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

“I’m going to get my best friend back.”

The tracking app showed me Cassius’ location, and when I turned into the car park, I saw his SUV in the far corner. Parking next to it, I checked my phone again. The tracking app wasn’t so accurate that I could pinpoint exactly where he was, but it was accurate enough that it would give me his general vicinity. I headed down to the wooden pier that stretched out over the sea first, jogging down to the end, but he wasn’t there. Stopping halfway back, I scanned the beach either side, but I couldn’t see him.

I watched the gulls fighting over someone’s discarded chips while I debated. A large black bird was perched on a rock below me, and as I watched, it hopped off the rock and disappeared under the pier.

Under the pier.

Without wasting any more time, I jogged back down the pier and onto the beach, making my way between the wooden struts that held the pier suspended above the ground.

“Cass.”

He was sitting on a rock, throwing pebbles into the sea. When I spoke, he didn’t acknowledge my presence. Yeah, he was definitely pissed off with me. I took a seat next to him. “Cass,” I tried again.

Still no answer.

“Fucking talk to me, will you?”

At that, he finally turned to me, his eyes blazing. “What the fuck, West? Come to tell me more lies?”

“I wanted to give you time to cool off, but we don’t have that time anymore. So just shut the fuck up and talk to me!”

“Which is it?” Some of the anger had left his tone.

“Which is what?”

“I can’t shut the fuck up and talk to you, mate. Got to pick one or the other.” Now there was a definite lift to the corner of his mouth.

“Mate? Are we still mates?” Picking up a pebble, I drew my arm back and threw it into the sea to give me something to do while I waited for his reply. Had I completely fucked things up between us?

He sighed. “Yeah.”

That one word filled me with relief, and my shoulders dropped as I turned back to face him. “I wanna apologise. When I told you nothing was going on with Lena, I lied.”

“No shit,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry, okay? If it helps, I’ve been really fucking stressed about the whole thing. I even went to my dad for advice.”

He stared at me, surprised. “Seriously? Things must’ve been bad if you went to Arlo.”

“His advice was sound, actually. He said I should talk to you.”

“I always knew I liked him.” Swiping another pebble from the ground, he threw it out to sea.

“Nice shot.”

“I know.”

Clearing my throat, I attempted to explain. “My head was messed up. Still is, to be honest. Me and Lena…we decided that we’re not going to be together. So you don’t need to worry about that.”

“You’re not together because of me?” His mouth twisted, like he wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Not just that. It’s just better that we take some time to think about what we want.”

He nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Is she okay, though? Really okay? When she told me what had happened to her, it fucking killed me.”

“Yeah, she’s okay.” Picking up a smooth grey stone from the ground, I turned it over in my palm. “She…I’ve been careful with her.”

“If this is some reference to sex, don’t tell me.” Holding up his hand, he pulled a face. “I do not wanna hear anything about that, thanks.”

“Noted.”

“She’s my sister. I’m just looking out for her.”

“I know.”

We fell into silence for a while then. When he eventually spoke, his voice was low. “I’ve never wanted to think about her with a boyfriend before.” The face he pulled made me bite my lip, hard, to stop my laugh escaping. “And you. You’re my wingman. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? No one to pick up women with.”

“No more threesomes,” I added helpfully.

“No more nights out.”

“We’re still doing that.”

He smiled then, and it reached his eyes. “We’d better.” Reaching down, he grabbed two stones, passing one to me, then throwing the other out to sea.

“Anyway, I’m not with Lena at the moment,” I reminded him, before throwing the stone he’d given me. It hit one of the pier’s wooden support posts.

“But if you could be, you would, right?” Cassius gave me a sidewards glance.

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“Okay. Just promise me that you won’t try to hide shit from me again. And don’t hurt her, or I’ll chop your fucking balls off.”

“Leave my balls out of this.” I cupped them protectively through my jeans, and he smirked, so I glared at him. “I don’t think you have the balls to go near my balls.”

He thought for a minute, then shrugged unconcernedly. “I’ll ask Z to do it.”

Before I could reply, my phone buzzed in my pocket. “It’s Lena. We need to go.” As we both climbed to our feet, I updated him on the Martin Smith situation, telling him everything I knew—which wasn’t much. He frowned, picking his way over the stones back to the slope that led up to the paved area at the bottom of the pier. “This is another thing I’m really not happy about. She’s so reckless sometimes.”

“I know. I’ll watch out for her. But you know how she can be.”

Heading into the car park, I glanced down at his hand, holding his car keys. “How’s your hand?”

“This hand?” He waved it in my face. “This hand that you made me punch a wall with?”

“Oh, we’re blaming me, are we?”

“It seems fair.”

“I guess.”

“Thanks for your concern.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. At my pointed look, he sighed. “It fucking hurts, actually.”

“Sorry.” I meant it.

“Nah, it’s okay. Or it will be. Feels bruised.” He pressed the fingers of his other hand into his knuckles experimentally. “Yep, definitely bruised.”

“You should’ve used your left hand.”

“Yeah, because at the time, the first thought in my head was ‘which