Better Than You (The Walker Family Series Book 3) by Lauren Gilley Page A

staircase and formal dining room to the right, sitting room with black marble fireplace to the left. It emptied into a galley kitchen done in black and white and red, a half wall giving her a glimpse into a surprisingly large living room full of black sofas and glass-and-chrome tables, a big picture window and a round dining table. Mike stopped at the fridge to fish out a Bud Light. The bottle was cold when he pressed it into her hands and it only made the nervous tremors running beneath her skin worse, but she took a swig hoping it might help.
    “Guys. ” Mike had a megaphone voice and he turned the volume of it all the way up as he stepped around the corner into the living room with a big hand hovering at the small of her back. “This is Delta.” Feeling like she should take a bow under the eyes that swept her way, she managed a tight smile. “Babe,” he called her and it didn’t sting too badly, “you know my shithead brother Jordan – ” he was sitting in what (horrifically) looked like a bean bag chair, “ – and that’s Tam – ” he pointed to the guy with the black hair who’d knocked over perfume with him, “- Lance, Mitch, and Ryan – ” who were lined up on the couch: beefy and bald; tall and awkward; square-jawed and smiling too wide.
    “You guys mind your damn manners,” Mike warned, and propelled her toward the couch where sullen and black-haired Tam was sitting. Delta let Mike tuck her in against the arm as he took the middle seat.
    And then she realized where she was: that horrible moment pre-relationship in which a guy let his friends give her the final seal of approval. She hated that moment.
    “So, Delta, huh?” Ryan asked across the glass coffee table. He had a face that belonged on a Calvin Klein billboard somewhere. “As in the airline?”
    It was going to be one of those evenings.
     
    **
     
    “Are you miserable?”
    Surprisingly, she wasn’t. She couldn’t understand why three of his friends were normal while his brother and Tam so obviously weren’t, and she wasn’t interested in the football game up on the big screen. But it was fun to watch the guys squirm when she gave an arch answer to one of their questions. And she kept listing to the side until she was resting against Mike’s big shoulder, and the beer was slowly relaxing her head to toe.
    “No,” she said as she lined up the pizza boxes along his kitchen counter. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had pizza and the smell was heavenly. And that was before she started lifting lids and checking for toppings.
    Mike stepped up beside her; he’d pegged the rest of them with the kind of alpha male look that had left her rolling her eyes, but secretly, she was grateful to have a few stolen moments alone in the kitchen. “One of these is supposed to be whole wheat crust and veggies,” he said, because he’d said nothing that wasn’t completely innocent all evening so far.
    “You didn’t order that just for me, did you?” she asked with a quick check from the corner of her eye.
    He was watching her and trying to look casual. “Nah. Lance counts calories worse than a chick.”
    She grinned and pulled a slice of pepperoni up onto her plate.
    “Okay, so, if you’re not miserable.” He took two slices. “Does that mean you’re not gonna sneak out early on me?”
    She licked a spot of grease off her thumb and gave him a carefully bland look. “I don’t have anywhere else to be.”
    He grinned. “Well don’t change your mind about that, ‘cause I’m gonna get rid of these guys in a little while.” And then it’s just the two of us , she read the unspoken. The thought sent a thrill up her spine.
    “Don’t give me a reason to,” she shot back, and damn if he didn’t look like he enjoyed the bickering as much as she did as he got a fresh beer from the fridge and went back to the living room.
    Delta shook her head, smiling inwardly, and snapped a paper towel off the roll by the sink to use as a