Filed to story: Kissing the Wrong Brother
For the life of me I can’t figure out who’s winning.
I only know the endgame. Her. Me. In bed. Or wherever.
Kylie is the first girl to interest me-truly interest me-since Olivia Middleton. The only girl I’ve ever really wanted. And definitely the only one I’ve ever loved.
Not that I have any intention of loving Kylie. I’m not going that route again, ever.
But I do want her. And not just because she has a smoking body. Kylie has a key connection to my very reason for being in Texas.
“Saw Mindy on my way down here,” Kylie says, giving a little twirl of her racket as she moves closer. “Everything go okay with your lesson? She looked kind of irritated.”
I toss my towel aside with an indifferent shrug. “It’s hot. Makes everyone edgy.”
“It really is hot, isn’t it?” she agrees, setting her racket on the bench to pull her long dark hair into a high ponytail. “I could hardly bear to get dressed this morning.”
Looks like you didn’t bear it at all, I almost say. But I don’t. I just pretend like I don’t notice the way her current posture shows off the lean curve of her waist.
Kylie looks nothing like Olivia. Olivia was blond with warm green eyes, whereas Kylie is dark-haired with scheming brown eyes. But they have that same combination of sweet and haughty, the same rich-girl fit body, same shy yet confident smile.
Kylie absently runs her fingertips over her bare abdomen and I nearly grin at the obviousness of her gesture.
Even as I want to haul her to me and give her the kiss she’s so blatantly asking for, I want to knock her down a peg. To tell her she’s nothing to me but a chance at redemption from my past, and the key to getting my foot in the door of my future.
Kylie Walsh is nothing but a reminder of what it felt like to want someone.
“Should we get started?” I ask.
“Absolutely,” she says, flicking the ponytail back over her shoulder. “I’ll need all the practice I can get since I’m team captain next year.”
“You’ll be a senior, right?” I ask, even though I don’t really give a shit.
“Yup,” she says.
A snort comes from behind me, and I’m surprised to realize we’re no longer alone.
“Fifth-year senior,” the newcomer says, settling herself on the bench as though she belongs there.
“Sorry?” I ask, still trying to figure out where the hell this girl came from.
The girl nods in the direction of Kylie. “She’s already done her senior year. Next year she’ll be doing it again.”
I glance toward Kylie and see her giving the other girl a death glare.
They clearly know each other.
I give the new girl a second look. She’s about Kylie’s age, but looks nothing like her. There’s a book on the bench next to her hip, but right now both of her hands are occupied with an M&M’s bag. She fishes out a candy and pops it into her mouth as her eyes move between Kylie and me like we’re the world’s most fascinating spectator sport.
“Cute,” the girl says, gesturing between Kylie and me. “If you two copulate, I’m calling Pampers to tell them I know where their next baby model is coming from.”
“Friend of yours?” I ask Kylie.
Kylie sighs. “Sister.”
Sister?
Disbelieving, I look more closely at the chocolate-munching creature.
Instead of Kylie’s smooth dark ponytail, this one’s hair is a mass of wild curls, sort of gold and brown, and maybe some red.
She’s got the same big eyes as her sister, except somehow they’re too large on her, and blue instead of brown. She also has her sister’s full mouth, but it’s too obvious, somehow. And whereas Kylie is slim bordering on skinny, this one is, well … lush.
“I know, I know,” the other girl says in a weary voice, tilting the M&M’s bag to her mouth and munching the last of the candies. “I’m the pretty one. Don’t tell Kylie; she’s sick of hearing it.”
I hear another tiny sigh from Kylie. “Miles St. Claire, this is Aria Walsh. My mom insisted she come along and watch, in hopes that this will be the summer that she’ll actually want to take part in some of the more active elements happening at the club.”
“Um, did you not see the way I kicked the ass of that vending machine?” Aria asks, giving her sister an incredulous look. “And if Mom had ever seen me pursuing a midnight snack, she’d know just how active I can be.”
I stifle the unfamiliar urge to smile, even though I can see right through her.
Her curvy figure isn’t fashionable … not in places like this, where celery sticks qualify as dinner. But she’s smart about it; she’s joking about her weight before the rest of them can.
Annoyance flashes across Kylie’s face, but before she can open her mouth, I clear my throat, hoping to break up a sibling fight. “Ready?” I ask Kylie.
With a last warning glance at her sister, Kylie gives me a bright smile. “Totally. But go easy on me…. I haven’t played since our lesson last week.”
“You’ve gone a whole week since trying to swat a fuzzy green ball?” Aria makes a dramatic, despairing noise behind us. “Why, God, why? Why is life so hard?”
Kylie inhales long and slow. The sound is practiced, as though she’s done it before to cope with her annoying younger sister.
I don’t have siblings, but growing up with Ethan and Olivia in my back pocket, I know that sometimes pretending the other person’s not there is the best way to stave off a fight.
Kylie brushes at the hair near her temple, and I notice it’s curling a little in the afternoon heat. It’s cute. Unlike her sister’s curls, which are … crazy.
Kylie moves to one side of the net and I move to the other, ignoring the wolf whistle from Aria as I walk by her.
I pull a ball from my pocket, lobbing it easily over the net. Kylie moves into place, sending it back in my direction with near-perfect form.
This goes on for several minutes until I hear a noisy fake snoring sound from the spectator on the sidelines.
Kylie pauses long enough to glare at her sister again. The ball goes sailing past her, and I see her frown.
Not exactly the flirtatious foreplay I’d been hoping for today.
But since I can’t make the annoying sister go away, I figure the least I can do is to engage her in conversation so she quits bugging Kylie.
“You play tennis, Aria?” I call out as I pull out another ball and serve it to Kylie, harder this time.
“Do I look like I’m all about cardio?” she calls back in a cheerful voice.
“What about when you were younger? You didn’t take lessons?”
“Um, that’s a negative,” Aria says around a mouthful of chocolate. She has a candy bar now. “Some of us were reading Harry Potter like normal kids.”
“Ignore her,” Kylie says sharply, delivering a strong forehand in the direction of her sister.
It misses by several feet, but the aim was not accidental, I’m guessing.
Aria apparently takes the hint, because for the next several minutes, she seems to settle down with her book. I start to forget she’s there, except for when she occasionally shouts out a request for me to flex, or to “circle real slow-like so I can see the goods.”
I do my best to ignore her.
It’s not easy.
Kylie’s serve is sloppy today, which I’m guessing has something to do with her sister’s distracting presence, but I’m not really complaining. It’ll give me a chance to touch her as I correct her form.
“You’re using too much wrist,” I say, nabbing the ball she’d just sent over. “Let’s work on it.”
I start to head over to the other side of the net, and our eyes lock as I make my way toward her, but then her eyes move over my shoulder and widen in surprise and something else before a huge smile breaks across her face.
“Ben!”
I freeze for a split second, the name splintering through my consciousness. It’s possible there are other Bens, of course, but not likely.
And the Ben I know is dating Kylie Walsh.
It’s the reason I’m after her. Well. That and the body.
I turn slowly, waiting to get my first glance at one of the very reasons I’m in Cedar Grove, Texas, in the first place. But even though I think I’m prepared for it, his features are still a shock.
This kid is a dead ringer for Tim Carson.
I realize that I’m not dead inside like I’ve been thinking these past few months.
I watch as Kylie’s arms go around Ben’s neck, and my fingers tighten on the handle of my tennis racket.
I wait for a stab of jealousy.
I feel nothing.
This had been the plan all along: Use Kylie to get to Ben.
