“They’re not that vague,” I shout back.
“It’s not going to give her any advantage to go that way anyway,” Shiloh adds, which is what convinces Grandpa it’s a losing strategy.
“Then the girl needs to stop being so soft,” he says. “I’ve got money riding on this game.”
Steele laughs from his lawn chair a few feet away. “You picked the wrong horse, Grandpa. Come on, baby! We’re gonna take home the pot!”
If it comes to choosing sides bet**en my grandfather and my brother, I’m definitely going with the former. Especially, since he’s rooting for the love of my life. “Forget the hoop, honeybee. Go for her ball, and hit her out of play!”
“Who’s winning?” Scott asks as he joins the watch party with his wife.
“Who cares?” Jessa zeroes in on the bundle in Tess’s arms. “There’s a baby in the vicinity. I can’t even remember what we were talking about.” She moves to hover over the two-month-old love bug. “Oh my goodness, he’s adorable. What’s his name?”
“Oliver,” Tessa says, beaming.
It’s sort of disgusting, particularly because every time I see her cooing over that damn thing, I can’t help but picture Brystin cooing over a baby of our own. The caveman in me wants to throw away her birth control and make it happen now, though we’ve discussed and agreed that right now is the time to focus on her career.
“Ugh, he’s so adorable, I want to puke.” Jessa reaches for him. “Let me take that off your hands. I’m not at all sad that I didn’t have children, but I’m really annoyed that I don’t get to be a grandmother.”
“You can be Nana to Ollie.” Tess hands him over, despite the fact that she only met Jessa yesterday.
Much as I hate to be, I’m admittedly distracted by Jessa’s attempts to get Oliver to smile, and next thing I know, Brystin is joining us, a defeated pout on her face. “I lost.”
I slide my arm around her. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll poison Simone’s wine later. Steele’s too.”
She leans into me, which makes me feel simultaneously gooey in places and hard in other places, every damn f**king time. “Why Steele? All he did was cheer her on.”
“I’m sure there’s some reason he deserves it.” He’s my brother, after all. I could easily make a list.
“Oh, hey.” Jessa finally looks up from the baby to see that Brystin is here. “I meant to tell you I bumped into Elvis the other day.”
I cringe at the mention of his name. It’s been four months since their divorce was finalized, and we’ve pretty much gone that long without mentioning him. He created some fun sexual tension for us in the early days, but the sex is just as hot without bringing him into our relationship.
Brystin is much more graceful at handling references to him than I am. “Really? Spill.”
Jessa jumps on the chance to gossip. “He asked me out, believe it or not. I said no, obviously.”
I’m an asshole, so I laugh. Elvis deserves to be rejected by every woman for the rest of his life, as far as I’m concerned.
Brystin gives me a scolding nudge. “Why obviously? He’s not marriage material, but he’s really pretty decent in bed.”
“I do not want to hear that.” I wr*p my arm tighter around her waist, a reminder that she’s mine.
Jessa nods. “Oh, I remember, but have you seen him lately? He’s losing his hair, and that man really needs to get back to the gym.”
“Oh, this conversation just turned fun.” I can’t help it. I despise the guy. The best thing that came out of my, um, departure, as I prefer to call it, from SNC was that Adly came through and got the guy canned. “Is he still out of work?”
Brystin nudges me again. “You’re out of work.”
“By choice.”
Speaking of which…
I survey the yard to find my sister. “Adly’s finally alone.”
Brystin pulls away from me in a not-so-subtle foreshadow of what she’s about to say. “You should talk to her now.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“And don’t forget to mention Shiloh.”
“I won’t.” Before I extricate myself from the group, I give Brystin a k**s that’s probably far too intimate for public display, but I don’t give a f**k what’s appropriate, where Brystin is concerned.
“Oh, please,” Jessa says while Scott insists we, “Get a room.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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