“I’m looking what?” I prodded.

“Conveniently alone tonight.”

“Conveniently?”

“Yeah. Convenient for me. You’re usually surrounded whenever I spot you. What’s up with all these losers?” He motioned out to the room. “They haven’t closed ranks around you yet? Their loss.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He was good. Funny. Not just hot but in possession of an actual personality, too. I should have expected as much. He was Reece’s brother, after all. There had to be more to him than looks.

“So how about it, Emerson?” He draped a nicely muscled arm over my shoulder. Impossible not to notice that. The guy was ripped. An athlete through and through. I think Reece had said Logan had a bunch of college baseball scouts after him. “Are you going to finally give me the time of day?”

“Better watch out,” Pepper warned. “You’ll get eaten alive.”

“Hey.” Logan pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m hurt. I’m not that bad.”

“I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about Em. She’s a man-eater.”

“Thanks!” I swatted at her while jerking a thumb at Logan. “And what’s he?”

“Um, I’m going to go with not a man-eater,” Logan offered, nodding his head sagely.

“No. Just a man-hoe,” I retorted.

He pressed a hand over his heart. “Ouch.”

I propped one hand on my hip. “Am I seriously saying anything you don’t know?”

“I guess not, but does that mean you don’t want to make out?”

Pepper giggled, clearly enjoying herself too much. I mock-glared at her. “Need I remind you that last fall you wanted this guy to coach you on foreplay?”

“Emerson!” Her face turned bright red. “That was before I met Reece! And I thought Reece was Logan, too, remember?”

Logan was laughing now. “That story will never get old.”

Pepper crossed her arms and glared at him. “Yeah, your brother just loves it. Why don’t you tease him about that?”

“I’ll pass for tonight. Save that reminiscing for a special occasion like his birthday. Better yet, I’ll bring it up in the toast at your wedding some day.”

Pepper punched him in the arm.

I shook my head, grinning. He really was appealing in a carefree let’s-just-get-naked kind of way. Too bad he was Reece’s brother. He might be one-night-stand material, but he was off-limits. Even if he wasn’t Reece’s little brother, he was still in high school. That might not bother the majority of girls at Dartford, but I preferred my guys to be over eighteen.

The back of my neck suddenly prickled. The volume in the room took a sudden dip. The band played on, but the conversation seemed to have come to a stop. I looked around. Several people were turned, staring in the direction of the door.

The smile slipped off my face. Shaw was walking into the house.

Hot Biker Boy Shaw.

I blinked, trying to reconcile the sight of him here. I’d been doing my best to forget about him and last night. Hard to do when less than twenty-four hours later he was right in front of me.

He looked relaxed, a mild smile fixed to his face as he nodded and shook hands with several people.

What was he doing here?

Even though he carried himself confidently, with a wisp of a smile on his lips, something told me he didn’t want to be here. It was in his eyes. There was a certain guarded edge to the dark depths.

“Well, look at that,” Logan murmured.

I glanced up at him to see that he was staring at Shaw, too.

“Who’s that, Logan?” Pepper asked, following his gaze.

“That’s Shaw, Beth’s cousin. He graduated with Reece. Joined the Marines right out of high school with Beth’s brother, Adam.”

“Oh. Why do you look so surprised to see him here then?”

“Just kind of surprised he came here tonight.”

“Why?” I asked, trying not to act too interested. “Beth’s his cousin.”

“Yeah, Beth’s his cousin.” Logan looked unusually somber. Unusual for him anyway. The guy was all flirt. I hardly ever saw him serious like this. “But Adam didn’t make it back. He got killed over there, and ever since Shaw got back, he’s been laying kind of low.”

I sucked in a sharp breath and looked back across the room. Shaw had reached Beth by now. They stared at each other, neither one making a move, and the phrase Mexican standoff drifted to my mind. She didn’t grab and embrace him as she had done to Reece. Hell, as she had done to everyone tonight. The tension was palpable even watching from this far away.

“Does she blame him for her brother’s death?” I asked. That hardly seemed fair, and for some reason my protective instincts stirred, which was ridiculous. Her brother was dead. She was entitled to her feelings. And what did I know of the situation? Shaw Biker Boy was not mine to protect.

“I don’t really know. All I know is that hardly anyone has seen Shaw since he got back. I heard he’s living out on the lake and working at a garage across town.”

I could confirm that he was living on the lake. I didn’t know about him working at a garage, but he liked to hang out at biker bars. I wondered if that was new for him, too. I mean I doubted that he hung out in biker bars when he went to high school with Reece, but what did I know?

I watched Beth’s lips move, but still no hug was forthcoming. Shaw’s face looked tight, strained around his mouth. Beth’s fiancé said something then and pulled her away. Shaw was left standing there alone, but not for long. Several people came up and greeted him. Whatever the tension between him and Beth, it didn’t extend to others. I continued to watch him, not missing the tension that lined his shoulders even as he talked to people. This wasn’t easy for him. Being here. He didn’t want to be here, but he had come. Why?

Then Reece was at his side. The two shook hands, Reece even forced one of those guy half hugs on him, which Shaw awkwardly returned. They talked for a few minutes and then Reece was nodding toward Pepper. Toward us.

“Oh, look, they’re heading this way.”

My pulse spiked against my throat. My first impulse was to run. I hadn’t mentioned last night to Pepper. How was I going to explain how I’d met him?

His eyes landed on me as he and Reece made their way across the room. His expression gave nothing away, but his eyes widened ever so slightly.