Low Hartley’s mouth is the first thing I noticed about her. Those hot as fuck lips, pink and perky, and most importantly calling to me. They alone sponsored a thousand inappropriate thoughts that I’m ashamed to say have been playing on a loop ever since that first night she barreled into my life like a hurricane. She was the first girl to elicit a heartbeat in this dead carcass I’ve been dragging around ever since Mer walked out that door. I thought maybe she might be the one. Everything in me was eager to believe it. And then the cops showed up. The next thing I knew I was at the station, bailing her out, bringing her home of all places. As soon as I found out she was Raven’s friend, it felt like a solid line in the sand had been drawn. Any indecent thoughts I was having about her needed to stop. The fact Raven herself asked me to stay away from her sent a personal cease and desist to my dick. But that didn’t stop me from wanting her. On a primal level I craved her. And as much as I wanted to deny it, my heart was reawakening every emotion I never thought I’d feel again—that I might not have ever felt. They were percolating to life one by one, and they were all for Low. I never felt this way about Meredith, and up until her, there was no one else who made me feel anything close to this either.

Low moans while straddling me, her dress hikes up dangerously close to her hips, and my hands smooth over those toned thighs. Her tongue toys with mine as if it were on a swivel, licking me, biting my lips, tugging at them, capturing my tongue between her teeth playfully, then doing her best to suck it down. Low slips her cool fingers up my shirt and runs her hands over me, wild and free. It feels like heaven, and at the same time I realize there is so much more ground to cover emotionally. But, then, things can only get better from here.

My dick grows hard as she presses against me. Her kisses growing increasingly feral by the second, and, as much as I don’t like it, the rational side of me pipes up and starts asking the hard questions. What happens in the morning? Is this a one-time thing, or is this our new routine? I’ve had a few one-night stands before, something hot and quick that was urgently needed to satisfy an itch. We didn’t exchange numbers. We didn’t have to. Hell, I wouldn’t even recognize those girls if they stepped into the bar. But Low—I’m going to have her in my life for a long time to come. And not just because she’s Raven’s best friend, although that should be the chief reason. But I can feel a connection with her—a budding friendship, something genuine forming, and I don’t want to cut that off at the base simply because my dick got greedy.

My lips linger over hers, and I kiss a smooth line over to her ear. “I think this is good.”

Low bubbles with a laugh. “I think it’s great, but if you’re still stuck on good, it’s clear I need to step up my game.” She scoots back, and her hands go for the gold and I’m quick to stop them.

A laugh gets caught in my throat, and locked in this moment is something beautiful where the two of us exude nothing but joy while staring into one another’s eyes.

I love how playful she is. Meredith was a damn scientist in the bedroom. Every angle, every move needed to be analyzed ten ways to Sunday. It made for a hypnotically boring, outrageously unsatisfactory sex life. Hell, I’m still not sure what Chip is doing with her.

Low tips her head to the side, and her curls spill over her shoulder like a waterfall. She glances down at her wrists that I’m currently holding captive. “Is this indicative of things to come?” She holds out her hands as much as my grip will allow. “Because if you’re into restraints, I can totally get on board with that.”

“No, no.” I close my eyes while a soft laugh strums through my chest. “It’s not that. I promise you, I don’t even own restraints.”

“We can do a soft tie up.” She leans and licks a line across my cheek before biting down on my bottom lip and pulling it out achingly slow with just the right pinch of pain. “Why don’t you take my panties off?” she whispers hot into my ear, and my hard-on is back with a vengeance. “You can tie me up with those, and I’ll find something far more secure to wrangle you to the bedpost with.”

“Sounds like a good time.” A damn good time, and I’m actually getting pissed at myself for trying to wrangle my way out of this. Crap. Is it really that big of a deal if she knows Raven? I try to shake the thought away. This is more than that, and I know it. “But I think”—I wince as I pull back, the look of horror on her face already morphing into place—“we should slow down.”

“Slow down?” Her knee softly grazes over my hard-on, and she lets out a throaty laugh. “Oh, hon, I think this runaway train has already left the station. There’s no slowing down for that bad boy you’ve got brewing there. I’m pretty sure you need to come to a climactic conclusion.”

“You got me there.” Instinctively, I know I should slide her off my lap, but there’s not a single part of me that wants to comply. “We should probably wade in really slow. I don’t think we know each other well enough, and unfortunately we both know Raven all too well.”

“Ugh.” She slides to my right and rests her head on my chest a moment before looking up. “Did she threaten you, too?”

“Only within an inch of my life. She threaten you?”

“She made it clear as that gloss she slathers over her lips that you, my friend, are forbidden fruit.” She glowers at the wall a moment as if it were my sister. “But Raven isn’t here. And she certainly isn’t about to pick who I can or can’t associate with, in or out of my bed. I say we write her out of the rule book.”

“I like that.” My fingers dig into the back of her hair, into those butter soft curls, and my gut cinches. My dick very much insists that Low is a part of the rules tonight. “So, you’re okay with moving slow? Getting to know one another better?”

Those long, thick lashes bat up at me. “I think if we move any slower my pink parts will revolt.”

“Pink parts?” I mouth the words before belting out a quiet laugh. “This is why I love you.” And immediately, I regret my word choice.

“Aww.” She gives a devilish wink. “I knew we’d speed right back up again. You always throw the L word around so quickly? Or are you just glad to see me?” She gives my dick a quick stroke over my pants, and my head tips back with a heavy groan.

I’m pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes, but I sure as hell like how she took it home.

“I’m always glad to see you, sweetheart.” I give her hair a little tousle.

“It’s Peaches—keep it straight, would you?” She frowns, glancing around the room a moment. “Okay, so let’s get this conversational ball rolling, shall we? And then once we know everything there is to know about one another—which will take all of five minutes—we can get to the good stuff.” Her finger cuts a quick line back over my hard-on, and I suck in a breath through my teeth. “Why the hell do you have a monkey with five arms holding five very sharp knives?”

“Katanas,” I correct her with a sigh while glaring at the damn thing. “It was my grandmother’s. It’s something my grandfather brought back from the war as a token of his affection.”

“Oh.” She tilts into it as if trying to reason it as a gift. “Are you sure he liked her?”

“He loved her. They stayed solid for fifty-five years, and that’s exactly why my grandmother wanted to gift me a piece of that magic.”

“Meaning?” She curls up against me, warming my right side, slipping her long, luscious legs across my lap, and my dick aches for her attention. I dot the top of her head with a kiss, because for whatever reason it feels natural.

“Meaning it was a wedding present to Meredith and me. And now it’s all I have left of my grandmother.” A heavy sigh pushes through my lungs. Everything about my soon-to-be former wife has weighed me down for so long. It feels good finally getting it out, like pus out of an infected wound. In the end, that’s what we had become, an infected wound.

“Wow”—Low scratches lightly over my chest with her fingernails, and it feels like heaven—“bet she was sorry to have wasted all that magic. Maybe it was sort of symbolic. Maybe she wanted you to cut Mer out of your life right from the beginning.” She says that last part under her breath, and I can’t help but belt out a laugh.

“Everything with you is easy.” I wrap my arms around her and pull her close. “I hope this doesn’t sound too strange, but you’ve been the saving grace for me these last few weeks. It’s as if you were sent from above.” Low is beaming, smiling up at me as if I made the stars shine. If anything, the opposite is true. “God knows I was a ball of stress. On the surface, it would seem all that anxiety was brought on by the opening of a brand new restaurant, but in truth, it was the baby—the one that wasn’t mine.”

“Can I ask how something like that happens?” She cringes as if it were in fact the last thing she wanted to inquire about. “I mean, I get the insert part A into part B, and nine months later you get a cute baby G—for girl”—she shakes her head, the look of grief quickly crosses her features—“but he’s your brother. It’s not like he’s some random co-worker.”

“Technically, he’s both. Yes, he’s not only my brother—my twin, he was my co-worker—still is hers. We worked for Axel’s father. He has a firm in downtown Jepson.”

She sucks in a quick breath, those almond eyes of hers perfectly outlined, her pink lips create the O of surprise, and she’s only that much more gorgeous. Just when I think Low can’t get any more beautiful, she goes ahead and surprises me. For a minute I envision her on her knees, that perfect O-shaped mouth of hers ready to receive me, and my dick begs for me to unleash it.

“I lived in downtown Jepson.” She swats my chest before carefully working open my buttons and slipping her arm over my chest and holding me like that, skin over skin, and it feels damn good. The warmth of her flesh has me drinking down the sensation. It feels like water for my thirsty soul. “I hated that dump, but I’m sure wherever you were clocking nine-to-five, it was pretty cushy.”

“It was.”

“So they obviously didn’t meet at work.” She blinks up at me. “God, was he your best man at the wedding?”

I give a single nod.

“Wow, this just gets worse.”

“It actually does get worse,” I assure her. “Mer had dated Chip first.”

“Oh my God.” She backs up and swats me again. “Did you steal her?”

“No.” I pinch my eyes a moment. “They didn’t last long, and she assured me they never hit a home run. I, unlike my brother, am a strong opponent of double-dipping—not with chicks that have been with friends, certainly not my brother. Anyway—” I slump at the thought of what comes next. “We dated. It grew serious quick, or at least it seemed that way. In hindsight, it all felt a bit rushed.” Her body tenses over mine. “No, nothing at all like you and me, I promise. Trust me, we’re molasses in comparison. Mer had me meeting her mother on the third date, and the next thing I knew we were engaged. For the record, she asked me.”

Low lets out a snicker. “I’ll have you know I’m old-fashioned that way, so don’t get any bright ideas of waiting around for me to pop the big one. If you catch me on bended knee—most likely I’ve lost an earring.”

“Duly noted.” I dot her nose with a kiss, and those marbled eyes of hers cast me under their spell.

“And then what?” She gives me a little shake. “Come on, we were just getting to the good part.” She claps a hand over her lips. “I’m sorry!” She ducks under my arm a moment. “I meant the part in which your life decidedly goes to hell.”

“Not a problem. It’s certainly feeling like the good part. Now that I can get some traction away from the event, it feels like it was right that things ended with Mer and me. Just wish she didn’t have to wrench my balls in the process.” I blow out a quick breath. “About a year ago, Meredith announced she wanted a baby. I wanted to wait.” I nod at Low in the event she’d like to choose sides. For some reason, I feel like everyone with a set of ovaries would potentially side with Mer. Not that Raven did.

“That’s totally understandable. I would never want to have a baby if you weren’t on board.” She gives my cheek a light scratch, and I feel the burn straight down to the pit of my stomach. Our eyes latch, and I can’t seem to break the trance. “Junior Boobear needs his daddy bursting with excitement while he’s still a gleam in his mama’s eyes.” She bites down playfully on her lip. “Plus, what’s better than a little baby making practice?”

“I agree.” And I’m shockingly pleased she gets where I’m coming from. “But that’s not what happened. We argued.” There is an entire world of hurt that comes next, so I do the only thing I can—skip over it. Fast-forward to the next big hurt. “She started up an affair with my brother. Then she got pregnant and tried to pass the baby off as my own, but something wasn’t right. I’m loyal to my condoms. If only she was as loyal to me, none of this would have happened.” I pull her in close and land a kiss to the top of her head. “The worst part is, when Chip stepped forward and told me he was sleeping with her—in that moment I knew it was over, and as horrible as it sounds, it was a relief.”

“What?” She pounds over my chest with a heartstopper. “Didn’t you want to kill your brother?”

“Yes and no. He said they rekindled a friendship. One thing led to vodka, and the next thing he knew they were embroiled in a six-week affair. She told him she was on the pill, so he didn’t put a hat on it. And thank God for me, that happened to be a month-long dry spell for Mer and me.” I take a deep breath as if I had just hit the surface after a nine-month swim. “Yes, Chip is an asshole. I still don’t know what the hell he was thinking. How the fuck could he do that to me?” My heart shreds just reliving the nightmare. “It was more than I could take. I wish she had chosen anyone else on the planet, male or female. Hell, she could have chosen a horse, and I would have felt better about it.”

“She went for the sharpest knife in the drawer.”

I nod into the idea. “And she sliced my belly and my heart open with it.”

“And her belly grew.” She sighs while blowing a curl off her forehead. “Now that’s one twisted fairytale.”

“Enough about me. Tell me something about you. Tell me anything. What do you love? What do you hate? What are your dreams? What makes you tick?” After regurgitating that ballbuster, I’ll be glad if I never hear my voice again.

She growls out a wicked laugh while her fingernails graze over my chest. “Right about now, you’re making me tick like a bomb ready to detonate all over this living room just for you.” The smile drips right off her face, and she suddenly looks as if she’d like to deck me. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Let’s see.”

“Trust me, I like where you’re going.” And I’d sure as hell like to come along.

She closes her eyes a moment. Her skin is dewy and youthful, so damn beautiful and young. If she’s Raven’s age, then we’re only seven years apart, but the youthful energy she exudes feels like the elixir I didn’t even know I needed. Being with Mer aged me. I felt two hundred years old right up until I met Low.

“I love cooking food in general, but I especially love to bake. As you’ve noticed, brownies are my stress-relieving go-to.”

“And as much as I hate the fact you’re stressed, I’m really glad you resort to baking and not something that might actually induce stress in me like, say, knife throwing.” We share a dry laugh. “Your brownies should be boxed and sold by the dozen. Word on The Pelican street is there’s an owner looking to steal your recipe.”

“Oh, hon, you don’t have to steal it.” Her eyes sparkle at the thought of an imminent brownie theft. “There’s not a thing I’m not willing to give you.” She shrugs as if it were the unfortunate truth, and I can’t help but bounce that naughty grin right back on my lips. “What do I hate?” She scans the ceiling for a moment before snapping her gaze back to mine. “The Oxford comma.”

“The what?” I tuck back a notch to get a better look at her.

“You heard me.” She winces as if trying to control a laugh. “It’s my arch nemesis.”

“Arch nemesis?” I’m completely amused.

“No, I’m serious!” She throws a pillow at me. “The damn thing is tricky. I don’t like tricky. Life is tricky enough.”

“Amen to that.” I pluck the pillow off my chest and fling it across the room like a Frisbee. “And your passion in life? Let me guess—the ardent use of the exclamation point?”

She tilts into me with a sweetness and innocence that only the truth can bring out in a person. “To find someone in life who makes me feel as magical as you do.” Her lips tug down as if she were holding back tears. “Who knows? Maybe it’s you?”

A lump forms in my throat, and I push through the pain. “Maybe it is me.”

Gently, I clasp the back of her neck and draw her in close. My mouth meets with her sweet lips, and the room, my body, my heart detonates in a shower of sparks that I have never known before. Her tongue moves inside my mouth like a melody, like a song that I’ve heard on a loop that’s been playing in the background all along. Low and I turn the volume up all night, losing ourselves in those magical kisses like a couple of teenagers. It feels good like this with Low, safe, necessary on a primal level. Ironically, I never felt any of those things with Mer. Nope. This is something new. Something magical that I don’t think I could get from anybody else.

I wouldn’t want to.

* * *

Monday at the bar, after that all-night lip-lock with Low, I’m mopping the counter with a goofy grin on my face as the afternoon winds down. Low was sleeping in when I took off. I can’t blame her. In fact, I wish I were right there with her, holding her while we both got some restful shut-eye. It’s her night off, so she might just be sleeping right through the evening for all I know.

I glance down at the text Raven sent last night, but I was too busy to answer.

Who the hell is this Evie chick? Do I need to hop on my broomstick and head back to Hollow Brook?

I take a moment to text her back. Please don’t. It’s the one bit of normalcy I’ve had in a year. Evie is a cool chick. You’d approve. I hit Send, knowing full well Raven would be the last to approve.

A bubble lights up next to her name, and I can see she’s already texting me back. It doesn’t surprise me. Raven’s phone never leaves her hand. UGH! I hate that you’ve met someone, and I’m not there to vet her. We all know what happened last time. I should be back in town in a couple of weeks. Will she still be around? My God, she’s not a permanent fixture, is she?

I think on this for a moment and answer the only way I know how—with the truth. Hell yes, she is.

Brody comes up with that curious frown only he seems to have perfected.

“What are you grinning about?”

“Nothing. I’m not grinning. I don’t believe in happiness, remember?” A dull chuckle bounces from me. I happened to say that to him just before Christmas, and he’s been busting my balls over it ever since. It’s true, though. Or at least it was.

“What’s up with you?” I ask. “You’re the one that should be grinning. I saw you take off with that redhead Saturday night. She looked hot. Any fireworks?”

“Only the best kind.” He slumps over a stool. “I took her home. It was short and sweet, and it made me want to vomit. I don’t know. I’m too old to catch a girl on the fly and take her home. I need to pull it together before my dick falls off, or worse.”

“What the hell is worse than that? On second thought, I’m not sure I want to know.”

“All the good ones are taken. It’s happening, you know. We’re about to hit our mid-thirties. This one-night stand shit doesn’t fly the way it used to.”

“You’re not that guy.” For as long as I’ve known him, he’s only had a handful of one-nighters. He’s a two or three-nighter, something just this side of a commitment-phobe.

“Yeah, well, I’m that guy now—or at least I was. I’m thinking about serial dating.”

“The rest of the world refers to it as a relationship.”

“Yeah, that.” His brows jump because he can’t bring himself to say it, let alone do it. “What about Low? She’s a cool chick. She looks hot in those skirts, and don’t get me started on those legs.”

“Nope.”

Brody is a leg man—a thigh man to be exact, closely followed by a breast man. Basically, he’s an equal opportunity connoisseur of a woman’s body. That’s exactly why I’ve kept him the hell away from Raven. That’s one body he doesn’t need to look twice at. I made it crystal clear to him when we were kids, and he’s never wavered, not once. And God knows Raven loved to parade around in her two-piece bikini in front of all of my friends each and every summer from thirteen and up, but for the most part, I’ve never had a problem with my buddies trying to hit on my sister.

Brody ticks back a notch. “What do you mean, nope? She’s single. She’s told me so herself. And she’s totally cool. After we closed the other night, she played a round of cards with the busboys and me.”

“How much she take you for?”

“Forty-eight bucks.”

“I could have told you she was good.”

“Wish you would have. But that doesn’t change the fact I’m going to ask her out. I thought maybe something different, like sushi. Do people still see movies on a date, or is that too reclusive?”

“Dude”—I slap the bar towel over my back—“you are not asking Low out for a date. She’s—she’s busy.”

“Fine. I’ll ask her when she’s not busy.”

“Not happening. Let’s drop it.” I swallow hard as a crowd bustles through the door. Business has been picking up steadily, but not as quickly as I’d like. “Any bands take the bait?” I texted Brody this morning and told him to get on it. I plan on implementing all of Low’s ideas starting with the music.

“I’ve got three lined up for this weekend. All of them said they’d love a steady gig.”

“Sounds good. Maybe we should do two and they can rotate—that way we won’t have a night without music.”

“Perfect. So, when are you going to admit you’re into her?”

I glance up, wild-eyed, and stop swabbing down the bar midflight.

Axel walks in, looking his usual dapper self, and heads over with that shit-eating grin he’s infamous for.

He ticks his head to Brody. “What’s with the cat who ate the canary look on his face?”

Brody bounces with a laugh while crossing those tree trunks he calls arms. “I’m just waiting for him to admit he’s into Low.”

“No.” Ax closes his eyes a moment. “She’s too good for you. She actually smiles voluntarily and happens to like people.”

I scowl at the both of them. “I smile when I damn well feel like it, and I happen to like most people.” Another group comes through the door, but it’s the couple that flanks them that sends my blood pressure rising. “Like I said—most people,” I mutter.

Brody and Axel follow my gaze, and the three of us stare at my brother as he helps Mer off with her coat.

Brody grunts. “Must be date night.”

“Must be.”

The waitress helps seat them, but Chip nods to where we stand and makes his way over.

“Crap.” I slap the bar towel over my shoulder once again and can’t help but note it’s about the right size to fit around his neck. I can’t help it. My blood still boils whenever he’s around.

“What’s up?” He stuffs his hands into his pockets. He’s still dressed from a day at the office, monkey suit, silver tie, Mer’s favorite color, and I glare at it for a moment.

“We thought we’d check the place out.” He gifts me a painful smile as if it were an apology. Chip and I were always understandably close, but we were also one another’s greatest enemies. I blame our father for that. As wonderful as he was, and as much as we loved him, he did one horrible thing I would never want to repeat with my own children. He pitted Chip and me against one another from the get-go. Instead of being one another’s cheering section, we were staunch competition. My father bred competitive behavior in us until it ate us up like a parasite. There wasn’t anything Chip and I weren’t competing for. If there was one last bread roll at the dinner table, we were sparring over it. Perhaps that’s why what went down between us and Meredith didn’t feel as strange as it looked to the outside world. But vows were exchanged. Inappropriate sexual relations were had. It’s a hell of a lot different than chasing after a bread roll. However, at the end of the day, that competitive spirit must have felt the same—at least to Chip. He won. He can have her. This is one contest I’m happy to concede.

Brody clears his throat. He and Chip are still close, but he’s just as pissed at him as I am—or at least I was. My fury has gone down several notches since Low stepped onto the scene.

“We were just discussing Levi’s love life.” Brody sneers over at my brother, and the discomfort level rises a dozen degrees.

“Nice.” Chip nods. “I like Evie. I think the two of you click. There’s something fun about her, something charming. She reminds me a lot of Raven.” For as much as his words sound spot-on, he drags them out as if they were a eulogy. “Nice place.” He gives a quick glance around. “I guess I’d better head back to my seat.” He plods off like a man headed toward the guillotine, and judging by the fact he’s stuck having dinner with Mer, he just might be.

Ax slaps his hand over my shoulder. “Your brother is a broken man, dude. And who the hell is Evie?”

Brody lifts a brow. “That’s code for Low.” He glances back at the unhappy couple. “Levi, man, I hate to sound like this, but you have to know you escaped a fire.” Brody was never a fan of Meredith’s.

Axel nods into the idea. “I work with her, and I’m terrified to be in a meeting with her for longer than five minutes. I’m sorry she put your balls in the blender, but let’s face it—between her or Low, you’ve got the better end of the deal.”

Brody hops off the stool and heads for the kitchen. Axel helps himself to a beer.

And I just stand there, staring out into space, my head completely enveloped in that gorgeous blonde hurricane that tore into my life. My heart picks up pace, my body floods with heat as a memory of that kiss comes back to me. She’s beautiful, and sweet, funny, and kind. Hell, Harlow Hartley is perfect in just about every single way—and she’s mine. My heart thumps at the thought, loud and proud.

“Shit.” I take a staggering step back. She is mine, and I don’t want to lose her. Low is perfect in every way, and all I want to do is spend every free moment with her. She’s all I think about from eyelids open until I’m knocked unconscious later that night, and then she’s there dancing around in my dreams, making me hungry for her in every single way. I meant what I said to her. It’s as if she’s heaven-sent. Low and I belong to one another.

And then it hits me like a five-ton brownie. I’m in love with the girl. I can’t see a day in the future without her smile in it. I’m gone, toast, head over fucking heels.

My body goes numb with shock as the revelation sinks in. “I’m in love with Low,” I whisper.

Then, overhead, like a twist that only fate can provide, a warm song blares through the speakers as Bertie Higgins belts out that old familiar tune—“Key Largo”.

I blink up at the ceiling. It must be fate.

Low and I are happening.

For the first time in what feels like a decade, everything in me soars at the thought.

I’m in love with Low.

I start grinning like a loon, and I can’t stop.

Don’t want to.