Choosing the Right Man - Nice Girl to Love, Vol 3 (Can't Resist #3)(8)

“Except for the fact that you two are brothers!”

He shrugged. “I’ve dated sisters before.”

Brian bashed the back of his fist into Connor’s chest. “Dude, you aren’t helping.”

“Neither of you are helping.” Abby folded her arms over her chest. “We’re not doing this. What’s the alternative?”

The guys glanced at each other. “We keep fighting, I guess.” Brian grinned at the prospect.

Abby stomped her foot on the ground. Her frown as ferocious as a ferret’s.

Again, if they weren’t in the middle of a nuclear-infused negotiation, Brian would find the situation all kinds of funny right about now.

“What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with this joint custody dating?” she asked finally, calling forth that level-headed researcher inside of her that always thought every decision to death.

Both he and Connor instantly took a microscopic step forward.

Because the fact that she was considering it meant an invisible checkered flag had just been dropped. Meanwhile, the vulnerable worry in her eyes was like the bat signal for any and every protective, red-blooded male in the vicinity. It was a potent combination. Brian had no doubt in his mind that if Abby weren’t standing there, he and Connor would be going another round right now to work off all the alpha compulsions she was inadvertently triggering in them both.

A coyote gleam crept into Connor’s eyes.

But Brian beat him to the first punch.

“Honestly, I think Connor would like to show you that he’s attempting to grow a heart in that tin man chest of his,” he fired off the first verbal shot, grinning when his brother tossed him a scowl scalded to a temperature that could deep fry a turkey. “Luckily for him, he has a lot of fertilizer to work with.”

That made Connor’s lips twitch to the side in reluctant humor. “I’m going to take the higher road and resist the urge to slander my brother,” asserted Connor, breezily. “Because we all know that unlike Brian here, my maturity would never be questioned by the Cheez-It cracker testers.”

A tiny chuckle escaped from Brian’s chest, which inspired one in Connor as well.

Abby slapped two hands against her face and groaned. “Seriously? Dealing with one of you on something like this is bad enough. Together, you’re a million times worse.”

“This idea isn’t that horrible is it?” reasoned Connor, no longer grinning. “Why not just try it for a few weeks? What could it hurt?”

Her silence loudly answered, ‘everything.’

No one could dispute the possibility.

“Do you have a better solution?” asked Brian gently, largely hoping she actually did because though he agreed with Connor’s goals and rationale, he absolutely detested the idea of him dating Abby.

After a few exasperated beats, she shook her head. “No.”

“We’ll keep all weirdness to a minimum,” assured Connor. “We won’t contact you when it’s not our week, and we’ll never talk about each other when it is.”

Long, huffed out moments later, Abby conceded. “Fine. But if we’re doing this, there will be absolutely no sex, obviously,” she made a face, “and no kissing or anything of the sort, either.” She frowned, looking like she considered herself crazy for even contemplating it. “We’ll just hang out. Treat it like a blind date.”

With his lawyer rebuttal face on, Connor opened his mouth to say something and Brian nailed him again in the chest. “Shut. Up.” Between the three of them, they were well aware that Connor’s boundaries for a blind date far differed from Abby and Brian’s.

Quickly turning back to Abby, he nodded. “Those terms sound acceptable.”

Abby spun on her heel and stalked back over to the house, muttering under her breath. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”

Brian stood there for a second watching her stomp away, looking quite adorable in all her fiery annoyance.

When he looked over and saw Connor doing the same, he shoved him off balance. “Stop staring at her.”

Connor swung his foot around and took out both of Brian’s knees. “I will if you will.”

“There now, I knew you two could work things out,” called out Helen from the patio. “I’m taking Abby and Skylar shopping. Try not to kill each other.”

“...At least not before you move that table I asked you to.”




“WHAT WERE DAD AND UNCLE CONNER doing outside in the yard for so long?” asked Skylar, climbing in the backseat of Helen’s car.

Abby exchanged a look with Helen. She couldn’t possibly tell Skylar about this whole joint custody dating thing. It was just be too weird.

“Ohmigosh, were they working on your SUV?” guessed Skylar bouncing in her seat, clapping excitedly.

What?

Abby knew her SUV was the butt of most of her friends’ jokes, mostly since it was held together with more duct tape than metal by now. Still, she was madly attached to it. Fiercely protective of it. She had no intention of replacing it until it had taken its last quart of oil and needed to be towed off her driveway.

“They’re going to do something to my SUV?” She was seriously contemplating having Helen turn right back around.

Skylar giggled. “Geez, don’t freak out. It’s nothing bad. Dad just found you another soft-top for your SUV at the junkyard and he needed Uncle Connor’s help to install it since I’m too short. You had him so worried after the last dust storm that he’s been calling every junkyard in Arizona since to find one.”