Lincoln

 

I didn’t like him.

He seemed like a dick.

Loud and obnoxious, making jokes that weren’t even remotely funny.

She couldn’t seriously be dating that guy. I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face when he bragged about them being together for a year. A whole damn year. How did I not know about this? How did Nate not know about it? I hated that we’d drifted so far apart once she left for uni, without even a goodbye, after her birthday.

We’d had a moment, the night of her eighteenth birthday. A moment that I may have planned for a little while. A moment that happened by planting a seed in a kid’s mind that Seven Minutes in Heaven would be a great game to play. A moment that came to fruition after spending endless hours mastering how to spin a damn bottle so it stopped where I wanted it to—on Indie. A moment that resulted in Nate nearly walking in on me kissing his sister.

The car ride back to the hotel was loud and full of chatter with Indie and her friends—her three friends, since I refused to think of him as her boyfriend—though I wasn’t really listening. I was too busy sending death glares into the rear-view mirror every time Jack uttered something in Indie’s ear. I told myself it wasn’t jealousy, because it wasn’t. I’d been looking out for Indie since we were kids growing up next door to one another. She was Nate’s sweet little sister, naïve, innocent, and too trusting. We looked out for her until she left and moved across the country, as far from home as possible. I’d fought every instinct in my body not to pack up and follow her. Doing that would have been suicide.

“When does Kenzie arrive?” Indie twisted in her seat to look at Ryder, who was crammed in the back with all their luggage.

“Tomorrow.” In the whole time I’d known him, I came to realise he didn’t say a lot unless it was absolutely necessary. I liked that about him. Unlike Jack, who seemed to love the sound of his own voice.

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard and frowned. It’d only been twenty minutes since she strolled out of that airport in those cut-off denim shorts showing off her smooth legs and that oversized black t-shirt that looked like it might have come out of Jack’s closet. My grip tightened on the steering wheel. Was it his shirt? Be cool man. Be cool. I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself, but I seemed to have the attention of a certain pair of stormy blue eyes watching me in the mirror.

I winked, unable to hide my amusement. Damn, did I really wink at Indie? What was I, a teenage boy? Her cheeks reddened, and she ducked her head in embarrassment at being caught. Why was she watching me? I had a feeling she wasn’t all too pleased to see me, given that she was hesitant to even say hello for some reason. Maybe she was planning all the ways she could torment me over the next week, but little did she know, just having her here was tormenting enough, and now I had to watch her flaunt her relationship with Jack-ass back there.

Finally, after the longest thirty-minute drive in history, we pulled up at the front of the hotel. I was exhausted and just wanted to get us all checked in. We’d flown in about three hours ago, and rather than heading straight to The Falls Hotel, we stupidly hung around the airport with our luggage and hired a car big enough for all of us. It seemed pointless going to the hotel when we couldn’t check in until after 2:00 p.m. It was now 2:08, and I was more than ready to get out of that car and put some distance between Indie and me.

Parking the car to the side, Nate and I ran in to check us all in first, so the valet could park the car, while the others waited outside with their bags.

“Welcome to The Falls. How may I help you?” The pretty little blonde receptionist smiled at Nate, and of course, he went into full suave mode, leaning one elbow on the counter and giving her that grin that never failed. I’d seen it work countless times.

“Hi, we’re checking in. We’re here for the Kellerman wedding,” he said smoothly while I stood off to the side and tapped the keys on the counter.

“Right, sure.” The girl—Jasmine, her name tag read, making me cringe—said, looking flustered as she began typing on the keyboard. Jasmine. Why couldn’t I get away from that name? A chill ran up my spine every time I thought about my ex-fiancée with the same name and the same hair as the woman sitting in front of me. “What name?”

“Kellerman, Nate,” he said, pointing to himself, making Jasmine blush more. What was wrong with this girl? “And Indie,” he continued.

“Uh-huh. Indie is your…wife?” She hesitated, a sour look on her face. I barked out a laugh. You’ve got to be kidding me. Subtlety wasn’t this chick’s forte.

“No. She’s my sister,” Nate corrected immediately.

“Oh, okay. Great! That’s just perfect,” Jasmine chirped. “It’s just we have a double room booked, and I thought it would…Never mind. Anyone else?”

“The double room would be for Jones and Mitchell,” Nate assured her before gesturing to me. “Lincoln Andrews. And we also need another single room for Jackson Meyer.”

“Let me see.” Jasmine bit her lip, whether in concentration or seductively, I didn’t know, but Nate turned to me and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Batshit crazy, man. It’s in the name,” I said faintly.

He laughed. “She’s all right.”

His funeral.

“Okay. I have a single room for you, Mr. Kellerman.”

“Call me Nate.”

I groaned and turned away to look around, but my eyes landed on Indie standing outside, with Jack-ass’s arms around her waist, laughing at something he had said.

“Okay, Nate. I have the double for Miss Mitchell and Mr. Jones. Now, with the singles, there appear to have been two adjoining rooms booked. I have managed to secure a regular single room as well. You just need to let me know whether Miss Kellerman, Mr. Andrews, or Mr. Meyer would like the single room. And I’ll place the other two in the adjoining rooms.”

I stood to attention and turned to face the girl. “Adjoining rooms? They were meant to all be single.” Adjoining rooms. No way in hell was I letting Jack have a room attached to Indie’s.

“I know, and I’m sorry for that. The adjoining doors can be locked from both sides for privacy. They’re usually reserved for families, but as we’re very busy this week, it’s all I have left to offer. I’d be more than happy to provide free breakfast in the room for those in the adjoining rooms by way of apologising.”

“Miss Kellerman and I will take the adjoining rooms,” I said quickly before Nate could open his big mouth and put Jack and Indie together.

“You and Indie?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Look at them. Do you really want your sister to basically share a room with him for a week?” I pointed out the floor to ceiling windows where Jack was grabbing Indie’s ass. I hated the way he touched her. She wasn’t a piece of meat. There was no way in hell I was letting them share adjoining rooms. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and I knew Nate would agree.

Nate’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth set in a firm line. He turned back to Jasmine. “Lincoln Andrews and Indiana Kellerman would be great. Jackson Meyer can have the standard single.”

Atta boy, Nate. He’d lose it if he knew what I was really thinking and why I wanted Indie in the room next to mine.

“Perfect. I’ll get your keys.”

Jasmine grabbed some plastic cards that looked like credit cards and activated them before placing them in small envelopes with the room number and guest name on them. Looking at the numbers, I couldn’t have smiled wider. Things were working out better than I thought. Nate was in room 210. Bailey and Ryder had 212, Jack-ass was in 211. And Indie and I had room 845/6. Six floors above everyone else. We were on our own.

Things were definitely going to come to a head this week. And it would either be a disaster or end the way I hoped, with Jack-ass out of the picture and me finally getting the girl, because…

Hell, I’d been in love with Indiana Kellerman for fifteen damn years.