shoulder blade length hair down and slightly wavy.

My fists tighten at my side when the thought that she went into work looking like that. Did she see Derek while she was there? She said she was going in today to see her boss so I assumed she meant Erika… but now I’m not so sure.

Autumn sees me heading her way and turns slightly towards me as she and Penelope chat, both of the hips resting against the marble countertops.

I don’t think she realizes she does it but I watch as Autumn takes me in with a full body scan just like I did to her. The only difference is that I did it discretely while she wasn’t watching me, and she just checked me out while I watch.

When her eyes meet up to mine, her cheeks redden, and she cuts eye contract quickly with a giggle… she’s blushing. She checked me out unconsciously and then got caught.

I can’t stop the full face grin as I take the last few steps to settle up to the girls. I won’t call her out though like I want to. Her reaction is cute and I don’t want to ruin it by potentially embarrassing her.

‘Lake out did himself tonight. We usually only have pizza, and chips and dip. This looks amazing,’ I say, reaching for a toothpick and then looking around for the exact thing I want.

‘Lake didn’t do this,’ Penelope says, point to the charcuterie board. ‘Your beautiful girlfriend did.’

‘Penelope…’ Autumn whispers, stepping forward to nudges Penelope with her elbow lightly.

Penelope gives Autumn a devilish grin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Penelope make that facial expression. She’s usually too damn sweet, so what was that for?

‘You did?’ I ask.

I’m not exactly surprised; this seems like the kind of thing Autumn would do. The food is organized by grouping and colors. From a bird’s eye view, with colorful foods being laid out in swirls and snaking its way through in a well thought out design, it looks a little like the Candy Land game board.

Autumn nods, almost a little shyly.

I pierce a piece of strawberry and dip it into a little white ceramic bowl that’s labeled cheesecake dip and bring it up to my mouth, pulling the strawberry and cheesecake dip off with my teeth.

Damn… that’s delicious.

I nod as I chew, ‘This looks awesome. Nice work.’

‘Hey! The fight is about to start!’ Brent calls out from the large sunken living room.

‘Let’s go grab a seat,’ Tessa says, grabbing her apple hard cider off the drink coaster sitting on the countertop and starts leading the way towards the room with the TV.

A large TV sits inside custom-built exotic wood grain cabinetry that matches the kitchen’s cabinets. A huge navy-blue U shape couch fills half of the room and faces the TV. Behind the couch on the opposite side of the wall are big floor-to-ceiling windows with doubles doors out to the balcony that runs the same length as the large rectangular living room. The city of Seattle framed perfectly from this view. The same view Autumn and I have, but several levels below this one.

The girls and I head for the living room, following Reeve and Seven who are also in the kitchen on the other side of the twelve-foot island, discussing next week’s opposition and how they might change up their goalkeeping position.

I look over our group and realize that we’re still missing Kaenan and Isla but maybe they’ll show later.

Even with the couch having ample room for a big crowd, there isn’t enough room for everyone. Usually, I’d just stand behind the couch. I don’t like being anchored to one spot usually anyway but I want to be close to Autumn and that’s where she’s heading towards.

The couch is starting to fill up but I see one open spot and I plop down into it: Brent on my left side, the couch arm rest on the other. It’s the end of the U-shape couch which is the worst viewing spot but I don’t care, it gives me a little leverage for what I’m about to do next.

Autumn looks around quickly looking for an open spot but there isn’t one in sight.

‘Here Autumn, I’ll go get a chair from the dinning room for me. You sit here,’ Lake says, putting down his drink to get up but I stop him quickly.

‘It’s fine Lake. Autumn can sit on my lap,’ I say, looking from Lake to Autumn, holding her eye contact to encourage her.

Her eyes glance one more time around the full couch of people. They’re all looking at her as she stands in front of us awkwardly. She bites down on her full pink bottom lip for a second as she hesitates.

I know they shy little girl from Walla Walla wants out of the spotlight that’s shining on her right now.

‘Yeah Autumn, sit on Briggs’ lap,’ Tessa says, biting back what I imagine would be a cackle if she let it loose.

None of the other guys seem to catch on since Tessa and Penelope are the only two other people in this room that know that Autumn and I are fake.

Autumn is now out of choices and needs to step out of the way now that the fight music is starting up and the announcers are beginning to discuss Isaac and the other fighter’s long history of hating each other.

She steps close enough for me to slide my arm around her waist and guide her to rest that perfect ass in my lap. She’s coming willingly now even though before I wasn’t sure she would. I hope it’s because she wants to stay close to me too.

Having Autumn here with my teammates and friends feels more natural than it should. And watching Isaac is a reminder that I shouldn’t like the fact that our fake relationship gives me the license to touch her whenever I want, which I find hard to keep my hands to myself now that she in my lap.

What a failed to consider is the amount of torture that Autumn can inflict in this position without meaning to. Every shift of her hips, every cough or laugh, every time she tenses to her brother taking a hit, it all zings through our connected bodies and sends a zing to my dick.

Poor guy is confused as hell down there about what should be going on before Autumn and me. I do everything I can not to poke Autumn in the ass with my ever growing cock for the entire fight.

I try watching Isaac and seeing the hits he sends to his opponent and try to image that it will be me if I ever actually touch Autumn but that only helps slightly to lessen my growing erection and the tightening of my balls as this torment continues.

Maybe this is karma punishing me for having dirty thoughts about my best friend’s sister.

After the fight ends to Isaac knocking the guy out cold in the last round, we all leave the couch and wonder to different places in the penthouse, none of us ready to go home.

A couple guys end up smoking cigars out on the balcony while i spend my night around the island with Autumn and a few others discussing what all of our plans for our bi-week break in the season looks like. The week we all get in the middle of the season for rest, most of us using it for vacation.

I spend the rest of the night finding excuses for my hand to graze over her hand when passing her a drink, or press my thigh against hers as we sit on the bar stools around the island.

Not being able to drink means I had the entire night of sober thoughts about the woman I’m not supposed to be interested in. How much longer can i keep my distance, I’m not sure.

The next morning, I wake up and head for morning skate with the determination that tonight, I’ll call Isaac and find a way to let him know that I’m dating his sister.

I killed it in practice. We really are in the best shape that this team has been in in years.

“Great practice today, Conley. If you keep skating like that, we’re bound for a championship win this season.”

“No doubt. This is our year,” I say back to Kaenan, who’s headed in the opposite direction toward Coach Bex’s office, with his team issued duffle bag hung over his shoulder.

I push through the side exit that leads right to the players’ parking lot. The heavy metal door slams behind me like it does every time anyone exits. It’s so goddamn loud. Someone should install a soft close on it like the doors on our apartments. It’s a nice feature.

I reach down into my own team issued duffel bag and grab my keys as I step off the cement sidewalk and onto the black top of the parking lot, anxious to get back to see if Autumn decided to work from home in those tiny little…

Boom!

My vision goes dark, and everything goes black for a second as I stumble back. Did I just get hit by a car? I just about have an out-of-body experience, the confusion slowing down my body’s ability to register pain… but wait… yep, here it comes. A searing pain to the left side of my jaw is beginning to radiate quickly.

“What the fuck!?” I say, grabbing my jaw and finally getting my bearings enough to see the perpetrator.

“You had it coming, Conley,” Isaac says, still in his fighter stance, his darkening eyes pinned on me.

In a pair of jeans and a hoodie, Isaac looks too ordinary to look as mean as he was in the ring last night.

His buzz cut and bruising on his knuckles that are still up, ready to strike again, make him look like the badass MMA fighter that I already know he is.

He’s trimmer right now than he usually is when he isn’t getting ready for a fight. He cut weight to make the weight class for this title fight, but he still looks just as deadly and lethal at any size.

I put up my arms in defense. “Wow! Wow! Hold on.” I look around quickly and notice that none of my other teammates are out here. They’re inside talking with Coach, or they’ve already left after practice. I’m relieved I don’t have to stop them from trying to jump Isaac, but I also wish I had at least someone close enough in case this fucker actually decides to try to kill me. However, if he really wanted to kill me, he should have just ran me over with his car. It might have been a quicker resolution to his problem. “What are you talking about?” I ask, my jaw already feeling tight and tingling as I try to speak with it.

The adrenaline is still running thick through my body but soon it will settle down and I’ll start feeling the effects of that hit in full force.

“You know exactly, asshole. I watched the replay of your interview from last week’s game. I told you not to touch my sister,” he growls, giving me a good shove with his hands against my chest. I stumble back another step. His shoulders now easing down, he’s not going to hit me again… I don’t think.

“Shit, Isaac, we were kids when you said that. Autumn and I are grown-ass adults now. I didn’t think you’d feel the same way this many years later.”

Liar.

Isaac drops his hands down by his sides, although his fists are still clenched, and he takes a step toward me. I don’t flinch, but I prepare that he might hit me again, and this time, I plan to block it.

“You thought I wouldn’t want to protect my baby sister from a player like you?” His voice is raised.

“Come on, man, I’m not a player,” I tell him, looking around to make sure no one else is watching this go down.

He shakes his head rapidly in disagreement. “Your reputation precedes you, and you forget we went to high school together… I know how many women you’ve gone through, and I know what you’re capable of. You’re going to hurt her,” he says, pointing a finger at me.

“I’m not that way with her. I love her.”

Wait, what the fuck did I just say? He must have hit me harder than I thought because that was straight up word vomit.

I love her? Love her like my best friend’s little sister… sure. But I’ve never uttered the words I love you to another soul besides my parents. Not even the girl I dated for a year in my sophomore year of college. There’s no way I’m in love with Autumn. We’re not even really dating.

Even Isaac looks skeptical, and I don’t blame him, but I’m pretty sure he’ll kill me if he finds out that we moved in together, and I don’t pretend to be in love with her. Nope, I’ve got to sell the whole lie. The only way I walk out of this with my nose in the same place it was before he showed up is to make him believe that Autumn and I are in love, that we’re building a future together and that I plan on never hurting his sister.

His eyes squint, and I can tell he’s trying to determine whether I’m being genuine or just trying to keep him from kicking my ass further.

“Prove it,” he says finally.

“Prove it how?”

“I don’t know. It’s your ass on the line, so I guess you’ll think of something.”

“Fuck… thanks,” I say sarcastically.

Then, because I can’t come up with anything worse than this, I blurt out, “Come stay with us.”

“Stay with you?” he asks in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up.

That makes two of us.

“Yeah… we just moved in together. We have a spare room.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake, Briggs, you’re a dumbass.

“You’re living with my baby sister?” Isaac asks, taking another step forward, his fists balling at his sides, but if he thinks I’m about to back down or cower, he’s forgotten who’s always had his back out on the ice when we played together, and even if I can’t defend myself against an MMA fighter, I’ll sure as hell defend Autumn. He’s treating her like a child who can’t make up her own mind. He has no idea how important this fake relationship is to her career… and to mine.

“I told you, we’re in love.”

There I go again. Shoving my foot in my mouth.

Isaac stares back at me for a second and then crosses his arms over her chest, “All right, fine. I have to check in with a fighter gym here locally that I’m training with for two days. Text me the address, and I’ll head over when I’m done,” he says, his six-foot stature of pure muscle finally seeming to loosen for the first time since our odd reunion.

Thank God. I’ll have a few minutes to warn Autumn before he shows up and tells her the dumb thing I did, suggesting her brother comes to stay with us.

“Your sister will be glad to see you.”

“Yeah… we’ll see,” he says, looking at my eye and then my jaw. “You’d better get some ice on that.”

I don’t say anything, instead I just stare back at him, keeping my feet planted, holding my ground.

Isaac spins around and heads for what looks like a rental Prius. He climbs into the car and I bite back a laugh because he’d just climb back out of the car and give me the beat down he held back from giving me.

Autumn

The second Briggs walks through the door of our apartment, I look over from the spot I’m sitting in the living room, streaming a baking competition show and see a huge red mark on the left side of his face. I jump off the couch, worried about what happened to him since he left this morning, and head for him as he makes his way further into the apartment.

Did he get in a fight with a player on the ice?

Road rage dispute?

What in the actual hell happened today?

‘What happened to your face?’ I ask, coming up to him quickly.

He drops his black duffel bag on the ground and looks down at me as I inch closer trying to get a better look at his face. His arms hang down my his side, he’s not trying to stop me seeing the evidence. He’s watching my reaction to him getting hurt… or at least that’s how it feels.

‘Your brother showed up to the stadium today and waited for me to come out.’ He gives a humorless chuckle, and it almost seems like Briggs thinks he deserves this, but he doesn’t.

‘He did what?! Are you kidding me?’ I ask, my voice heated.

I reach out and softly grip around his face to turn it more to the side so I can see the bruising better.

“It’s fine. Could have gotten it from yesterday’s game. No one will know the difference.” He attempts to reassure me.

“But you didn’t get in a fight in last night’s game.”

He just shrugs.

I can’t believe Isaac actually hit him. Why does that hurt me so much? I wish I had been there to defend Briggs; he doesn’t deserve my brother physically putting his hands on him just for dating me. I wish we could come clean to Isaac.

‘It gets worse,’ he says, after I pull my hand from his face.

‘How much worse?’ I ask, my eyebrow cocked and ready for something more unsavory than my brother hitting my fake boyfriend.

‘I offered to let him stay in the guest bedroom,’ he says and then turns and starts walking down teh hall to his right and towards him bedroom.

“You did what?!” I ask, my voice raised higher than I meant to.

When the initial shock wears off, I’m back on his heels following him down the hall.

“It’ll be fine, but I’ll need to move all of my things into your room ASAP,” Briggs says, over his shoulder knowing full well I’m right behind me.

“How am I supposed to lie to him while he’s staying with us?”

He turns into his room, and I stop in the door frame watching while he begins shoving things, he had unpacked back into his duffle bag, though from the looks of it, he didn’t unpack much. He heads toward me with the duffle bags fully packed. I move back to let him out of the bedroom that i’m currently blocking the only exit out of, besides the window to the back of the room

“It’s only a couple of days, and he’s going to be training during the day. We can do this. We’ll be fine,’ he says, standing now in the hallway with his two duffle bags, one in each hand.

I look back at the red bruising that is now starting to purple and grey around the edges.

‘Right… we’ll be fine,’ I say, rolling me eyes and then spinning away from him towards the kitchen. ‘My brother is practically like a domesticated house cat. Let me just get you something for that massive bruise he left on your face.” I say sarcastically to make a point.

I can feel Briggs eyes on me as I make my way to the kitchen. He doesn’t move from his spot in the hallway except to turn to watch me in the kitchen.

“We’ll have to sleep together the next couple of nights. Are you going to be okay with that?” he asks.

He should be asking my brother if he would be ok with that. Based on the black and blue bruise on Briggs’s face… I don’t see how this works out, but whatever, these two knuckleheads worked out this plan so they can duke it out I guess.

He continues to watch as I pull the freezer door open and grab an ice pack from the bottom freezer drawer.

“Yeah. It’s fine. It’s just a place to rest for the night, and my brother will be in the room down the hall. It’s not as if we’re going to…” My cheeks heat at the idea that I just implied that something would happen if my brother wasn’t down the hall.

It’s not as if Briggs would be tempted by me. Not with the kind of women he’s used to throwing themselves at him. And I wouldn’t dare try anything, either. Not only am I not interested in being rejected by my childhood crush, but fooling around with a client is definitely against company rules. I wonder if living with the client makes the rule null and void.

I walk over to the drawer by the sink and grab a dish towel, wrap the ice pack in it and head back for him.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll keep my hands to myself,” he says, seemingly a little deflated, taking the ice pack from me and then turning to head back to my bedroom to unpack.

I give him some space and head to the island, where I have my laptop set up for work. I use the quiet time to check in on emails and make a couple of calls with Erika and other clients that I’m still working with. Originally Erika was going to pull me off all of the accounts when I took on this project because she doesn’t want me distracted, but without work to do during the day, I’d have nothing to do with my time since Briggs is rarely home between morning skate, the gym, physical therapy, dietitian or doctor visits, social media or team events, endorsement responsibilities… point is, Briggs isn’t around to entertain me, and all my friends have 8-5 jobs, and I like being busy.

A couple of hours later, the sun has set, and everything from Briggs’s room is now in mine. All of his things hang next to mine in the closet, like a true couple and I don’t like that my heart squeezes the first time I walk in and see his large monotone single-colored shirts hanging next to my much smaller bright-colored and floral prints. He’s spent the last half hour watching the sports channel with an ice pack to his face while he lounges on the couch, and I finish up some notes for Derek on an account we were working on before all of this started.

A loud yet familiar knock pounds on the door. I’d know Isaac’s knock from anyone else’s. I take labored steps toward the door, glancing back at Briggs for one last ‘are you sure we should do this’ look and he nods in a non-verbal reply.

I’m not looking forward to lying to my brother’s face about what’s happening between Briggs and me. This would be so much easier if we could tell him what’s really going on. He’d still be pissed, I’m sure, but maybe Briggs wouldn’t have an Isaac-size bruise on his face right now.

“Isaac!” I say, opening the door and tossing my arms around my big brother’s neck before I get a good look at him.

“Hey, little sis,” he says, squeezing me closer and lifting me off the ground in a big bear hug. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too. I wasn’t expecting a surprise visit, though. You should have told me you were coming.”

He sets me back down and stares over at the living room where Briggs is sitting on the large L-shaped sofa in the living room, his arm laid over the low back of the couch and his long right leg stretched out on the sofa, pointing toward us, his other foot still on the ground and an ice pack held against his face. The sounds of the sports channel broadcaster seem too chipper and upbeat for this reunion.

I finally get the first look at my brother since I opened the door. He doesn’t look any better than Briggs. In fact, he looks a little like his face got hit by a bus. His buzzed haircut and swollen face from the fight last night make him look as harsh as a true MMA badass, but if you hadn’t watched him win that fight last night, you’d never guess that he looks better than the other guy today. The other guy probably got admitted to the hospital.

“Looks like you could use an ice pack too.” I chuckle.

Isaac looks past me at Briggs again. My eyes follow his as Briggs and Isaac have a short stare-down, both their faces grimace at one another and if they were a pair of bulldogs, they’d probably be growling about now.

“Ice packs are for pussies,” Isaac says.

“How charming. I love when men use the slang term for a woman’s anatomy to imply weakness.” I roll my eyes and walk away with irritation.

“Sorry,” he says under his breath.

I don’t think he is actually sorry, but maybe at least he’ll stop saying it around me.

Even through all of this, I’m still excited to see him. Ever since he moved to Las Vegas to pursue his fighting career full-time, I don’t see as much of him as I’d like.

Isaac follows behind me with a swagger meant to piss off Briggs, and from the corner of my eye, I can tell Briggs is growing irritated. I want to tell Isaac to knock off this shit. These two were practically inseparable for our entire childhood, up until the minute they both left for different colleges. Not that they didn’t have their differences or arguments, but this is breaking my heart, and I can’t stand to see them like this for a minute longer.

“All right, well…” I say to Isaac in an attempt to break the silence. “This is our new place. Let me give you the grand tour.”

I pull Isaac along with me towards the large open-concept kitchen to our left. Isaac takes a look around at the state-of-the-art kitchen. “I bet you’re in heaven baking in here.”

It’s true. I packed in preparation for a grand bake-a-thon one of these weekends when Briggs is on the road. I even have everything I need for several batches of ingredients for chocolate oatmeal cookies when the itch to bake arises.

“I haven’t yet, but I can’t wait to use that double oven and this huge island. I could probably have ten cooling sheets up here with Mom’s chocolate chip recipe.” I lay out my full wingspan over the top of the island, my cheek resting on the cold white sparkling granite countertop as I stretch out my arms to prove my point about how large the island is since my fingertips don’t even come close to touching either end of the countertop.

“That chocolate chip recipe?” I hear Briggs perk his head up a little higher over the couch in the distant living room and look over at me in the kitchen, ignoring Isaac’s existence. “Are you going to make cookies tonight? Damn, I could use one right about now.”

Isaac looks down at me, too, hope flicking in his eyes… or maybe that’s just the look of a man whose had to starve himself for the last month to make weight for his fight.

“Mom’s cookie would hit the spot after such a long trip coming to see you.”

The pressure is beginning to stack up against me.

I guess it’s good to see they can agree on one thing.

“Not in your dreams,” I tell them both. “I’m not baking tonight. It’s late, and I’m tired. I’m ready for a good book and a long bath.”

Isaac looks over at Briggs. “You’d better be planning on keeping your pants on for the entire two days I’m here.”

Briggs just throws up his free hand in frustration, the other holding the ice pack to his face again.

I roll my eyes and shake my head at my brother’s demands. Not because that was what Briggs and I were planning on doing, but because that was the right reaction if I was actually dating Briggs. Damn, I hate this. “Come on, you…” I say gruffly. “Let’s get you settled in the spare bedroom.”

Briggs stands up as Isaac and I head toward the hallway, but he beats us to it, heading down in front of us.

“I’m tired too. I’m heading to our room. You coming in soon? I’ll run your bathwater.”

Briggs stops and turns around, glaring at Isaac and then smiles down at me.

Perfect, poke the bear, why don’t you?

“Watch it, Conley,” my brother all but snarls. “There’s still plenty of real estate on that pretty boy face of yours for a matching black eye.”

Briggs breaks our eye contact and glances at Isaac. Gone is my brother, and in his place is a furious MMA fighter. His shoulders roll back, and muscles flex along his arms. It’s only when Briggs looks down at my stomach do I realize that Isaac has put his hand there and pushed me slightly behind him.

I can barely breathe as tension fills the air.

“Twenty-five years of friendship or not,” Briggs says with his voice dangerously low, “I’ll fight you for your sister if that’s what it takes.”

What the… where did that come from?

“Guys—” I try to break the tension.

“Glad we understand each other then,” Isaac says, turning into the bedroom.

“Isaac—” I try, but he slams the bedroom door behind him.

I turn back to Briggs and give him a lopsided frown, landing my hand on top of my hip to show how I feel about the unnecessary comments he just made to piss off my brother. We were supposed to tread water carefully for the next couple of days, appease Isaac into thinking we’re living like nuns in a monastery, and get him back on his way until our “relationship” runs its course and we break up… amicably.

He looks at my cocked hip and chuckles, turning back around and slapping the ice pack back on his face as he walks back to the master bedroom.

“That tub is built for two… convenient.”

I want to yell at him, “Not in your dreams,” but I don’t need Isaac hearing a dispute arising out in the hall and deciding to come out to investigate.

Instead, I ignore it and head to the kitchen, where I left my phone plugged in, and I snatch my tablet from my purse with the new romance thriller I’ve been dying to read.

Tonight, I need a distraction and something that I can count on that ends with a happily ever after.