Seducing the Bridesmaid (Wedding Dare, #3)(13)
“This isn’t a challenge. This is impossible.”
Reed snorted. “Is that really going to be enough to stop you?”
Of course he’d say that. Growing up, he’d always been the reckless one, the one who made the questionable choices and the first to jump into any situation. Through it all, Brock had been hot on his heels. Reed and Colton were a staple of his childhood, the two kids who had never expected him to magically transform into a clone of his older brother. Every time he’d had a blowup with his parents, they’d been there to take his mind off things.
And Reed…he had his own cross to bear. Even if Brock had been in danger of forgetting that, all it would take was a quick step to that hot night when they were twelve, and he had sneaked out to recruit Reed for some prank or other. What he’d seen when he got to Reed’s house had changed the course of his entire life.
Brock rubbed a hand over his face. He’d never told Reed about the company he formed five years ago—or why—and today wasn’t going to be the day he came clean. Today was about figuring out what the hell he was going to do about Regan. “She’s a damned force of nature.”
“And you’re not?”
“Well, hell, when you put it that way.”
“You’re just looking for a reason to chase her. You don’t need one. Get chasing.”
Brock grinned, thinking back to Regan’s dog reference last night. “Wuff.”
“That’s more like it.”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s getting to be that time.” As much as he wasn’t looking forward to the scavenger hunt, he wouldn’t miss the chance to see little miss city girl wandering around in the woods. Anything that put that woman off her game was a good thing in his book.
“Go on ahead. I don’t need a babysitter.”
He never had. Reed might have made some f*cked-up choices a few years ago, but it was the wake-up call he’d needed to get his life together. He still wasn’t the poster boy for well-adjusted, but Reed had been there for him over the years, even if they hadn’t talked about the reason Brock needed someone to lean on. Colton was gone nine months out of twelve, and while he made their summers full of good times, it was out of sight, out of mind when they were kids. But Reed never left. He was always willing to sneak out and walk aimlessly around town when Brock was feeling trapped by his father’s demands, or to come up with some crazy thing to keep them both distracted from the homes they had to go back to.
Brock knew he was lucky to be born into the family he was, but he constantly felt strangled by his father’s expectations. Weighed down by the fact that he’d never be Caine. His older brother did everything right, and no matter how hard he tried, he never measured up.
So he’d stopped trying.
Shit, he hadn’t meant to take that little trip down memory lane. Brock decided to take the long way through the grounds to where they were supposed to meet for the scavenger hunt. He needed time to get his game face on, because he had to figure out what the f*ck he was going to do about Regan.
Why should he do anything at all? She’d had her fun, and she couldn’t be clearer about not wanting anything to do with him again. Why not stop kicking a dead horse? It would sure as hell make his life a lot simpler.
He rounded the corner to find a group of women gathered. There was the pretty blond cheerleader type who’d caught Reed’s eye, the quiet redhead, Kady with her almost-bride glow…and Regan.
He let himself look his fill, taking in the waves in her hair that had to have taken some serious time to create, the dress that hugged every curve and made him wonder if she were wearing panties underneath, and those damned heels. He’d never cared one way or another for the shit women wore on their feet, but something about her bright-red heels made him picture how she’d look in nothing but them.
Kady said something and Regan shot a panicked look his way. He took the opportunity to grin at her. If anything, she seemed even less pleased. Good. At least he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable here.
As the group dispersed, the little redhead wandered over. She had the distracted look of someone with something serious on her mind. “Hey, Irish, a penny for your thoughts.”
The redhead, Christine, he thought her name was, made a face. “As if I haven’t heard that one before.”
“What can I say, I’m a traditionalist.”
She snorted. “I doubt it.”
She was really cute in a girl-next-door way. The kind of woman a man settled down and had a boatload of kids with. The kind of woman he normally avoided like the plague—he wasn’t the type to leave a trail of broken hearts behind him, and women like this didn’t have sex without complications. Brock wasn’t a settling-down type. Maybe in the future, but right now it wasn’t in the cards. He had too much to accomplish before he went down that road.
Still, he gave her his most charming smile. It would be smarter to focus on Christine than to spend his time in this borderline obsession with a certain high-strung brunette. “Maybe you should give me a chance to prove it.”
Christine’s eyes went wide and a laugh erupted from her lips. She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God, Regan was right. You really are incorrigible.”
He sighed. “You Tri Delts are bad for a man’s ego.”
“Sorry.” She glanced sideways, her mouth tightening at whatever it was she saw. Before he could follow her gaze, she’d turned those blue eyes back on him. “If it helps, you’re really good-looking. But I’ll bet you’ve had plenty of women tell you that, haven’t you?”