Just Once (Book 1 in the Just Once Series)

Chapter Two

Jack’s POV:

Shit!

I’d nearly kissed her, right there in the kitchen. She’d walked into me and fell, I hadn’t thought twice about reaching out and grabbing her to me, to stop her from falling.

I could still feel her soft hand against my bare chest, her eyes, the way she had licked her lips softly without seeming to realise she’d done it. The way her breath had deepened and her...

Shit! I groaned softly as the blood rushed to my groin and I felt sick. I was sick, it was wrong. I shouldn’t be having these thoughts about a woman I should think of as my sister... yet I didn’t see her as my sister.

I tossed and turned for the rest of the night. I heard Brooklyn going back to bed, I heard my dad getting up for work at six, just as the sun came up and my step mum got up an hour later.

I got up and showered a few minutes after that.

Considering I hadn’t slept, I was wide awake, but I knew by tonight, I’d crash.

            I headed downstairs and entered the kitchen, a smile slipped onto my lips when I thought about Brook coming into the kitchen last night and even though I cursed myself, I couldn’t help but savour the memory.

My dad, Maria and Brook sat at the kitchen table talking.

“Jack, we were just talking about Brooklyn’s 18th,” my dad said now and I nodded as I grabbed a bowl and sat down at the table opposite Brook.

“Are you going out?” I asked her now and she looked up, her lips twitched slight before she shook her head.

“Of course she isn’t, were going to do something nice, as a family,” Maria said now with a smile.

Ah, that’s why her lips were twitching into a smile.

“We don’t want a repeat of last week,” my dad added and I shot him a grin.

I was a week older than Brook, for my 18th I’d sneaked out the house after tea and went to a party, came home at two in the morning pissed. Of course, Brook had known what I had been planning and she’d helped me with a distraction.

I wish I could have done something different now, but I’d had fun and it sure was a good, if not slightly blurred, night.

“I was thinking, we could all go for a nice meal,” Maria said now and Brook looked at me, she was going to laugh. I knew she was.

I tipped the milk and spilt it purposely on the table, “Shit!” I jumped up and she burst out laughing.

“Jack, language!” my dad shouted as he looked down at the tiny bit of spilt milk on the table.

“Jack?” Maria asked, looking at me as if I was confusing her.

“Sorry, wasn’t thinking,” I lied as I sat back down.

“So, what have you got for Brook?” I asked now and Brook looked up alert.

“It’s a surprise,” Maria said, shooting Brook a stern look, but she was smiling.

“A meal sounds good,” Brook said after she finished her breakfast. Maria smiled and my dad nodded proudly.

Brook wasn’t a goody two shoes, neither was I, but Brook was the type of person, who didn’t mind sacrificing her own happiness for the sake of someone else’s.

“Have a good day at college you two,” Maria called as we left the kitchen.

“A meal?” I asked with a grin and she smiled.