Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Stab. Stab. Stab.
See? She wasn’t special at all.
“We’ll send you a text reminder,” she said as she made the appointment.
“Bye, Raid. See you Thursday night,” Simone said in a sultry voice.
Hannah’s stomach tightened into a knot. This was nuts. She needed to get over this stupid crush. He was out of her league. Anyway, he saw her as a friend or a sister.
She was positive she did not feature in his dirty dreams.
Raid Malone was not for her.
“She likes you, you know.”
Raid frowned as he glanced over at Tanner. Fuck, Alec was going to be pissed about the twelve stitches in his arm. He was supposed to rest it for two weeks. At least he’d already planned on taking some time off to go to New Orleans to see his cousins. So Alec couldn’t get that angry about him being off work. Not that he’d actually be angry about his inability to work. No, any anger would be over the fact that he’d gotten hurt.
Alec had BBS.
Big Brother Syndrome.
He tried to smother them all in his protection, particularly Raid and Tanner, since they were the youngest. Even when their father had been around, he’d been nothing to write home about. Alec was the one who’d always protected and taken care of them. He and West.
“Who? Simone? Yeah, man, she wasn’t exactly hiding her interest.”
She was pretty. And had made it clear she was interested. But for some reason, he wasn’t really attracted to her. And he wasn’t sure why.
Weird.
“I wasn’t talking about Simone,” Tanner said as they drove out of Haven.
“Jenna? Shit, Curt will have a fucking heart attack,” he said, talking about Jenna’s husband.
“Not Jenna, dipshit. Hannah.”
Raid stilled. Hannah?
He played their interaction over in his mind. She was interested in him? Nah, that couldn’t be right. He’d known her for years and never once gotten that vibe from her.
Sure, they flirted a bit. But that was just for fun. She usually sassed him about his giant ego while he tried to stop her from hurting herself as she tripped up.
Hannah was cute and clumsy.
Adorable.
“That’s ridiculous. I’ve known Hannah for ages. We all have. She’s never once indicated that she likes me.”
“Fuck, you’re blind.”
“You’re seeing shit that isn’t there.”
“Look, if you’re not into her, that’s fine. But maybe you should be a bit more aware of her feelings when you’re making dates with another woman right in front of her.”
He stared at his brother in shock. Why did he sound so pissed off?
“What the fuck are you talking about? Hannah doesn’t have feelings for me. And I wasn’t making a date with another woman in front of her.”
“Um, Simone?”
“Oh, that? She just said she was going to be at Dirty Delights Thursday night and hoped to see me there. It wasn’t a date.”
“That wasn’t what it sounded like,” Tanner told him. “And you don’t think it strange she made it sound like a date in front of Hannah?”
“What? Are you saying she was trying to hurt Hannah?” His protective instincts stirred.
No one hurt Hannah.
No one.
Fuck. Was he into her? He hadn’t thought of her like that . . . had he?
Although she was pretty. And sweet. And funny.
Plus, she didn’t take herself or him too seriously.
“You’re seeing shit that’s not there.”
“When Simone said that she’d see you Thursday, Hannah looked like she might cry. She works in a doctor’s office, yet she got so flustered by seeing you bleeding that she tripped over her own feet.”
He hadn’t liked that. She could have hurt herself.
“She’s always tripping up around me.” Sometimes, he swore that she was actually trying to run away from him.
Which was silly, right?
“Yeah, she doesn’t do that around anyone else,” Tanner told him.
“What? Really?”
“Really,” Tanner said.
Raid swallowed heavily, thinking about all of their interactions. Did she like him? Was she clumsy around him because she was nervous?
“The flirting is just for fun.”
“Maybe for you,” Tanner pointed out.
“Fuck. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’d been planning to, but I hoped you might pull your head out of your ass and notice. And maybe I was hoping you might feel the same.”
For Hannah?
He tried to think about it . . . he cared about her. Worried about her. There were more than a few times that he’d thought about her.
Fuck.
Then he thought about not being around her . . .
“I like her. I just hadn’t thought about her like that.”
“Which is fine, man. You don’t have to want her back. Maybe it’s best that you don’t. Hannah’s the sweet girl next door, and you and me . . . well, we don’t mix well with sweet. Right?”
“Are you thinking about Lilac? Dude, she wasn’t the girl for you.”
Tanner had fallen hard for a girl he’d met in Hopesville when they’d been there at a rodeo one night. They’d spent a week together before she’d just disappeared. Without a word. Raid hadn’t told any of his other brothers about her. Sometimes, they could be interfering bastards.