The men were silent for a moment and then Kincade laughed. “You are definitely going to make our lives interesting this week, Maddie.”
I was pretty sure that made my flushed cheeks worse, but I couldn’t help returning his grin. “I am?”
“Most definitely you are.”
His gaze was so direct that I had to look away and change the subject. “Where do you live?” I asked Jessie. I’d read up on him, too, but I couldn’t remember.
“In Sunnyvale,” he said, taking a sip of his drink.
Sunnyvale? I only had one association with that place. “Like where Buffy lives?”
Jessie sputtered, nearly spitting out his drink. The others laughed, but when Jessie started to cough for real, Kincade thumped him on the back. Concerned, I reached out to touch his arm. How many times today was I going to accidentally injure him?
But he recovered pretty quickly, wiping his eyes before answering me. “You’re thinking of Sunnydale. Sunnyvale is in Silicon Valley.”
“He owns a tech company,” Kincade added.
“Oh. I see.” Embarrassment flooded me, but even I had to admit it was pretty funny.
“Are you a fan of Buffy’s?” Jessie asked.
“Hell yes,” I said. “She kicks ass.”
“Do you?” Kincade asked.
“Sometimes,” I said. “Not as often as I should.”
Brock raised an eyebrow. “You looked pretty fierce when you rescued our boy from the other bridesmaids.”
He’d seen that? “I didn’t know you were around then.”
The tall man broke into a grin, and I couldn’t remember if I’d seen him smile before. It was a crooked grin, with the left side of his mouth higher than the right, and somehow, it was sexy as hell. “We were.”
Kincade elaborated. “We had a bet on how long it was going to take our boy to escape their clutches.”
Jessie rolled his eyes at his friends, but it was clear I wasn’t the only one who thought he was too nice for his own good.
“You shortened that time by at least half,” Brock told me.
Jessie shook his head. “You guys make me sound like an infant who can’t take care of himself.”
“You can, except in situations like that,” Kincade said. “Let’s try an experiment. Maddie, you throw yourself at him, and Jessie, you try to give her the brush off.”
Jessie laughed. “Who says I’d want to brush her off?”
Brock gave a low chuckle, and I looked over at him. He was wearing all black, and it made him look both hot and also a little dangerous. His shirt had quite a few buttons undone at the top, but somehow, I wished it were more.
“At any rate, I can take care of myself, when I need to, but thank you for rescuing me, Maddie.”
“You’re welcome. It was my turn, after you all saved me earlier.” I beamed at each of them. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave anyone alone with them. They’re the worst.”
No one responded, and I suddenly grew nervous. “I mean, I know they’re Doug’s cousins, but… they just seem a lot different than him.”
Kincade looked over at me. “Do they seem different than me?”
That was confusing. What did he mean? “Well, yeah. Why?”
“Because they’re my sisters.”
Horror washed over me as I realized how far I’d put my foot in my mouth. Even though he’d said his last name before when I was still pretty shaken from my near crash, I’d completely forgotten that Kincade was Doug’s cousin. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I gasped, feeling completely ashamed. “I didn’t mean to say that, I was just…” No readily available excuse came to me. Then inspiration struck. “I was just jealous of the way they were flirting with Jessie. But really, I’m glad we’re going to be bridesmaids together. They seem like nice women.”
There was another agonizing moment of silence, and then all three men burst into laughter. Kincade was the loudest of them all. “Nice women,” he repeated when he was able to speak again. “I’m pretty sure they’ve never been called that in their entire lives.”
My racing heartbeat slowed a little at that. “So you’re not actually mad?”
“Of course not. You’re right, they’re the worst.”
Brock elaborated, looking at Kincade. “You’ve been home what, maybe once a year ever since your father married that woman?”
“If that,” Kincade said. “But no big loss. Growing up, I was closer to my grandfather than my dad. And Doug’s parents. They’re great. I used to wish they were mine.”
“Are you sure you’re not mad?” It seemed obvious he wasn’t, but I wanted to be extra certain I hadn’t offended him.
“Scout’s honor,” Kincade said.
That made me feel better, except then I saw the glint in his eye. “Were you ever a scout?”
“I had a dog named Scout. He was honorable in his own doggie way.”
That made me laugh.
“But I should apologize to you,” Kincade said.
“For nearly giving me a heart attack when I thought I’d insulted you?”