Flirting with the Frenemy (Bro Code #1)(39)

“I, ah, work on military jets,” I tell her.

“An airplane’s an airplane in my world, and I like knowing my brother’s safe when he’s in the air.”

“I like being safe in the air too,” Jason announces.

I start to explain that I’m more engineer than pilot, but Ellie jumps in before I can, tugging my arm like the good girlfriend she’s playing today. “Guys, don’t embarrass him. How much you want to bet Monica finds the most pirate gold?”

“I’m gonna find all the pirate gold!” Tucker announces.

“He has a son, Ellie?” Mrs. Dixon says with a nose lift.

“No, that’s a random kid he kidnapped with candy and donuts yesterday, but he’s cute, so we’re making him an official pirate with us.”

Monica coughs. Her fiancé clears his throat and swipes a hand over his grin. The Blond Caveman glowers. Ellie slips her hand lower until our fingers are intertwined, and fuck me, I could do this all day. “Come on. Are we digging for gold or what?”

“Mom, Dad, you go first,” Jason says.

“I can’t believe I’ve lived an hour from here my entire life and never knew I could come here to dig for pirate gold,” the Blond Caveman’s girlfriend says, falling into line.

“Dad, can we get two shovels?” Tucker asks.

“How about you help me?” Ellie says to him.

“Yeah! I’ll dig for you, Miss Captain Ellie. Does your leg hurt today?”

“Not too bad. Thank you for asking.”

“Me and Dad got donuts, but we ate them already.”

“The banana pudding kind?”

Tucker wrinkles his nose. “No, plain. But Dad said he’d get you one of those pudding ones later. Can I get another donut later too?”

“Absolutely,” Ellie says at the same time I say, “One’s enough for the day.”

Ellie bends down. “I’ll sneak you one when he’s not looking,” she whispers.

Tucker giggles.

And I shake my head at both of them.

“Is she bringing him to your wedding, Jason? He’s rather…plebian,” Mrs. Dixon murmurs loudly in front of us.

“So am I, Mom,” Jason replies.

“Honestly, I don’t know why you let Monica have a maid of honor who broke your brother’s heart. Not that he can’t do better, but it’s still rude.”

“So is talking about people behind their backs, Mrs. Dixon,” Ellie says cheerfully.

The Blond Caveman sends Ellie a murderous look.

She smiles back.

“I like you having other enemies besides me,” I tell her softly, and she snorts.

“Speaking of,” she replies, just as soft, “we can’t have sex anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

That’s a challenge if I ever heard one. “We’ll discuss this in bed tonight.”

“We will not,” she whispers.

“Bathtub works too.”

She gives me the old Ellie Ryder you’re pissing me off glare, and I don’t even try to tuck in a grin at how easy it still is to get her.

She huffs as she obviously realizes what I’m doing.

“Or maybe over strip ping-pong?” she murmurs.

Dammit.

There I go, popping a boner in public with my kid with me again.

She doesn’t look down, but she smiles triumphantly like she knows she won this round.

And honestly?

I’ll give it to her.

Because I like that smile.

She works hard. She’s dressed in a monkey costume in eighty-degree weather to make her best friend happy. And when I went snooping on her social media pages last night, I discovered post after post of shared help find this pet a home messages.

The last time she posted a personal picture was before Christmas.

Nothing about her accident.

Nothing about recovery.

The only pictures of her were posted by her parents or her friends.

So seeing her smile?

It’s like watching her come back to life.

Beck might’ve been pulling her leg about me having a problem, but he wasn’t lying about Ellie’s accident affecting her.

Monica’s grinning widely as she hands me a shovel. “Get to work, Wyatt. This gold won’t dig itself up. Show me those muscles.”

The Blond Caveman yanks a shovel out of the pile and stalks off. “C’mon, Sloane, I’ll show you how a real man digs for treasure,” he says.

Monica and Ellie share a look. Tucker looks up at both of them, and says, “C’mon, Miss Captain Ellie. I’m gonna be a real man too,” and even the Blond Caveman’s girlfriend cracks up.

“Dad, I’m going to beat you,” Tucker adds.

“Oh, you think so?”

“He’s totally going to beat you,” Ellie says.

He grins at me behind his glasses, and fuck, how am I going to survive having to give him back to Lydia at the end of the summer?

I shove away the panic, because that’s a problem for another day.

For now, I have pirate treasure to dig.

With my fake girlfriend.

Who just might be turning out to be more than I ever thought she could be.

Yep. Saving that problem for another day too.