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Ripley~
Something was bothering Junie, but I had no idea what it was. After I had opted to get out of the water, she had stayed in with Roark, and they’d been all deep in a conversation before Phin had shown up. A part of me was worried that kissing her had been too much, but she had assured me that it’d be okay, so I was still super confused about what was going on with the woman.
After Junie had returned from the house, Roark’s game of chicken had commenced, Roark and Junie going up against Bruce and Démon, and surprisingly, Phin and Sheridan. Leslie and Paul had remained on the deck while I had volunteered to get the barbecue pit going. The cabin had come with a barbecue pit built to match the cabin. The structure wasn’t made of wood, but block with a false wood finish. It was pretty fancy for a barbecue pit, but then again, the cabin was pretty fancy, too.
Now, with the day done, we were all gathered around the backyard deck of the cabin, everyone huddled around the fire pit. Like the barbecue pit, the fire pit was not just a dug-up hole in the ground or a bonfire in a trash can; it was a real fire pit, just as fancy as everything else.
“So, how are things going?” Phin asked, pretending to help me clean up when he was really just standing around, nursing his beer.
With everyone done eating, the rest of the food on the table for grazing, I had decided to clean up and give Junie some space. During dinner, she’d been stuck sitting between me and Roark, and while it’d been expected, she’d hardly said a word the entire time.
“Something’s bothering her, and I think it’s when I kissed her earlier,” I told him.
“You kissed her?”
“Well, not really. Paul was looking at her in a way that I didn’t appreciate, so I came up behind her, asked her if I could kiss her neck, she said yes, so I did,” I explained. “That’s when she started acting weird.”
Phin looked back over at the group. “Have you asked Roark about it?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to put him in the middle more than I already have.”
“Roark?” he called out. “We need a moment.”
“What are you doing?” I hissed, doing my best to keep putting shit away, acting as normally as I could.
“Finding out what the fuck is wrong with your girl,” he answered like I was stupid or something.
“What’s up?” Roark asked as soon as he reached us.
“Why’s Rip’s girl acting funny?”
“Tact,” I deadpanned. “Look it up, Phineas.”
“We’ve been best friends for years, Rip,” he snorted. “You’ve seen me smash twins in our hotel room before. You really want to go there?”
I rolled my eyes as Roark chuckled. “He’s got a point.”
“So, what’s wrong with our girl?” Phin repeated, and it was the wrong thing to say.
Though his voice was low enough for our ears only, there was no mistaking the emotion behind it. “Junie is not our girl,” Roark hissed. “She’s not something casual, replaceable, or random. Don’t talk about her like she’s just an errant thought again.”
Phin’s brows rose high. “Damn, Rip,” he drawled out. “You weren’t kidding when you said Roark treats her like she’s the Hope Diamond.”
“She is, fucker,” Roark kept hissing.
Phin just grinned. “So, what’s wrong with your girl, then?” he amended.
Roark didn’t answer right away and that made me stop with the cleaning to look over at him. “Roark?”
He let out a deep sigh. “She’s not my girl, either.”
I arched a brow. “Meaning?”
Roark jerked his head my way. “She’s his girl.”
This time, my brows rose high. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Roark shot me a look that had my back straightening. “She confessed to liking you when we were in the water earlier,” Roark finally divulged. “She doesn’t think you like her back, and I didn’t correct her because I didn’t want to put words in your mouth. I told her to ask you herself, then Moore showed up, and she kind of just wigged out. She was so freaked out that she embarrassed herself with letting us believe that she was on her period just to get some breathing room.”
Phin’s head reared back. “How the fuck do you know that she’s lying about her period?”
“Christ, do you have any idea how many times that I’ve picked up tampons for the woman?” Roark retorted. “Plus, even though she lives in another city, she’s not shy about complaining to me on the phone when she’s on it. Her cramps are pretty horrific sometimes.” Roark shook his head. “I know things about that girl that I should only know about my future wife.”
“Who gives a fuck about her fake period,” I hissed. “Are you telling me that she likes me? Like...is attracted to me? Like, like likes me?”
My brother nodded. “She does.”
All the air left my lungs, and I was actually feeling light-headed. I glanced over at her, and she was looking at something on Démon’s phone. Both women were smiling, and Junie looked so beautiful that I wanted to just haul her over my shoulder and keep her prisoner in our room for the rest of the weekend.
“Rip?” I looked back over at my brother. “I’m not going to stand in your way anymore, but...I will never forgive you if you hurt that girl.” My stomach clenched with the seriousness of my brother’s voice. “I will always love you, and we will always be okay, but I will never forgive you if you hurt her. If...this goes south, you will get no help from me to make it right. Junie will cease to exist between us. Understood?”
“What if she breaks my heart?” I posed because that was more plausible than me breaking hers.
Roark shook his head again. “That girl doesn’t know how to break someone’s heart. If she did, do you really think she’d be putting herself through the humiliation of listening to Leslie plan her wedding to Paul? Junie always picks the highroad. She always picks good.”
“He’s got a point,” Phin chimed in.
“It’s been five years, Roark,” I reminded him. “Five fucking years.”
He sighed again. “Yeah, okay. You’re right.”
I looked at my brother and best friend. “Clean this up, will you?”
I didn’t wait for an answer from either of them. I simply made my way towards where Junie was sitting next to Démon. She looked up at me with a huge smile on her face until she realized that I wasn’t Roark. Though her smile stayed in place, it no longer reached her eyes.
I sat down, despite that minor hiccup, then wrapped my arm around her, hauling her next to me. I kissed the side of her head. “Hey, baby,” I murmured. “Still hungry or are you good?”
“I’m good,” she murmured back. “It was all so good.”
“Good.” Reaching for her hip, I shifted her until she was curled up beside me, exactly where I wanted her to be.
“You guys look so good together,” Démon piped up next to Junie. “Super cute.”
I looked over at her. “I think so, too.”
“It’s probably because you’re so used to seeing me with Roark,” Junie remarked. “They look so much alike.”
I stiffened at that. “No,” I argued. “It’s because we look good together.”
“I, for one, am happy for you guys,” Sheridan chimed in. “It was getting painful to watch Ripley keep his hands to himself.” She threw us a wink and a grin.
“You’re exaggerating,” Junie muttered, her face turning red.
“Am I, Ripley?” Sheridan challenged.
“Not at all,” I replied honestly. “Paul fucking up is the best thing that ever happened to me.” I looked over at the guy in question. “No offense.”
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, Leslie let her bitchy attitude loose again. “Sure,” she remarked underneath a snide chuckle. “All of a sudden...”
Just then, Phin and Roark made their way back to the group. “All of a sudden, what?” Roark asked.
Leslie shrugged before curling up against Paul. “Sheridan keeps claiming that Ripley’s always had a thing for Junie, but no one’s ever said anything? Sounds fishy to me.”
Junie leaned up a bit. “I’d been in a relationship with Paul,” she pointed out. “How tacky and inappropriate would it have been for someone to bring up the point, Leslie? Some of us do possess a little bit of class and decency, you know.”
I chuckled, and that brought Leslie’s wrath my way. “For someone who’s supposed to be so damn smitten, you certainly keep your hands to yourself a lot, Ripley,” she challenged.
I cocked my head. “Junie’s the type of girl you respect, Leslie. Not the kind of girl you screw in secret, hoping no one finds out about it.”
Fuck. This. Bitch.
