The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4) by Becca Steele (little readers .txt) 📕

in his bed. Pretending I hadn’t been in love with him ever since I was eight years old. Pretending that he’d ever look at me as anything more than his best friend’s sister.

Always pretending.

I’d pretended for so long that the pretence had become real.

Almost.

With an effort I turned my back on the bar and faced the bowling lanes. “Ready to be beaten?”

Cassius laughed next to me, then reached over and ruffled my hair. “You wish. I’m unbeatable.”

I threw him a warning look, smoothing my hair back down. “We’ll see about that.”

An hour later, we were about to start a new game, and Cassius and Zayde were tied for first place. Even though Zayde had arrived late, he’d somehow managed to catch up and move into the lead.

Everyone was in a great mood, happy to just be having fun without anything hanging over their heads. Winter and Caiden, especially. Winter had spent months investigating her dad’s sudden, suspicious death, and it had led her to Alstone, where it had turned out that her own mother was the one behind it. Add in betrayal from Allan, a guy that had been really close to the entire Cavendish family, and involvement with a Belarusian gang…let’s just say, we could all breathe more easily these days now that it was all behind us.

And another bonus? I had a new friend, Winter, and Caiden had finally stopped acting like an angry, moody bastard now that he was all loved-up with her.

“I’ll be back.” I waved my hand in the direction of the toilets. “Anyone want more drinks while I’m up?”

“I’ll get them.” Winter smiled at me. “Meet you at the bar in a few.”

Exiting the loos, I headed back down the corridor, taking the chance to check my phone in case there was anything that needed my attention. Clearly, I wasn’t paying attention, because I ran straight into someone, my phone falling from my grip and clattering to the floor.

Not someone.

Weston.

His arm shot out, his hand gripping my elbow to steady me. “Fuck, sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Dipping down, he swiped my phone from the floor before straightening up.

“Doesn’t look broken.” He turned it over in his grip, smoothing his thumb over the screen, then handed it back to me.

His sudden presence had flustered me, and I stood there mutely like an idiot, just staring at him. As the silence stretched, his lips curved upwards in amusement. “Everything okay?”

“Um.” I licked my lips, and his eyes darted down, following my movements. “Yeah. I’m fine,” I managed to say, my voice coming out all hoarse for some stupid reason.

Now it was his turn for silence. He continued to stare at my mouth through lowered lashes, and my skin grew hot as I realised that he was still holding on to my arm.

The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor broke the spell, and he blinked, dropping his grip on me. He turned away without another word, leaving me staring after him.

What was that?

Back in the bowling alley, I joined Winter at the bar, where she was ordering large jugs of beer to share, plus Coke for the drivers. “Should we get snacks?” she mused as I came to stand next to her.

I shook off the weird moment I’d just had with West and attempted to act normal. “Yeah. Everyone always wants snacks.”

“True.” With a laugh, she glanced over at me, then frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” My voice came out more defensive than I’d planned, and she raised a brow.

“Just asking. You look a bit…flushed. Are you feeling okay?”

I forced a laugh and repeated the words I’d just spoken to Weston, not meaning them this time, either. “Yeah, I’m fine.” As Winter eyed me, unconvinced, I added, “Just a bit hot. I could do with a cold drink.”

She seemed to accept that as an explanation, indicating her head towards the beer that the bartender had just placed in front of us. “I’ve got you covered there. I’ll just order some snacks, then you can help me carry the drinks back over.”

“Curly fries. And Cajun wedges?”

“Yep.” She nodded, then placed the additional order. “Come on. Let’s try and beat the boys. I’m pretty sure we can throw them off their game.”

“How?” I stared at her, intrigued.

“Distract them?”

“How?” I repeated.

“I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

We didn’t manage to throw them off their game. Winter’s “distraction” techniques, which involved getting Cassius to tell jokes and flirting like mad with Cade, were an epic fail. After three games, Caiden ended up as the overall winner, and Cassius had moved into second place, with Zayde in third.

I was normally fairly good at bowling, as was Weston, but there seemed to be a bit of awkwardness in both of us after our moment in the corridor. I could’ve been projecting, in fact, I was 90 percent sure I was, but we were both distracted and playing badly.

The tiniest spark of hope sprang to life inside me.

It remained until we were leaving the bowling alley. The girl who West had been flirting with earlier was standing close to the exit, and as we made our way outside, she curled her finger at him with a sultry smile on her face.

When he broke away from our group, heading in her direction, I didn’t wait to see anything else. I rushed outside as quickly as I could, swallowing the feelings that I knew I couldn’t afford to have for him.

Weston Cavendish would never be mine.

FOUR

My computer pinged with a message alert, then another. Mercury and Xenon.

Navigating to Xenon’s first, I rubbed my brow. Bloody headache.

Xenon: Yes I’m a genius. All done

Yes. The job had been a tricky one, but between me and Xenon, we’d done it. The assignment had come from Xenon’s boss, and the weird thing was, the client was none other than my dad, Arlo. Did he know I was the one dealing with it? I wasn’t sure, but I knew