I want to say her words don’t call to me like dark magic, but they do. Possibly because at that exact moment, I step on a little metal race car, and there is a fifty percent chance I now need a new foot. I don’t show my weakness to Lucy, though, and I’m just stubborn enough that I will set my own alarm for five AM every single day only to prove how happy I am here and not at all in need of a quiet place like Drew’s evil lair.
“Can you help me find a woman to take to a medical fundraiser gala in a few weeks that will be cool with pretending she’s my girlfriend in front of my colleagues?” I ask Lucy as she puts two pizzas in the oven.
“Sure.”
My eyebrows fly up. “Really? I thought you’d say no, or at least have to think about it for a minute.”
She closes the oven door and stands back up—and now I can see her devious smile. “I don’t have to think about it at all. I know the perfect person.”
My own smile drops. “No.”
She rolls her blue eyes, which are onl
y a slightly lighter shade than mine. “Ugh. Why are you two always saying that word? Jessie would be perfect!”
I cross my arms and lean back against the counter. “I think you’re confusing the word perfect with horrible, dislikable, rude, obnoxious, irritating…I could go on if you want.”
Lucy does not look amused. “Jessie is none of those things.”
“She hit me in the face with a pack of diapers.”
Lucy pauses and scrunches her face. “Okay, yeah, admittedly that wasn’t her finest moment, but she can be very sweet.”
Not buying it. “I’ve never seen any evidence.”
“Well, you not showing up to help her that day her grandaddy was coming into town definitely didn’t help things.”
“Exactly! So what makes you think she’d even be interested in helping me enact the same ruse? More than likely she’ll wrap me up in chains and toss me off a bridge, toasting my lifeless body with champagne as it sinks to the bottom of a river.”
Lucy’s mouth is slightly open, and she shakes her head. “You two have disturbing perceptions of each other, and they’re wildly inaccurate. By the way, would you ever wear a white linen suit?”
“Hell no.”
She gives me a sassy duck lip expression and says, “See?”
My sister has lost it. She has a horrendous witch for a best friend who has singlehandedly ruined her sanity. I get it—Jessie ruins my sanity too.
“No, I don’t. But even if I did ask her—which I won’t—what makes you think she would do it?”
“Because you both have something the other needs, and you could very easily make a trade.”
I want to ask what she’s talking about, but in the next moment, Cooper comes through the door that connects the kitchen to the garage and makes a beeline for Lucy.
“Hi,” he says in a dumb, soft voice as he gathers her up in his arms and clasps his hands behind her low back. “Sorry, I’m late. Traffic was really bad today.”
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t still a little weird for me to see my best friend and sister like this, all affectionate and married. I’m getting used to it, but some days, when the loneliness feels too heavy, I have a hard time looking at them.
“That’s okay,” Lucy says, taking on a dreamy look while angling her face up to him. She taps her index finger to her lips, and Cooper takes the overt hint by bending down and kissing her on the mouth.
Aaand gross. Two seconds in and Cooper is already kissing Lucy way deeper than any brother should ever have to witness his sister getting kissed. I gouge out my eyes real quick and then turn away, too scared to look back until I’m sure they are done exchanging saliva. I thought getting married would help them both cool off in the PDA department. Nope. It’s been over a month and it seems to only be getting worse.
After what feels like 100 years, I hear the disgusting sound of lips de-suctioning from each other. I’m honestly kind of annoyed at them. Before Cooper met my sister, life was good. I didn’t feel like anything was missing. I worked hard, and occasionally I played hard. I dated around a sufficient amount, but nothing ever got serious, and everything felt comfortable that way. And then…Lucy came along and stole my best friend. But that’s not why I’m mad. I’m upset because now I see them together—a family—and I want what they have. I want to love someone like Cooper loves Lucy, and I want someone to love me like Lucy loves Cooper. The uncomfortable truth is, I don’t reach out to any of the women I’ve gone out with for a second date, and they don’t reach out to me for one either. Usually, they hear I’m a doctor and they’re all in, but then by the end of the date, they learn I’m a gynecologist, and when I blink, all that’s left is a trail of smoke from how quickly they ran away.
I hear Lucy whisper to Cooper that I’m in the room, and he laughs. “Dude, sorry. I didn’t realize you were standing back there.”
“You should be. That was horrifying to witness. As payment for seeing and hearing way too many things, you have to help me talk Lucy into setting me up with a woman for a night.”
Cooper’s eyebrows shoot up, and clearly his mind has gone somewhere less G-rated.