Her Best Friend's Brother
Автор
Roanna Hinks
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Harmony crashes at her best friend’s place after a breakup, expecting comfort, chaos, and zero surprises. What she does not expect is Noah, the brother she loves to hate, waiting on the couch with that annoying grin. Their days fill with teasing, sparks, and moments that linger a little too long. Noah feels different now, calmer but bolder, and Harmony is not sure if that makes him more dangerous or more tempting. Living together blurs old lines as attraction sneaks in through laughter and late nights. Beneath the banter, feelings stretch and shift. Is this just chemistry talking, or something neither of them is ready to admit?
Chapter 1: The Boyfriend I Fled
HARMONY
I leaned back in the chair, clutching my glass of red as I stared down at my Kindle to read the new book series that Sawyer, my best friend, had mentioned. I started to read when the front door burst open, and I looked up to see Noah, Sawyer’s older brother, stumble in.
I watched him mutter something under his breath by the door before closing it on whoever he had been out with.
He leaned on the door for support before taking a deep breath and turning around until his eyes met mine. He jumped back and glared at me, which only made my lip tug up at the corner at how jumpy he was after he’d had a drink.
“Fuck, Harm,” he murmured, calling me the nickname he’d called me since I was six. “You need a bell or something for me to hear you.”
I glared back. Typical Noah Vaughn. Reflecting everything back at me for being here.
“Well, if it’s not the jackass who—” I muttered, but Noah shook his head and cut me off.
“Say nothing,” he said, making me frown while he slipped off his shoes. “I’m too drunk to even care.”
I said nothing, hating the fact those words—he didn’t care—hurt me slightly. Ever since I could remember, I’d liked him, but he made it clear he was never interested in me. I watched Noah as he navigated toward the stairs.
“Where’s Sawyer?” he grumbled as he tried to put his foot on the first step but missed, causing him to stub his toe.
The corners of my lips pulled up into a smirk as I tried not to laugh at him as a slew of curse words left his lips.
His eyes moved to me again as his eyebrows bunched together. “Don’t you dare laugh, Harm,” he gritted out, turning and walking to the nearby chair.
I watched his every move as the smirk on my lips disappeared, not liking the fact he was now going to annoy the crap out of me. He sat on the chair opposite me, his head falling back against the top of the chair, his eyes shut.
Clearing my throat, I put my glass of wine beside me and stared at him, ready to answer his question about his sister and my best friend. “Sawyer took another shift at the club,” I said, making him open his eyes and stare at me. “She should be home in an hour.”
Noah said nothing, just stared at me.
Feeling slightly weird with the silence, I pulled my legs up and placed them on the couch. I grabbed the fleece blanket from the top of the couch and moved it over my legs.
“You should start wearing pants,” Noah blurted, making me tense at his words. “It’s too cold for shorts.”
My eyes darted to him, and I frowned. “That’s none of your business what I wear,” I gritted, knowing this was going to be it for me being around him tonight. “Why are you so drunk, anyway? And I thought you said you were staying at Isaac’s house this evening?”
“He hooked up with someone,” he muttered and closed his eyes again while leaning back against the chair. “I wasn’t going to be the third wheel.”
“I thought you liked that kind of thing,” I said but regretted it when Noah’s eyes flew open and met mine.
“Really?” he said, moving up and staring at me. “You think that low of me, Harm?”
I shrugged. It was what I’d heard over the years about the guy and his sexual encounters. Everyone who knew him knew his taste in women and who he would go for.
“I go with what I see,” I muttered, getting back at him since his gaze was unsettling. “You used to bring loads of different girls home every weekend when we were younger. So, what’s changed?”
Noah said nothing while his eyes bore back into mine, but he quickly recovered. “Why are you still here?” he grunted, getting slightly aggravated. “I thought you were going on a date with your boyfriend?”
I stilled at the mere mention of the word boyfriend. Sawyer hadn’t told him what the hell happened then.
Shaking my thoughts away, I played along. “He’s working,” I muttered, glancing at my Kindle. I needed to change the subject and walk away.
I moved my legs back down from the couch and took the fleece blanket off my legs. Getting off the couch, I kept my Kindle close to me and stared at Noah. “I’m going to bed,” I muttered suddenly. “Sawyer won’t be too long.”
There were no more words between Noah and me. I grabbed the glass of wine from the side and walked away from him, heading up to the room I was staying in.
As soon as I stepped inside the room, I closed the door, placing the glass of wine and Kindle on the dresser. I walked away from the door. The desire to be lost in a book was now long gone.
I sat on the bed and closed my eyes while I dropped back and tried to collect my thoughts. Noah bringing up my boyfriend, well, I mean, now my ex-boyfriend, was hard to swallow. I went out with Flynn for two years.
Two years I would never get back.
He was charming and everything I thought I was looking for, but it wasn’t. Everyone loved Flynn, someone who was there for you and even enjoyed coming to special occasions with you, but after six months, he changed.
He started to tell me who I should bother with and what to wear. I thought it was what boyfriends did, as he was my first proper boyfriend.
Things escalated when he would check my phone, either to see whom I was texting or whom I was talking to. I couldn’t speak to any boys or even be friends with them. If a boy looked at me or even paid attention, it would cause issues.
He would always look at my phone, wanting to see everything. I had to even cancel my social media since he hated if anyone was reaching out. I felt trapped within my own relationship and life.
Flynn also caused problems within my job and showed up, making a scene, which led to me getting fired since the CEO didn’t want any drama coming into the workplace, which was understandable. One thing about Flynn was that he was never violent with me. It was all words and actions that got to me.
Messaging men was a no, and skirts or anything short was against what he liked. Same with revealing tops. What I wore had to go through him.
The worst was he started to isolate me from everyone. The man knew how to cause shit between the people I loved, which also included my parents. He limited what I could do or even say.
If he didn’t like the way they were talking, he would pretend to me and state some facts to them. I sat by till it got out of hand, and that was when I knew I had to leave.
I never told Sawyer this, but the night I left him and cried to her about what had gone on between us was the night I looked through his phone when a message popped up from a name I knew all too well: Nikki.
She was someone from his past that he told me I never had to worry about, but the message she sent had me wanting to kill him for what he put me through.
There in the message was her in a lingerie set and a message underneath.
Nikki
Let me know when you have left the bore and come over here to fuck me like the other night.
That was it for me, but I knew I had to wait, and that’s what I did. I watched him like a hawk as he got out of the shower and went straight to his phone. That was when I saw the glint in the cheating ass’s eye.
He was happy. But when he looked at me, he told me he had to go, something about his job being on the line.
He typed something back and sent it. Then he threw it onto the bed while heading into the walk-in closet to dress. Knowing I didn’t have time, I quickly looked at the reply since the light on the phone was on and caught it before it went out.
His words made me sick with anger and hurt all at the same time.
Flynn
Don’t worry about the fat bitch, babe. I have her wrapped around my finger. Dinner on her tonight like always since I took money out.
Before I put the phone down, Nikki sent laughing emojis along with a sentence.
Nikki
Well at least she is good for something.
I threw the phone back on the bed when I heard Flynn move again, which meant he was coming back out, and I stepped away and hurried into the shower. Closing the door, I didn’t hear anything and let everything that I felt rush out of me like a tidal wave.
That was when I knew I had to get out of there. The man tore me down, even causing conflict with my parents, which meant they wouldn’t have been able to help me, but there was one person who stuck it out with me, and that was Sawyer, my best friend.
She saw through the bullshit and even tried to help me, but whenever she did try, it didn’t help the situation with Flynn. It became apparent I had to hide my relationship with her.
But for me and her, it was okay. I knew her number by heart, and that night I rang her to tell her what happened to me, leaving out the Nikki part and that he was cheating since I didn’t want any sympathy from her.
After an hour of telling her everything, I got off the phone with Sawyer, and it didn’t take me long to figure out what I was doing next, which was leaving Flynn that night.
While she drove to get me, I packed up all I could at the time, and I had been living with her ever since. My eyes opened as a lone tear escaped while I stared up at the ceiling, still processing everything. As I moved back up to sit upright, the only thing that came to mind was how quickly I had packed my stuff up.
That night I only took what I needed and left. Flynn never texted me that night, so he didn’t know what I had done, and I even went back to pack up my stuff before he got back home.
Sawyer and I worked all through the morning, boxing up my stuff, but she brought her beat-up car with her, which was too small for all the boxes, which meant I had to leave about four boxes behind.
And when Flynn found out I had moved out, he shouted and demanded I come back home. I never exposed his cheating to him or told him that I knew what he did.
The money thing had only started when we’d moved in together, and ever since the mental fuck that Flynn put me through, I had been on edge. I was supposed to see him today to get the rest of my things, but the asshole didn’t bother showing up.
Sawyer had been my rock through this and more. When I moved in with her, she told me Noah occasionally crashed at her place, which I soon realized was all the time since he had stayed here ever since I had been there.
Like the walking ticking time bomb he was, he didn’t know what had been going on with me, and I wanted to keep it that way. I let my body fall back onto the bed again and lay there, staring at the ceiling.
Sleep would come eventually, but I needed to clear my head from all the demons I had in there, mainly Flynn. I hated the man, and because of him, I was still trying to rebuild my life with my family and friends.
Isolation had made all of them distance themselves from me. I knew Flynn must have said some stuff to them, which would make it all look like it came from my mouth, but if they ever knew me all that well, they would have noticed the difference.
But I couldn’t dwell on the past now. I had to rebuild my life again, and Sawyer had mentioned I should tell my parents what happened, but I didn’t want people pitying me.
I was a grown-ass woman who could rebuild her life one day at a time. But first, I needed a job.
