Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

AUSTIN

I never intended to get sloshed at my baby sister’s wedding, but here I was, more than a reasonable amount of beers in, and there she was, the bridesmaid of my dreams. Beauty like that didn’t come along too often. She stood out from the other wedding guests, a glimmering beacon of temptation. Either that, or the beer goggles were working their magic.

Her dark hair spilled all the way down her back with little flowers braided into the strands. Her skin was porcelain, her smiling lips were full, and her hips were begging for my hands as she swayed gently from side to side. As the song changed to something more upbeat, she started jumping up and down with the other girls.

I liked the jumping a lot.

Shrieks of laughter came out of them and I smiled, genuinely enjoying the sheer, free joy of it all. Between that and the beer, I felt like I’d walked into some mystical wonderland where there was only magic and happiness in the air, and it was intoxicating in a way all of its own.

But mostly it was the stunning bridesmaid. That woman had cast a spell on me, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.

One of the nonmagical bridesmaids dragged me onto the dance floor, insisting that the best man had a responsibility to be out there with them. I landed right next to my dream girl, and every time she came closer, I caught a whiff of sweet vanilla. A soft groan escaped me, but luckily, the music drowned it out and saved me from utter embarrassment.

I didn’t even know her name, but she was like the damn sun, blinding me to all the other women in the room and making me feel hot just by being so close to her.

As she spun around once the jumping ended, she caught me staring at her and smiled, her eyebrows quirking up. I seized my chance and offered her my hand.

As soon as she placed her palm in mine, I pulled her to me, hyper aware of her soft body and her ridiculously amazing scent. I slid an arm around her waist and started moving her slowly around the dance floor. Her feet moved with mine as if she were walking on air, and the heat of her against me threatened to do things to my body that couldn’t happen in the middle of Jess’s wedding.

My sister would never let me live it down if I started walking around here with a tent in my pants.

As we neared the edge of the dance floor, I spun my dance partner once, then leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I need another drink. Can I interest you in something?”

She laughed, pulling away to look into my eyes. Hers were a twinkling blue, and they had humor and a hint of playfulness in them as she batted her long black eyelashes at me. “I’m interested in you finishing this dance with me.”

The alcohol I’d consumed had chipped away at my self-control, and I wanted to show her my moves until the sun came up. But over the girl’s shoulder, I suddenly saw Slate, my brand-new brother-in-law, smirking at me. The look cut through the haze of lust in my head, and I took a deep steadying breath.

“The groom is beckoning,” I murmured. “I’ll ignore him if you want me to.”

She laughed and it was like I could feel that sound in my soul. I gave my head a quick shake. It must be the beer.

A girl had never caught my eye like this before, and I’d definitely never felt their laughter like a warm blanket hugging my insides—a sentiment I intended to keep to myself for all eternity.

“Well, if it’s the groom, then I suppose you have no choice.” She released me and smiled one last time before she went to rejoin the other bridesmaids.

Feeling like a part of my soul had just walked away, I trudged dutifully over to Slate and his best friend, Logan Jones. They were standing at the bar, both looking at me with weirdly smug expressions on their faces.

As I reached them, I glanced at the girl on the dance floor again. “I’ve met the girl of my dreams.”

Slate smirked at me. “Oh yeah?”

I nodded, watching her speak to Taggert, an old friend of my sister’s, and wondered why I felt jealous of the guy. Taggert was seeing Sophie, my sister’s best friend. As far as I knew, he was head over heels for her, and Jess had told me she suspected he’d been in love with her for a long time.

Yet as I watched him with the girl—whose name I really needed to learn—I felt an irrational stab of jealousy in my gut. Taggert wasn’t the type to make moves on another girl while he was with someone, and apart from that, I had no reason to be jealous even if he was.

It wasn’t like she was my girlfriend—or anything other than the seductress who had caught my attention for the night. So stop staring, then.

When I finally managed to tear my gaze away from them, Logan was frowning at me. “Does it count as meeting her if you grew up with her? Isn’t she from here? I thought I heard someone say she used to live in Firefly Grove.”

“Yeah, I heard the same thing.” I scoffed down a laugh, shaking my head as I tried to fathom how I’d forgotten someone like her. “I don’t remember her at all. Or maybe vaguely. I’m not sure, but after tonight, I’ll never forget her. That’s for sure.”

“I bet you won’t,” Logan mumbled, but Slate elbowed him, the two of them exchanging a glance almost as weird as their smug, we know something you don’t know expressions.

I didn’t ask, though. They had both recently fallen in love and settled down, so I had no doubt they thought that if I hooked up with her tonight, it would lead to something more. But I wasn’t them. As stunning as she was, settling down wasn’t for me.

“How’s the new place working out?” Slate asked, changing the topic a lot less smoothly than he clearly thought he had.

After he and Jess had gotten serious, he’d decided to move here, to my family farm in Firefly Grove, to be with her. The original plan had been to sell his house back in New York City, but in the end, he’d offered it to me to live in instead.

An offer I’d gladly taken him up on. The place was insane, and while I could afford to buy a house of my own these days, I just didn’t see the use in doing it when his house would simply be standing there empty.

Old habits died hard and one of my family’s oldest habits was to be frugal with money. For a long, long time we hadn’t had nearly enough of it, and even though that had changed drastically after Jess had discovered oil on our property, none of us were inclined to be irresponsible with it now.

As an investment banker in Manhattan, I’d been doing more than well for myself for a few years now, but my parents had refused to accept any help from me and I’d never gotten out of the habit of being careful financially myself. Besides, Slate’s house really was nice. I couldn’t have asked for a better place, and in return, he knew he had a tenant in there that was actually taking care of the house rather than trashing it.

I grinned at him. “It’s a hell of a lot nicer than my old place, and I have my eyes on a girl who would look spectacular in your swimming pool.”

He clapped me on the back. “Don’t say I never did anything for you.” His grin shifted to one tinged with malice. “But don’t fuck in my pool. It’s my slice of paradise and I don’t need you tainting it with your shenanigans. You’re my brother now. Let’s have sound boundaries, yeah?”

“Boundaries,” I mused, winking at Logan before switching the subject. “It sure will be a little slice of paradise if she decides to come visit me there.” I waggled my eyebrows at them before I shot another look at her.

“Good luck with that.” Logan smirked as he sipped his beer. “Let us know how it goes. We’re family now, right? You should come see us when we’re all back in the city.”

I nodded slowly, chuckling under my breath as I gave Logan a questioning look. “Family, huh? Imagine that. Logan Jones is legitimately part of my family now. I’ll look you up, man. Thanks for the offer.”

It had been a few months, but I was still reeling from everything that had happened since Jess had hit oil that day while drilling for water. As soon as she’d realized what it was, she’d called up an old friend of hers, Mira Spieres, who worked in the oil industry.

Mira, however, had just had a baby, so she’d sent her brother, Slate, to come out here and guide my family through the process that had to follow the discovery. It had turned out that Slate and my sister had hooked up at Logan and Mira’s wedding, and it hadn’t taken them long to fall in love once Slate had arrived at our farm, Merrick Meadows.

In the meantime, Slate and Mira had also orchestrated the sale of the oil from our land, and my family’s entire lives had changed—mine included. It had been a whirlwind that still broke my brain when I thought about it, but never more so than when realizing that infamous billionaire businessman Logan Jones was now part of my extended family.

I did a half-turn to get a better view of the bridesmaid, who, despite everything else, was still front and center in my mind. I didn’t know what kind of look I had on my face, but Slate laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

She was back to dancing with her friends—and completely captivating me in the process. Watching her body move from side to side stilled my racing mind, allowing me to breathe like she was the calm in this particular storm.

How fucking weird is that?

“You’re dying to get back to her, aren’t you?” Slate asked, still laughing. He took me by the biceps and turned me all the way around. “We’re not offended. Just go.”

“Girl of my dreams, guys,” I repeated before I nodded my goodbyes and headed back to the dance floor, once again feeling like I was being drawn to her by some preternatural force.

As I approached her, she glanced over her shoulder, saw me walking toward her, and smiled. Her beautiful heart-shaped face lit up as she waited for me to join them. My heart stuttered in my chest.

Maybe it was just the miles of twinkle lights we’d strung up in the barn for the wedding, but I could’ve sworn she had a soft glow about her. Like an angel with all those flowers in her hair and the sparkle in her eyes.

Shit. I really shouldn’t have had all that beer.

Women didn’t usually affect me this way—or at all, really. I loved them and they loved me, but I wasn’t used to feeling like this. It should’ve given me pause and made me walk away, but it didn’t.

Instead, my feet kept taking me to her. When I reached their circle, my eyes locked on hers and I held my hand out to her. “May I have this dance?”

She placed her hand gently in mine. “Are you sure you want to do this? I’m not going to take it easy on you this time and I won’t let you leave again.”

I laughed. “I love a challenge.”

Closing my fingers around hers, I gave her a twirl and dipped her, looking deep into her eyes as a slow, romantic song started playing. I let her down so low that the ends of her hair brushed the dance floor. When I lifted her back up, she giggled and wrapped an arm around my neck.

“What did the groom want?” she murmured against my ear, the touch of her fingers at the nape of my neck electrifying.

I shrugged and tried to ignore the tingle of electricity that shot through me. Then I brought her closer, almost groaning again when her soft curves molded to me. “Nothing too interesting.”

The only thing that interested me right then was her. I honestly couldn’t put my finger on why, but I also didn’t try too hard. Ultimately, I was only in town for my sister’s wedding. Whatever spell I was under tonight would break in the morning and life would go back to normal.

Just for tonight, I would lean into whatever this was without question, and by tomorrow, it would only be a happy, slightly strange memory of the girl from the night my sister had gotten married.