“Well, hot damn. She really does exist.” Sawyer, ever the statesman, stepped forward and offered his hand. “I’m Sawyer, Ethan’s older and much wiser brother.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Rue said, laughing. Glowing. She turned to Ethan’s other older brother. “As the only one wearing a ring, you must be Crosby.”
“That I am,” he said, slightly more civilized than Sawyer. At least so far, though his curiosity was undisguised. “It’s great to meet you. And you clearly did your research.”
She grinned. “I’m not one to walk into a den of testosterone without doing my homework.”
Ethan’s younger brother took his cue. “Then you must know I’m Liam. The good-looking one.”
“And yet the only single one in the group,” Ethan said.
Liam’s mouth snapped shut, while Crosby and Sawyer snickered. Unfortunately, Liam didn’t stay down long. “Didn’t you say a couple days ago that she wasn’t your girlfriend?” he asked, smiling warmly, managing not to sound rude despite the jab.
Crosby shot him a warning look. “They had to start dating at some point, didn’t they?”
Ethan sent him a silent thank you and hoped his brothers hadn’t noticed how difficult it was for Ethan to breathe around this woman. Any woman, he corrected. Rue just happened to be the one in the room. His supposed girlfriend, to whom he’d barely spoken. All three of his brothers watched openly, so he placed his hand at the small of her back and took her to the far corner of the room. Not that it was far in the small apartment, let alone far enough, but it would do.
He leaned in to whisper his thanks, but before he could utter a word, her scent took his breath all over again. Her house had a lightly floral thing going on, so the crisp, sweet smell of apples caught him completely off guard. He stood there a beat too long. Long enough for Rue to turn her head and smile, her mouth a whopping six inches from his. Long enough for his heart to skip a beat. Definitely long enough for his brothers to notice.
“Huh. I’m almost convinced,” Liam said under his breath.
Ethan withdrew, not having uttered a word, and blinked the room into focus. Liam studied them with open curiosity. Sawyer and Crosby exchanged glances, the two of them looking thick as thieves. Sawyer caught Ethan’s eye, and for some godawful reason, it felt like a warning—one he wasn’t sure Rue would pick up on, having known Sawyer all of a minute.
Cue the third degree.
“So,” Sawyer said to her, far too casually. “How did you and my brother meet?”
“I caught him staring at my…car,” she said with a playful lilt, not missing a beat. “And the rest is history.”
Very recent history, and even that was an understatement.
Sawyer had clearly expected the first part of that sentence to go in another direction, and Ethan was relieved it hadn’t. He was suddenly all too aware that, despite the warning about his brothers, he hadn’t told Rue what to expect from this group. Fortunately, she seemed to be able to handle it, and he remembered she had a brother of her own. One with terrible taste in pajamas.
“Must have been some car,” Liam said.
“Sixty-six Mustang,” Rue replied, her expression utterly serious. “Very few people fail to notice the car.”
Sawyer snorted.
Ethan picked up a handful of paintbrushes, hoping to turn the conversation back to something safe. Something like watching paint dry. “You guys can grill her later,” he said. “These walls won’t paint themselves.”
“What color are you painting?” Rue asked.
Liam rolled his eyes. “This is Ethan we’re talking about. White. What else?”
“It’s a small apartment,” Ethan countered. “White is brighter.”
“White is boring,” Liam shot back.
“I’m not looking to my walls for excitement,” Ethan said, his tone dry.
“Yeah,” Sawyer said pointedly. “Forgive us for not believing that you had any other source.”
On that note, all four of them looked at Rue, who blinked. “Am I supposed to be exciting?” When not one of them replied, she shook her head. “I guess all brothers are the same.”