The Vincent Brothers - Abbi Glines Page 0,4

wanted me to come spend our last summer before college together, I’d been so excited I’d momentarily forgotten about the last step in the plan. The reason why I’d made myself moderately attractive and begged to come stay the summer with my cousin. The goal sounded so simple but when I allowed myself to dwell on it then it became so incredibly complicated. Getting a boy to fall head-over-heels in love with you isn’t easy. Especially when he’s been in love with your cousin for as long as you can remember.

Chapter Two

Sawyer

“You’ve got to curb the temper, man. If anyone could take on Beau—it would be you but you’d still walk away beat up,” Ethan announced as I pulled out onto the country road from the dirt road that led back to the field parties.

“It’s been six months, bro. How long you gonna be pissed over this?” Jake asked from the backseat.

Why was this any of their business? Neither one of them knew what a committed relationship was like. They’d both been through so many girls during our four years of high school I couldn’t even name them all. Explaining to them that I’d planned my life with Ashton as the center from the time I was twelve years old wasn’t exactly easy. So instead, I leaned forward and turned on the radio to drown out any more of their interrogation.

“You can turn on music all you want but the fact is you got to let this go. He’s your cousin and your best friend. A chick can’t come between that. Not for long.” Ethan was watching me from the passenger seat. I knew he was waiting on a response from me but I didn’t give him one. His comment about Beau being my cousin was reminder enough that no one really knew me, except Beau and Ash. He wasn’t my cousin. He was my brother but once Beau found out the truth from his mother, he’d decided to keep that information locked away where it’d been his whole life. He didn’t want to claim my dad as his own and I couldn’t really blame him. It wasn’t like my dad had ever done anything to help Beau’s home situation growing up. Beau held nothing but disdain for my father, our father. He chose to remember our father’s brother as his dad. He’d been the only dad Beau had ever known. Even though he’d died when Beau was in first grade, he’d been a fond memory for Beau—unlike his real father.

“Hey! You passed Hank’s,” Ethan announced, pointing his finger toward the burger place we normally went to eat.

“Not going to Hank’s,” was my only response. They were the ones who jumped in my truck. If they didn’t like my need to get out of Grove then they could walk back to town when we got to where I was headed.

“You leaving Grove?” Jake asked.

“Yep.”

Ethan sighed and leaned back in the seat, “We may end up in Florida before he stops this damn truck.”

“Florida? I’m starving and a cheeseburger from Hank’s would’ve fixed that,” Jake grumbled.

Slowing down the truck, I pulled over and glanced back at Jake, “You’re welcome to get out and walk back.”

His eyes widened and he slowly shook his head. “No man, that’s okay. I’m good.”

I pulled back onto the road and ignored the exchange between the guys. They both thought I was nursing a broken-heart. Well, they were right.

No one said another word until I pulled the truck into the parking lot of Wings. I’d driven about twenty miles south to the next town big enough for decent restaurants.

“You should’ve told me you were headed to Wings. I’d have shut up,” Jake made an excited whoop as he jerked open the backdoor of the truck and jumped out.

This was somewhere I’d never eaten with Ash. There weren’t many places that I didn’t have a memory of her so my choices had been limited. Tonight, I needed to get my mind off her and focus on my future—or at least my summer.

“I’m gonna eat my weight in some wings,” Ethan said in reply to Jake’s excitement over my choice of restaurant. At least I’d made them happy. Not that it mattered.

Opening the door, I went inside and stopped at the hostess stand. A tall girl with long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail smiled up at me with an appreciative gleam in her eye that I was used to. It had been habit for me to ignore