“What do you mean you didn’t kiss her?” Brooks sat forward so fast Hudson nearly fell off the arm of the chair, arms and legs flailing until he planted a foot on the floor to hold himself in place.
“She kissed me.”
“She kissed you,” Brooks repeated. “Both times?”
Elias glared at Cole again, who simply shrugged.
“We’re family,” Cole said. “You know there’s no such thing as secrets in this family.”
“When did you become such girls,” Elias demanded.
“Stop deflecting,” Dawson drawled. “It’s only making you look guiltier.”
Brooks smirked and grinned again, and Elias lost it. He grabbed the pillow under his arm and hurtled it toward Brooks’s smug face, drawing barks of laughter from all of them.
“Fine, she kissed you. Then what happened?”
Finn’s question brought the room back to order, and Elias glared at his twin. Finn usually had his back but apparently not today.
“I think the most important question,” Alec said, “is what’s going on now? Elias, you had to know being seen together would amp things up. Was that on purpose?”
He slid his eldest brother a glance and shook his head, the guilt he felt over causing Quinley even more problems real and smothering. “No, it wasn’t. I didn’t think it through. She didn’t want to ride with the bodyguards, and I agreed since they might not take her where she wanted to go because they work for her ex, so—I told her she could ride with me. The gas station stop was…a bad call.”
“And the kissing?” Hud asked.
Elias pinched the bridge of his nose and ignored the fact Hud seemed to be taking more after Brooks than the rest of them. “Another bad call for allowing it to happen. Quinley is Ana’s best friend. That makes her off-limits.”
“She’s a beautiful, single woman,” Cole said. “She ended things when she took off the ring and left the note. And Ana likes you; you know that. She wouldn’t object to you dating Quinley.”
“Quinley’s a hot mess,” Elias countered with a hard shake of his head, even as he felt bad for making the statement. “Don’t get me wrong. She is nice and smart and beautiful, but she’s not for me.”
“You don’t like nice, smart and beautiful?” Dawson asked, a frown pulling his eyebrows low.
“I think she’d make ahotsugar mama. Think she’ll invite me in for a drink when I’m there mowing her lawn?” Hudson asked Dawson.
Elias glared at his kid brother. “Stay outof her house and stick to girls your own age.”
“Careful, brother. You’re sounding jealous,” Cole said.
“I’m not jealous,” Elias countered, hearing how defensive he sounded. But he wasn’t jealous. Was he? He stared at Hudson’s too-handsome face and bright blue eyes and frowned. He’d heard all about Hudson’s recent and ill-advised tryst with a cougar. Given Hud’s welcoming response, Elias would say his brother was willing to venture into that type of relationship again if it was available because he claimed girls his age played too many games.
“Then I can go inside if she invites me in?” Hudson dodged an elbow from Brooks, grin in place.
Elias dropped his head against the cushion behind him and groaned. “The reporters outside my house would be easier to handle than the seven of you idiots.”
“We’re just trying to figure out why you’re acting like you’re not interested in her,” Finn said.
“I’m not acting like anything. I’m trying to be smart about this. Do I really need to list the cons of dating Ana’s best friend? Awkward family gatherings? Uncomfortable kid programs later on when you two have kids?”
“That’s a pretty negative attitude,” Alec said. “Why are you assuming it wouldn’t work out?”
“She was gettingmarried,” Elias countered. “To the wrong guy, obviously, but she thought she was ready for marriage and then bailed.”
“Because hewasthe wrong guy,” Cole stressed. “That doesn’t necessarily make her a flight risk. It means she’s ready for commitment and knows her mind enough to know exactly what she wants. At least she was honest enough to not go through with it. A lot of women would have, just for a payout.”
“Fine, she knows her mind. Good for her. But that doesn’t matter when I have zero interest in marriage or a serious relationship,” Elias said. “And given her connection to Ana and what you’ve just said, Quinley would require one or the other.”
“What’s wrong with that? Why not date her? See where it would go?” Brooks asked.
