Flirting with the Frenemy (Bro Code #1)(46)

When Beck asked me to irritate Ellie, I had a vague idea what I was in for. A prickly porcupine sniping at me? Yep, because I knew just how to poke it. Glares hot enough to melt iron? Wouldn’t have her any other way.

That uncomfortable feeling in my dick every time I thought of her naked?

Can’t say I haven’t been dealing with that anyway these past six months, when I wasn’t letting the guilt seep in.

Getting my toes done with Tucker, Ellie, Monica, Jason, the Blond Caveman, Sloane, and the mothers of the happy couple? At the Yo Ho Ho Spa?

Didn’t even cross my mind.

But here I am, in a fancy-ass massage chair with one foot soaking in a tub of flowery-scented water while a woman I’ve never met buffs, slathers, rubs, and does all kinds of weird shit to the other.

Tucker erupts in giggles every time his pedicurist tries to touch his feet, so she’s given up and is letting him suck on a pirate lollipop and just soak his toes in the bubbly spa water.

“Smile, honey,” Ellie says from her seat on the other side, holding up her phone to get a selfie of the three of us.

I glare at her.

She smiles bigger.

Tucker laughs.

“Beck gets this done all the time,” she tells me.

“He also parades around in his skivvies. Are you texting this to him? I will…” I wiggle my brows at her, a clear threat to kiss her, or touch her, or cause some other disaster to befall us “…if you text that picture to anyone. Or post it on social media. Or do anything other than delete it.”

Her brows twitch like her face is battling between scowling at me and giving me the I dare you look.

“It takes a man very secure in his masculinity to get his toes done,” Monica calls to me from her seat in a massage chair on the opposite wall.

The Blond Caveman has his nose tucked inside a financial magazine and ignores her.

Jason grins at me. “She’s right, you know.”

“Oh, hush. Wyatt has no issues with his masculinity,” Ellie says. “You should’ve seen him mopping the floor of the kitchen last night.”

“You should’ve seen us mopping the floor,” I tell her.

“I was a big helper,” Tucker says proudly. “I mopped buckets full.”

Monica sends a quizzical glance at Ellie.

“Dishwasher flooded,” Ellie explains.

“Well, thank god it was Beck’s house,” Monica says.

I choke on a laugh, because that, at least, is the truth. I texted him a picture and told him Ellie and I got carried away doing the dishes.

He replied with a picture of his middle finger, and his assistant pinged me two minutes later to say that she’d scheduled a drywaller to come in and repair the water damage next week, and to enjoy washing dishes by hand in the meantime since the earliest she could get a new dishwasher was five to seven days.

This morning, I woke up to a message from him that he couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend for his sister, except maybe Levi, because his ass is nicer than mine.

I haven’t told Ellie, because we’ll sort that all out after the wedding’s over, when she doesn’t need me to play this role anymore.

Fuck, I hope I don’t lose a friend over this.

But if I do, I probably didn’t deserve him as long as I had him anyway.

“Want me to paint pirate flags on your toes?” my foot lady asks.

Ellie dissolves in a fit of laughter.

“You don’t have to get nail polish,” Monica tells me with a grin.

“Yeah,” I tell the lady. “Pirate flags.”

Ellie laughs so hard she has a coughing fit that ends with her gasping and rubbing her leg, but she’s still smiling, so there’s that. Her foot lady has to stop. Jason gives me a thumbs up. The Blond Caveman rolls his eyes behind his magazine, which he’s not using very effectively to block his face.

When we’re done, I have pirate flags on my two big toes, and I look like an idiot, but I don’t really care. Tucker thinks it’s awesome and begs me to take a picture to send to his mom.

I oblige while I’m waiting to pay, and when I get to the front, the cashier smiles. “Mother of the groom took care of you, your son, and your girlfriend. Go show off those pretty toes, and come back and see us again!”

Outside, Mrs. Dixon is speed-walking toward the hotel at the end of the street. Jason and Monica and her mom are talking to Ellie and Sloane while the Blond Caveman makes a phone call.

I stop next to Jason. “Your mom didn’t have to pay for us.”

“It’s the only way she’ll say thank you.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Don’t mention it or she’ll get bitchy again. We’re heading to the food trucks on the square. You guys coming?”

“Wyatt promised Tucker another trip to the water park,” Ellie answers for us. “They’ll catch up with us later.”

“You want to go with them?” Monica asks. “We’re just going to be walking and stuffing our faces and badgering Patrick into wearing a pirate hat and an eye patch. You’ll have more fun at the water park.”

“I didn’t bring my swimsuit.”

“I have six.”

“Monica.”

“Oh, hush. Don’t give me that I’m here for the bride stuff. When’s the last time you went down a water slide?”