Chapter 40
SUTTON
I am a mess. I just told Kelsey that I love her, and she started a kiss that was more electric and consuming than any we’ve shared before. My cock is now throbbing in my jeans, diverting desperately needed blood away from my scrambled brain, and my brother is walking toward us.
I lean over and whisper into Kelsey’s ear. “Can we finish this later?”
“Yeah, definitely,” she almost whimpers, nodding and biting her lip. “Sooner would be preferable.”
I drop my hand to her lower back and hook my thumb into the waistband of her jeans where Sly can’t see it. “Agreed.”
Sly leans against the open doors at the back, hiking one leg up into the entrance. My eyes immediately fall to his shorts that have his prosthetic leg and thigh tattoos on full display. He hasn’t been shy about his injury, but those are short, even for him.
I’m about to say something, but Kelsey beats me to it. “Do all the Sterling men shop at the same place? And do they offer a discount for using less fabric? Like should I be expecting to see lots of bare thighs this weekend?”
I snort a laugh into my fist. When I look up, Sly smirks between Kelsey and me before his eyes settle back on me. “It’s summer in New Mexico and it’s hotter than sin out, so yes, I wore shorts. Now, are you going to introduce me or just keep staring?”
“Charming as always,” I chide before turning to Kelsey. “Kelsey, this is my brother, Sylvester. Just call him Sly though, or he’ll throw a temper tantrum, because he is in fact still my baby brother.”
She snorts a laugh and he mumbles a swear under his breath before I turn back to him. “And Sly, this is my girlfriend, Kelsey. Please be nice and don’t scare her off before she gets to meet Sisi. You know our sister will kill both of us if you do that.”
He shudders. “Fair enough. I know better than to piss her off.” He steps up into the back of the food truck and it makes the whole vehicle rock once. He extends a hand toward Kelsey. “He hasn’t shut up about you for years, glad to finally put a face to the name.”
She reaches out to shake his hand, but I notice the way a delicate pink flush spread across her cheeks.
My mind goes right back to what we were doing, and not just the part where I told her I loved her and she shoved her tongue down my throat in the hottest kiss of my life.
No, I also think back to the look of excitement in her eyes when I told her I wanted her to do the food truck thing together—that she was part of my plans.
Even though she didn’t say those words back to me, I could feel it.
The way she kissed me was electric and I desperately want to be alone with her. I guess that will have to wait though.
“Your brother’s told me so much about you.” She smirks at Sly and shakes his hand once.
He lets out a low whistle. “Hopefully not the bad parts, because I’d hate to have to air Sutton’s dirty laundry.”
“Alright.” I step in between them. “That’s it. Why are you really here, Sly? We have all weekend to catch up.”
He grins and slaps me on the shoulder. I rub the spot because I’m positive it’s going to leave a bruise. “Sisi wanted me to tell you that you can check in at the motel whenever.”
“And you have to come here and tell me that why? She could have just texted me.”
He shamelessly smirks back at me. “Because she’s working at the motel right now and I wanted to hold it over her head that I got to meet your girlfriend before her.
I figured you’d stop here first.” He takes his phone out of his pocket and sighs.
“Speaking of the bride-to-be, you better get going before Slade gets here and weasels his way into taking the good suite at the motel.”
“She’s freaking working today?”
He clenches his jaw and exhales through his teeth, shaking his head. “Yeah, our wonderful cousin called in sick, so Sisi’s covering until someone else comes in at lunch. So fair warning. It might be a madhouse when you check in.”
“We better get over there and see if she needs help.” I walk to the back and hop down, turning to give Kelsey a hand.
Looking up at her in the van, I love the choice of colors I picked for the fresh paint—blue and stormy gray—exactly the way I remember the sky and her eyes on our picnic hike that day in Jackson.
Sly chuckles to himself. “You’re already doing plenty for her this weekend. You really want to add to your workload?”
Kelsey takes my hand and hops down, then walks right over to Sly. She stands beside him and folds her arms over her chest, eyeing me up and down. “Come on, you know he needs to feed his raging hero complex.” She winks at me and makes a little kissy face.
Sly looks at her with an approving grin. “Oh, I like you. I don’t care about Sisi’s seating chart, I’m sitting next to you. You’re already way more fun than Slade.”
They walk back toward our SUV through the open garage door. All I can think about is how much I hate seeing her walk away from me, even if I get a perfect view of her ass, because I want to be by her side every waking moment.
“You know you didn’t have to book a room for us. Staying at your parents’ house would have been fine.” Kelsey says from behind me.
I stop at the office door to our family’s motel and look at her over my shoulder. Her pale skin and raven hair stand in stark contrast to the endless blue skies of the New Mexico horizon behind her. It makes it that much harder to look away from her and focus on what I’m doing.
“First, as soon we’re done checking in and dropping our bags in the room, we need to get sunscreen on you before you burn. Second, I’m not staying in my childhood bedroom, in a house with paper thin walls, with my girlfriend for an entire weekend.”
She waggles her brows at me. “Why not? Do you still have embarrassing posters on the walls or old magazines hidden under your mattress? Come on, you can tell me. Who were you dreaming of back then?”
I roll my eyes and ignore her last question because she’s the only one that’s been in my dreams for two years and I don’t ever want that to change.
“I’m glad brunch at the diner seems to have brought you back to the land of the living and revitalized your sense of humor.
And no, the posters are long gone, but I’m still not fucking you in a twin bed at my parents’ house. ”
She cackles and clasps a hand over her mouth. “You fit in a twin bed?"
“It’s a twin XL. And no, I didn’t fit in it well then, and I definitely don’t now.” I let go of the door handle and turn back toward her, cupping the nape of her neck in my hand, relishing the way her lips part when I tilt her head back to look up at me. “Definitely not as well as I fit in—”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” an all too familiar female voice says from behind me, instantly making me wish I was an only-fucking-child for once.
I drop my head to Kelsey’s shoulder and groan. “Hi, Sisi.”
I turn around and open my arms to hug my little sister, but all five-foot-nothing of her ducks under my arms and beelines right to Kelsey like a girlfriend-seeking-missile.
Kelsey is entirely unprepared for it when Sisi wraps her up in a bear hug. I cover my mouth and grimace, trying to hold back a laugh by Kelsey’s startled reaction.
“Oh,” she squeaks out. “Nice to meet you, Sisi.” She slowly hooks her arms loose to gently hug her back.
“Oh my god! I’ve been waiting for this for so long. I told Sutton this would be the best wedding present ever if you made it. Thank you so much for coming.” My sister squeezes Kelsey again and I chuckle to myself.
I can feel the excitement in my sister’s voice. She’s the youngest of us at twenty-six years old and it shows. Her unbridled enthusiasm for life and outgoing nature are impossible to hide.
I grab my sister by the shoulders and carefully pry her off my girlfriend. “OK there, killer. We can all talk tonight at the rehearsal dinner. I heard Cat called in sick? Is there anything we can do to help until the afternoon crew comes in?”
She whips around and makes a dismissive gesture with her hand. “No, you’re already doing enough tonight with dinner. I got this. Go settle into your room and relax. Even with TJ’s fancy jet, I’m sure you’re tired.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind giving you a hand if there’s anything I can help with,” Kelsey says, prompting my sister and I both to look back at her.
Sisi shakes her head with an approving, appreciative smile.
“Thank you, but no. I’ll be fine.” She reaches into her pocket and holds out the old fashioned room key, dangling it on a finger tip before tossing the key at me forcing me to drop my duffle bag to catch it.
“I did save you guys the best suite. Slade asked for it, but I told him brothers with girlfriends get first dibs.”
“You mean our only suite?” I ask, raising a brow. “And good to know Slade is probably never going to get first dibs.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Just go relax. I’ll see you before dinner.”
She makes a shooing gesture with both hands and I take the hint, knowing better than to argue with my sister when she’s on a mission.
“Alright, thanks.” I lean down to give her a quick one-armed hug.
Sisi heads inside and I wrap my arm around Kelsey’s waist. I hear the bells on the office door jingle when it shuts behind my sister and I start walking to our room.
“She seems fun,” Kelsey says with an amused tone.
“Yeah, that’s one way to put it. I think you have to be a big personality growing up with me and my brothers though.”
“So which room is ours?”
Our family’s motel, The Silver Peak, is the old-school, drive-up type with all the doors on the outside facing the parking lot.
I point toward the end of the row. “The one on the very end. Sisi’s remodeled this place over the years and this one is her baby.
She painstakingly set it up with vintage mid-century modern furniture to match the building’s facade. ”