He’d just finished putting on the last Band-Aid when Summer hopped off his lap and said, “Race you to the tree house.”
Sophie watched as Megan put her hand on his shoulder. “You did great.”
Gabe blew out a hard breath. “Seeing her fall off the bike onto the street and not knowing how badly she was hurt made me the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.”
Megan leaned over and kissed him and Sophie moved back to the table to give them some privacy. Her heart squeezed tight at watching her brother be so paternal. It was so sweet.
And yet, as the two of them headed into the backyard to join Summer in the tree house, Sophie sighed, trying not to compare the way Megan and Gabe looked at each other to the way nobody looked at her. Especially not—
“Hey, Nice.”
She whirled around, shocked to find Jake McCann standing next to her mother on the Persian rug. “What are you doing here?”
Her mother raised an eyebrow at her snippy tone. “He offered to help with the bar.”
Chase and Chloe had plenty of money—and contacts—to put on a wedding without any of their help. But that was beside the point. Everyone who loved them wanted to help.
Why hadn’t her mother told her Jake was coming over? If she’d known, Sophie would have worn something other than the most boring white long-sleeved dress in the world.
Not, she knew, that it would have mattered what she was wearing. She could have been completely naked, spread-eagled on the table, and Jake wouldn’t notice. In fact, if he did notice her nudity, he’d probably toss a couple of pillows at her to cover her up without so much as blinking.
The phone rang and her mother excused herself to answer it, leaving Sophie and Jake alone.
“Pretty crazy,” he drawled as he looked out the living room window and saw Gabe, Megan, and Summer playing in the backyard, “all you Sullivans pairing up like this.”
His mouth was quirked up into one of those ridiculously hot half-grins that turned her insides to jelly and her heartbeat kicked into overdrive, just as it always did around Jake. It didn’t help that he was wearing a short-sleeved black T-shirt that showed off his muscular, tattooed forearms and dark jeans that showed off his tight a—
No. She couldn’t go there. It was too pointless.
Too pathetic.
She’d wasted enough time mooning over Jake. Approximately twenty years, to be more precise. But it was one thing to be a five-year-old with a crush. It was another entirely to be a twenty-five-year-old woman who couldn’t get over the one guy who barely noticed she was alive.
He thought of her as Nice, for God’s sake.
Which pretty much summed things up in the most depressing way, considering there was no one she wanted to be naughty with more.
“I’m happy for them,” she finally said, unable to quell the defensive tone in her voice. “Chase and Marcus and Gabe all deserve to be happy.”
He held his hands up and she hated the way it felt like he was laughing at her. “Okay. Sure they do. You’ve probably got a guy stashed away somewhere, ready to pop a ring on your finger, don’t you?”
God, how she wished she could say yes, that she could rub a gorgeous, hunky, successful boyfriend in his face.
Although, since he wouldn’t care, the victory would be short-lived, wouldn’t it?
Planting a fake smile on her face, she shrugged. “Nope. Still having fun, playing the field.”
For a split second, she thought she saw something flash in his chocolate-brown eyes, but it was gone so fast she knew she must have imagined his reaction to the idea of her dating a bunch of random guys.
If anything, he was probably feeling overprotective of her in a brotherly way. He’d probably freak out if he ever realized she looked at him as anything but, if he knew the kinds of fantasies she had about him, ones that included whipped cream and blindfolds and screaming out his na—
She forcefully snapped herself out of the wicked—pointless—daydream just as he said, “Well, don’t worry. You’re a pretty girl. Some guy will come along and sweep you off your feet.”
Oh my God. Seriously? Had the number one subject of all her secret fantasies just called her a pretty girl...and then told her not to worry about some guy coming to sweep her away?
As he gazed at her with a double serving of male condescension, something inside Sophie snapped...breaking right in two, somewhere in the region of her heart.
Sophie knew she was attractive. Even without looking in the mirror, just judging by the way men responded to her identical twin, Lori, she knew her features and figure were put together pretty well.
Only, unlike Lori, Sophie had never tried to trade on her looks for male attention.
In the past year, she’d read literally hundreds of love stories for her library project. Suddenly it hit her: What if she put everything she’d learned about seduction to good use?
What if she made Jake want her?
What if she could find a way to make him desperate to have her?
He was a man, after all. And, no matter how rusty her feminine wiles, she was a woman.
Licking her lips, the power of her new intention had her sitting up straighter in her chair, pulling back her shoulders, and crossing her legs to let her white dress ride up past her knees.
Amazingly, Jake actually looked uncomfortable, as if he were finally seeing something he didn’t want to—ever—have to acknowledge.
And in that moment, Sophie didn’t have to work for the wicked little smile on her lips. Not now that she’d decided on her plan of action. Because as soon as she figured out how to get Jake right where she wanted him, she was going to make darn sure she exacted a little revenge for her poor unrequited heart.
Oh yes, she was going to teach him the lesson someone should have taught him a long time ago.
Namely, that he couldn’t have every girl in the world.
Especially not her.
~ THE END ~