He avoids my eyes and shoves a hand through his curly black hair. “They were just saving you from a horrible first kiss.”
My heart gives a funny flip hearing him say the word kiss. I can’t help it. This is the boy I’ve always pictured my first kiss with. He is two years older than me, the same age as the twins. He’s quiet and reserved at school, but I’ve seen his fun and energetic side. The side that if other girls saw, he’d never be available. But he’s not available to me, anyway; I’m basically his little sister.
My mouth drops open. “It wasn’t going to be horrible!”
He lifts his left eyebrow, the one with a scar through it that makes him look dangerous and exciting. “Really? Because you looked miserable.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Because I knew you and my brothers were going to ruin it. Just like everything else!”
Grant’s eyes soften. “Your first kiss shouldn’t scare you.” His voice is deeper than any of the guys my age, and that is the only reason I shiver.
I snort, but it sounds more like I’m choking. “You thought I was scared?”
He takes a step closer and my breathing speeds up by default. “You were terrified to kiss him.”
Who was I afraid to kiss? Oh, Lucas. Only Lucas.
“You were two seconds from puking,” Grant says.
I hate that he’s right. I also hate that he’s standing so close I can’t think of a good comeback.
“So I think the words you’re looking for now are ‘thank you’.” He smiles confidently and dang it if confidence doesn’t look amazing on him, just like everything else.
I take a deep breath and come back to my senses. He may be the boy I can’t get off my mind night and day, but he just wrecked my first kiss. “I don’t need you or anyone else saving me from a kiss. I’ll make sure you aren’t around for my next one.”
His dark eyes harden ever so slightly. “We’ll see about that.”
The Solution:
A fake engagement
Chapter 2
Lennox
Six years later
I look at the drawing on my computer screen. It’s so boring. Nothing but cabinets, cabinets, and more cabinets.
I switch tabs and I’m back to my favorite illustration app. I never wanted to work at the family cabinet shop. But six months ago, I decided it was time to grow up and stop mooching off my parents. I know how blessed I’ve been to have supportive parents, which is why I’m determined to prove I can take what they’ve taught me and make something of myself. I’ll be graduating after spring semester and then I have to figure out my life. Which conveniently starts in the one place I’ve been avoiding for the last twenty-one years, working at my family’s cabinet shop.
Speaking of, I should get back to the actual work on my plate: drawing the jobs for my dad. I switch screens and glance at the clock. I have only fifteen minutes to finish designing this job before I need to head to class. Which I can do as long as no one bugs me—
“It wasn’t half bad. I think I might get a pedicure again.” Sean says and my other two brothers laugh as they burst into my office.
Well, it was a nice thought.
“Nope.” I point a finger at them to leave, but they’re oblivious.
“I can’t believe you went through with it,” Michael says with a shake of his head.
“I can. It’s Sean,” says Trent, “He doesn’t need a bet to act like a girl.”
Sean throws an arm around Trent’s neck and they bump into my desk, knocking a stack of business cards to the floor.
“Would you please get out of my office?” I try to intervene before they send my computer flying.
They stop fighting and lean over my desk in unison.
