Free Bet Me Something (Something Series Book 3) by Aubrey Bondurant

than trying to be seductive, not to mention more entertaining.
    His face went
into full-on panic.
    Rolling my eyes,
I splashed him playfully. “You’re so easy to freak out.”
    Without warning,
I was grabbed and dunked under the water completely. Sputtering while pushing
the hair from my eyes when I came up for air, I attempted to get him just as
wet, only to find myself wrapped up pretzel style, halfway on his lap. Our
faces were inches from one another with us both breathing heavily and goofy
smiles on our faces.
    “Sorry for
getting you all wet,” he whispered.
    “I’m not sorry
in the least.” And I wasn’t thinking about the water.
    “You should
probably get some sleep,” he said thickly, letting me go and moving to the
other side of the tub.
    “Right. Or we
could get your payment of the bet you lost out of the way.”
    He sucked in a
breath, obviously surprised I remembered. “That’s not a good idea.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “How about, for
starters, I’ve known you my whole life and think of you as my little sister.”
    Frustrated, I
was about to throw in the towel altogether. “Yeah, you keep reminding me of
that.”
    He met my gaze
after getting out of the water. “Maybe it’s not you I’m reminding. Good night,
Kenz.”
     

CHAPTER
FIVE
    After a yoga
workout out on the beautiful balcony, I spent the morning by the hotel pool. However
by ten o’clock the sun was already becoming too hot to sit out in it much
longer. I replayed Colby’s parting shot last night more times than I cared to
admit and kept coming back to him acknowledging for the first time there might
be something more to how he was feeling. Now, what was a girl to do about it?
    Later that
afternoon as I was finishing up lunch in the room, Colby came in looking
frazzled. His arrival was earlier than I’d expected as I thought he’d be in
meetings most of the day.
    “Oh, good,
you’re here. We’ve gotta go. Josh called, and Haylee is in labor.”
    My mouth turned
up into a smile. Colby’s older brother and his wife were expecting a girl, and
judging from the soon-to-be-uncle’s reaction, he was more than excited. “I
packed this morning, but I can help you.”
    He grinned, and
I followed him into his bedroom to throw his clothes into the suitcase. When I
glanced over at him, I realized he was undressing in front of me.
    “Uh, what do you
want me to keep out for you to wear?”
    “Jeans and
T-shirt are fine, thanks.” He crossed over in only boxers and an unbuttoned
shirt.
    I knew my face
was turning red. “Right. Here you go.”
    He took the
garments from my hand, donning his jeans only inches from me. I let my gaze
linger, cuz who wouldn’t? Obviously he was distracted, chatting on oblivious to
what he was doing.
    “Josh was
excited and nervous all at the same time. My mom is on her way up, too. We
won’t get there until late, but maybe we can go to the hospital in the morning
or tonight if they’ll let us. Sometimes women are in labor for a while, so it
might be that she doesn’t have the baby for hours, right?”
    I laughed at his
rambling. “You never know, I suppose. Are they in New York?”
    He nodded.
“Yeah. Your brother is there, too, by the way.”
    That wasn’t a
surprise considering Sasha lived there. “I’ll look at flights to LA if you
don’t mind dropping me at the airport.”
    He turned
towards me. “What do you mean? You can come to New York with me to see the
baby.”
    We grabbed our
stuff and headed downstairs towards the waiting car. Once in the back seat, I
voiced my hesitation. “I’d definitely love to see the baby, but Brian is
probably staying with Sasha. At least, I hope so, and since I suspect that
there’s something that may be going on with them, I don’t want to be a third
wheel. Plus, I should probably get back.” Aside from my summer internship
starting in a week, I didn’t have anything going on; however I didn’t want to
be a tag-a-long, either.
    He frowned. “You
can