ME: On my way home now. And I have extra treats.
BERK: Eagerly awaiting your arrival.
The taxi pulled up and my door opened before I could gather up all the boxes on the seat beside me. I yelped.
Berk shoved his head into the back of the taxi. “You said extra treats? I’m starving.” He had a twizzler dangling out of the side of his mouth.
“How can you be starving? You’re actively chewing.” I nudged him out of the way with my feet.
“This was just so I didn’t start gnawing on the planks of your porch. Let me take those.” He plucked the boxes out of my hands and nudged at the half-open lid.
I smacked my hand down over it. “Do not pilfer the goods. They’re not all for you.”
An offended gasp shot from his mouth. “Who else have you been giving away your treats to?”
A deeper level-five blush set into my cheeks. We climbed the steps. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I called over my shoulder as I opened the door.
“I sure as hell would. The only reason I’m looking forward to study sessions this semester is because you always baked for them.” He slid the boxes onto the kitchen table.
My head shot up. “I didn’t know we had classes together this semester.”
“Ethics, remember? A late switch for me into Buchanan’s class.”
“You willingly switched into his class? I only took it because I needed one last ethics class and his was the only one that fit into my schedule.” I grabbed a couple plates from the dish rack.
“Same.” He brushed sprinkles off the side of his mouth.
“Berk!”
“What?” His big-eyed innocent look did nothing to remove the splotch of chocolate on the side of his mouth.
I grabbed a napkin and wiped at the spot. “Next time, be better at hiding the evidence.” I laughed and opened the boxes.
“What’s all this from? It’s not your usual baking.”
“My new internship.”
“It’s at Bread & Butter?”
I nodded. “I need to step up my game. Are you willing to be a taste tester? I’ve got some dough chilling in the fridge.”
“I’d taste your dough any day of the week, Jules.”
His words rolled down my skin like chocolate syrup. He was way too good at the flirting. Way too good. It almost made me feel like I was special. I cringed, wanting to bury my head in the sand or maybe break my leg to have an excuse not to go to the engagement party. And after this weekend, I could only hope the way he saw me didn’t change.
6
Berk
The driving bass of the club killed the cookie buzz I’d had on the way over. My after practice ritual of grabbing something sweet from Jules’ place had been interrupted by yet another text from Alexis.
After the edict from LJ not to bring her back to the house, I’d sleep at her place. I hadn’t even realized it was almost eleven when I got Alexis’ call at Jules’ until I saw the time. Hours melted away when I was watching Jules do her thing. And she did it so well. Every time I walked in the door there was always a huge smile and that warm glowing feeling in my chest.
But vanilla, sugar, and chocolate had been replaced with sweat, beer, and too-sweet mixers.
A head above most people in the club, at least I had an easier time spotting Alexis. Dancing on a table in the roped off VIP area—typical. And slipping off it and falling into one of the couches lined up against the back wall.
I charged through the crowd, not afraid to throw in a few shoulder hits to the people sloshing their drinks all over me. A wet stickiness seeped into my shoes. Reece would probably hold a Viking funeral for them if he found out.
At the velvet rope, the bouncer’s gaze lit up with recognition and went from guard dog to a flicker of confusion to a bro handshake and a pat on the back in the space of five seconds.
“I won three hundred bucks on that interception play you ran last season.” He let go of my hand, sporting a wide grin.
“Glad it worked out,” I shouted back and shoved my hands in my pockets. Getting recognized always felt awkward. Nix handled it like an old pro—he probably got tips from his dad. But I had bigger things to deal with tonight. Namely, the drunk-off-her-ass redhead taking another sip of her drink.
“Can you help me? I’m here for her.” I lifted my chin toward the beyond tipsy, stumbling version of Alexis.
“Girlfriend?”
I shook my head. “Nah.”
He eyed me up and down and lifted the velvet rope.
Standing in front of Alexis, I stared at her picking herself up off the floor and reaching for another drink.
“Oh no, you don’t.” I lifted it out of her reach.
Her gaze narrowed and then brightened when her drink-hazed brain registered my face. “Berkie, you came.” She flung her arms around me and looped them around my neck.
I wrapped my arms around her and turned my face away from the alcohol-soaked smell permeating a three foot radius around her. “Jesus, Alexis, what the hell are you wearing?” I averted my gaze and was three seconds away from pulling off my own shirt and putting it on her. My backpack was in the car or I’d have had a thermal and some sweatpants to put her into. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“But I want to stay. Let’s have some fun, let’s dance.” She tried to lift my arm over her head.
“No, Alexis. We’re leaving. You’re beyond drunk and you’re not even twenty-one yet.”
“Don’t ruin my night. I invited you here so we could have fun.” Only a practiced translator of Drunk-Alexis would even understand what she was saying.
“You didn’t invite. You said you needed help.”
“I did, but then I found some guys to buy me drinks. Problem solved!” She smiled like she was a genius for hatching that complex plan.
“We’re going. You can walk out or I can carry you.” I wrapped my fingers around her arm.
“Carry me.” She flung her arms out in front of her and pouted just like she had when she was eight and she’d been told she couldn’t leave the table until she ate her broccoli. She’d sat there until it was time for school in the morning, bleary-eyed and broccoli-free.
“What the fuck, dude? No poaching.” A dude half a foot shorter than me and probably one hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet stepped to me. “We’ve been buying rounds for her. You can’t just swoop in and cock block like that.”
Alexis’s eyes got wide and she bit her lips like this was hilarious.
I didn’t feel like fighting tonight, but I would. The pounding of the bass matched the throbbing in my neck.
“Consider your cock officially blocked. She’s my sister and I’m taking her home.”
The guy’s head whipped back and forth between me and Alexis in the way I hated, comparing the way we looked. That made my skin crawl and want to punch something hard—like his smug face.
“You’re not my brother,” Alexis slurred, falling into me.
Every time she said those words, it hurt. Even all these years since the first time. “We’re not having this conversation here.” I turned to the guy, who had been joined by two more of his friends. “She’s leaving. Step aside or I go through you.” Don’t move, dude. I didn’t want to fight, but I could knock him on his ass in half a second flat.