Chapter 19

"Not sure I'veever enjoyed watching that tire swing more than I have today," Lincoln sighs out like a lovesick teenager. I know for a fact that he's not pining away or holding out. My brother has plenty of fun, with plenty of women.

I look down at his wedding band still on his ring finger. The one he says he wears to make the girls feel better, but I know my brother. He keeps it on when he's the Lincoln I know. And not "the show." When he's being a dad. Nerding out as a master distiller. He takes it off when he's out fucking his way through whatever city he won't be recognized in, trying to forget about how much he misses his wife. I've gone in the other direction, so really, I have no business judging.

"You're not seriously considering messing around with her, are you?"

He sits up taller, now blocking the sun that was helping me dry me off. "What if I was? Why would you care?"

"Well, for one. Lily and Lark think she's their new best friend." I raise up on my elbows to look at who he's so intently studying. I swallow as my mouth waters, watching her too. Laney swings back and forth like a pendulum, hovering over the quiet river. Her fingers skim the surface as she leans back, smiling wide. Jesus, this woman is the worst kind of eye candy. The kind you don't want to just look at. The kind that I'm betting I'll want for longer than just a taste. Dammit.

"Exactly. The girls already like her," he says with a shrug. "Seems like a good choice."

"No."

He barks out a laugh. "What do you mean, no?"

I begrudgingly tear my eyes away from her. Away from her tank top suctioned to her like a second skin. Away from the way she's perched inside the hole of that tire, making her pink shorts ride nice and high on those thighs.

Pushing the sweat from my forehead into my already damp hair, I glare at my brother. "I mean no. You've got enough shit to work out on your own without involving a girl who clearly has plenty of her own baggage."

"Everyone who's a fucking adult has some kind of baggage, baby brother," he claps back. "Hello? Ace, you, and me are like those luggage handlers at the airport, for fuck's sake."

I know that's true."There's something off. Ace knows more, but it's still not the whole story, I bet."

"You sure you're not trying to call dibs without actually calling dibs?"

Lark cannonballs right at Lily, leaving her job as a pusher of the tire swing. Laney's swing slows. "For your daughters' sakes, I hope you don't think calling dibs on a woman is in any way respectful. Not to mention, it makes you sound like a complete douche."

"Shut the fuck up, Grant," he laughs.

When I look back, Laney's swinging has stopped now, and she hangs there, suspended above the water, looking right where we're sitting. She's far enough away that it's possible she's just gazing in our direction, taking in the beauty of this spot, or staring off like I've caught her doing a few times. But there's a part of me that knows her eyes are on me. I can feel it, like a zip around my skin from every part that"s exposed and beyond to the parts of me that are not.

"You're sounding like Officer Foxx again, by the way." He tosses a frozen grape into his mouth.

"What was so bad about that guy?"

"Nothing, just that you haven't been that guy in a long time."

I close my eyes and tilt my head up at the sun. "I don't like liars, Linc. She's lying about what she's doing here."

"That pisses you off?"

"That and the fact that she's everywhere." I think about her in my kitchen, using my shower, lying in my hammock. Laney's been in my head since she showed up, and I'm drowning in the idea of her doing more than just smiling at me. It's her body wrapped around mine. It's wanting to hear her story. It's the way I want her to see me.

"You sure you're not pissed off because she's the first woman in years you've paid any attention to?"

"That's part of it." I exhale heavily, frustrated that he can so easily read me.

He smiles, his eyes still trained on that fucking tire swing. "Everybody lies, Grant. Most often to themselves." Leave it to my brother to call me out and put me in my place with just a few words.

Getting up, he walks out toward the riverbank, right to where Laney is dangling.

The water is waist level here, but the current is so light, the surface looks like it's barely moving. With her head tilted back enough that the ends of her strawberry blonde hair dip into the water, the sun shines down on her face, making her glow. I love my brother, but I loathe every step he takes that gets him closer to her.

"Uncle Grant, can we please, please start the scavenger hunt now?" Lily says as she plops onto the towels we've laid out.

"Sure, my little flower," I say, watching as Lincoln says something apparently really funny to Laney. I bite down on my molars, trying to focus on something other than the way she's looking at him. "Why don't you go tell your sister we're going to start, and the winner gets to drive Griz's golf cart."

"Oh my gosh," she rushes out. At the top of her lungs, she yells, "LARK! Lark! Winner gets to drive the golf cart!

Lark comes running to where we're sitting and says, out of breath, "I'm so ready, Uncle Grant. Let"s have it."

I glance beyond them, back toward the quiet river hosting the loudest distraction that's come to Fiasco. She glides through the air again on the tire swing as Lincoln pushes her, both of them laughing, and I wish it was me. I've never been jealous of my brothers. We have our own lives, and different outlooks on what's important, but we always put each other first. No matter what. And in this moment, I want nothing more than to shove my brother aside and be closer to that beautiful liar.