Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I hadn’t been so lucky. I’d wanted Georgie to be my first, but she’d told me that she had almost made the biggest mistake of her life with me. That I wasn’t the type of guy she wanted to give her virginity to. Those words had nearly brought me to my knees. Instead, I’d gone straight to a party where I’d drank too much and ended up sleeping with another girl named Lindsay. Biggest mistake of my life.
Clearing my throat, I raised my beer. “To best friends and being there for each other.”
Ryan and Mindy both grinned as they lifted their drinks and repeated, “To best friends.”
Chapter One
BLAYZE
Four years later; Present day – Shaw Ranch, Hamilton, Montana
Ryan set two glasses down on the kitchen island and grinned. “Okay, taste it. I made a special brew to celebrate you turning another year older.”
I held my glass up and looked at the deep amber-colored beer. After years of listening to him bitch about how bad every beer was, I had finally talked him into brewing his own.
“My birthday was last month.”
With a smirk, he replied, “Taste it will you?”
I put the glass to my lips and drank.
My sister Morgan, who had recently turned twenty-one, took the other glass and drank it.
The cold brew hit the back of my throat and glided down smoothly. I could taste a hint of citrus, and I liked it. A lot.
I looked over at Ryan and grinned. “Damn, that’s good, Ryan.”
“I’ve had better,” Morgan said as she pushed the glass away and folded her arms over her chest. It wasn’t lost on me how Ryan let his eyes lower to her breasts before he snapped them back up to look at her. The fact that he was six years older than her and my best friend should have made me want to grab him and punch his lights out for looking at her the way he was, but I felt the opposite. Since Morgan’s senior year of high school, I had noticed Ryan looking at her differently. And when Morgan didn’t think anyone was paying attention, she would watch Ryan with similar eyes. I wouldn’t be the least bit upset if they became a couple. I’d rather my baby sister be with my best friend over some douchebag she met at college. If only she could look past the fact that she couldn’t stand him for reasons that were still unknown to me. And to Ryan.
“You’ve had better?” he asked. “You just turned twenty-one, Morgan. How have you had better?”
She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward. “Just because I can now drink legally doesn’t mean I haven’t ever had alcohol before. I’ve done my fair share of drinking.”
“Let’s also not forget how you and Hunter have been sneaking beer out to the barn for how many years now?” I asked as I took another drink.
Morgan huffed. “Don’t act all high and mighty, Blayze Shaw. I know you, Mindy, and Ryan were up in that barn loft drinking well before Hunter and I started doing it.”
I shrugged. “It’s different for you.”
Her eyes turned dark, and I knew I was screwed. “And why is that?”
“You’re a girl,” Ryan said. The moment the words were out of his mouth, he clearly realized his mistake. He took a few steps away from the table.
“Girl? I’m a girl? The last time I looked in the mirror, Ryan, I was a woman. I’ve got the breasts to prove it.”
His eyes darted down once again before he snapped them up, his face instantly turning beet red. The poor bastard. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
“That’s not what I meant, Morgan, and you know it. I’m well aware of the fact that you’re a woman.”
She leaned forward and gave Ryan a teasing smile. “Are you, now? How are you well aware of it?”
Ryan swallowed hard and looked at me for help. Before I could say anything, my father walked in. I could see the look of relief on my best friend’s face. He had been about to go down a path he wouldn’t have been able to get off.
“No one invited me to taste the new batch,” Dad said as he walked up and looked down at the two glasses of beer.
Without taking her eyes off poor Ryan, Morgan said, “Here, Daddy. Have mine. I don’t care for it.”
My father, blissfully unaware of the tension between Ryan and my sister, picked up the beer and took a long drink.
He nodded, waited a few moments, and then slapped Ryan on the back. “That’s damn good, son. Damn. Good.”
Ryan beamed. “Thank you, sir.” Then he shot Morgan a look, and I swore to God I thought he was going to stick his damn tongue out at her.
My father’s voice pulled me from the show going on between the two of them. “I rang the doorbell, but no one answered. Heard the three of you in here, so I just walked in.”