Lucky This Isn't Real: MacBride Brothers Series St. Patrick's Day Fake Fiance Romance by Jamie Knight (good books to read for beginners txt) 📗

we’re on the same page there. It’s awful, but I felt kind of good seeing that look on Kenny’s face. He can be such an asshole.”

“How long had he and your sister been shagging?” Gavin asked, making me giggle with his phrasing.

I never thought I’d be able to laugh at what happened, yet here I was, chuckling about the absurdity of it all, thanks to Gavin.

I sighed.

“I don’t know. But after facing reality, my best guess is that he’s been shagging my little sister behind my back since she turned eighteen. I guess less than a year.”

His eyes widened at that piece of news.

“Raquel is only eighteen?”

“I know. She looks older, right?”

“Aye, she does.”

“She was an early bloomer. And she’s never been short of male attention. Even after our parents divorced, I tried to protect her as much as I could. Keep her from doing anything too stupid. As far as I know, she never went all the way with any of her boyfriends, so that’s something, I guess. But maybe she was up to way more than she had let on. Perhaps she was just pretending to be good while really being very bad. It hit me hard when I came home to get my notebook and found Kenny pounding her in my bed.”

“Aye, I can see how that might be disconcerting,” Gavin agreed.

My lips twisted, and sadness filled my heart.

“I haven’t been the same since, honestly. I had to get a job as a personal assistant. I would much rather be following my passion of writing, which I was doing pretty well at, for a while, but it never really covered all the bills, and I haven’t been able to write the same since it happened.”

“I think I get that.”

“You do?”

“Sure, the money bit. I can’t say I get the boyfriend banging my baby sister bit. For starters, I only have brothers. Five of them, actually.”

“Oh, your poor mother!”

“I know, right? And it’s not like she had any help, what with our dad pretty much acting like a seventh child for her. I grew up with beans on toast being a Sunday feast, and acting isn’t always a lucrative gig. I’ve waited my fair share of tables and laid thousands of bricks on building sites. But, luckily, I invested what I earned and have a nest egg to dip into when jobs are scarce.”

“I can only imagine how hard it is to get a job as an actor in this town.”

He nodded in agreement.

“Getting blood from a stone would be easier. I was too tall or too Irish for most parts, except for the ones that called for a tall Irishman. What I like to think of as the Neeson niche. Though Liam and I are vastly different. But,” he said and grinned, “I finally got lucky and nailed a pretty big part on a T.V. show last week. I’ve already been paid more than I earned my first six months here. I’m on a contract. They think it’ll be as big as Friends. And it’s all thanks to you, actually.”

I placed a hand on my chest, feeling stunned.

“Me?”

“I got the call the day I met you. You’re brought me luck. So, thanks!”

“Ummm, wow, you’re welcome,” I responded, still a bit flabbergasted. “You should’ve told me on the way here. We could have celebrated more.”

“We can celebrate later. Alone.”

I giggled and felt my cheeks flush.

I had better hurry up and change the subject before I said something embarrassing. All I wanted to do was grab his hand and lead him out of here so that we could celebrate together alone now, but that would be a very stupid thing to do.

“What’s the show about?” I asked instead.

“A rag-tag group of friends struggling through life in Millennial America with an Urban Fantasy twist. The promotion calls it Girls meets Being Human. I play Finn O’Hanlon, the whacky, lovable Irish one who is also secretly a very tall leprechaun. I think they’re trying to subvert expectations, like having Arya kill the Night King in Game of Thrones. Hmmm.”

He paused to think.

“Maybe I should have flashed my moderate success more. Made Kenny really jealous.”

I waved that comment away.

“Honestly, I’ve forgotten all about Kenny. He’s really not worth my time,” I said and meant it, surprisingly. “He exploited me when I was too young to know better. To know what he was like, and now that he’s doing the same to Raquel… well, it makes me realize how bad of ap person he is, but it’s not like she’s blameless either.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Gavin pronounced, chuckling.

“As far as I’m concerned, they deserve each other.”

“Agreed!”

We milled about some more— he was too good of a dancer to pass up some more turns around the dancefloor— and I had another cocktail. Gavin didn’t, since he was driving. But it turned out I didn’t have to drag him out by the hand because he was clearly anxious to leave, too.

“Let’s get out of here, what do you say?” he asked me.

“I say that sounds like a great idea,” I agreed.

We left the party and Gavin drove us in happy silence back to my apartment. After parking on the street, he got out and came around to the passenger side of the car, opening my door to help me out.

He made me feel like a goddess. I wanted so much for him to kiss me again, and I also wanted him to do a heck of a lot more to me than just that, if I was honest with myself. But I knew I wasn’t hiding it from him so why not admit it to myself?

We walked up onto my building’s low cement steps, and he took both my hands in