Page 39 of Broken Prince
“Avoiding us again, I see,” Owen taunts, catching me alone at the reception.
I look over at him, feeling a little buzzed. “I don’t mean to. But none of you are making it easy. You all say friends, yet keep letting me know how much you want me. It’s confusing, and if this is going to work, we need to not keep admitting our attraction to each other,” I huff, taking another sip of my drink.
Owen cocks a brow. “Well, I’ve been a good boy since last night. So, what did my brothers do?”
“Caught one jacking off in the shower with my name on his lips, and the other tells me how much he would get off on me calling him a good boy.”
Owen’s eyes widen, and he lets out a surprised laugh. “Well, fucking hell.” He shakes his head. “I’d say the first one was Elijah, but Logan would never ask you to call him a good boy.”
“Can you talk to them, tell them to just keep inner desires to themselves? You don’t see me telling all of you how I dream about riding you like fucking ponies now, do you?” I mutter, downing the rest of my drink.
“Fucking hell, Laney,” Owen groans.
“No fucking.” I point a finger at him. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to dance with my aunties, maybe find a hot guy. You don’t have any secret brothers I should be worried about, do you?”
Owen’s face falls at the guy's comment. “No,” he grits out. “But all the single guys here are cousins. Others are married men that my dad works with, so good luck with that.”
“Whatever,” I sigh.
The rest of the night is fun. I end up laughing and dancing with my aunties and even got to spend some time with Mom.
By the end of it, I passed out in the dressing room on the couch while Benny slept in his playpen.
I think I remember Logan talking to me, maybe he even touched me, but I was too out of it.
When I woke up again, I was somehow in my bed. I don’t remember how I got there.
***
A few days go by, and I don’t see the guys. And that's not because I’ve been avoiding them. Elijah’s been helping out at baseball camp, Logan’s been busy with football stuff, and Owen’s been doing... well, I have no idea what he’s been doing.
I did, however, get Winter’s number at the reception and even had a few dances with her. I like her. She’s fun, bubbly, and overall nice to be around.
So, when I find myself getting stir-crazy, I text her to see if she wants to go shopping. I’m happy to see her text back and agree.
“Hey.” I smile when I see her bouncing over to me from her car.
“Hi.” She grins wide. “Thanks for the invite. I’ve never done the whole shopping thing with another girl before.”
“Really?” my brows jump. That's kind of sad. My friends and I pretty much lived at the mall growing up.
She nods, then shrugs. “Me and Eli go all the time. He puts up with me,” she laughs. “Love him for that. But he’s also fun to hang out with. He acts like he hates it, but I don’t think he does. I didn’t get along with the girls from school. They were all catty and only cared about popularity, how they looked, and how much money they had. Too shallow for me. So, for the most part, it’s been me and Eli. He has some friends on the team, but he doesn’t hang out with them outside of practice and games.”
“You know what. Fuck them all. They didn’t deserve an awesome friend like you. You were too good for them. I’m glad you had Elijah. And now, you have me.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder, and she beams up at me like I’ve given her the moon. My heart hurts for her. How could people not want to be this girl's friend? She’s a damn ray of sunshine.
“Thank you,” she whispers, and I pretend I don’t see the tears in her eyes.
“Come on, Winny, let’s go shopping.” The nickname gets me another big smile.
“Elijah is the only one who calls me that. I like it when you do, too.”
Smiling, I nod. “Your car or mine?”
“Yours.” She shrugs.
Winter gives me the names of some shops in town, and we hit up a strip mall of stores.
“Holy shit,” I mutter, looking at the price tag of a really cute dress.