It's Definitely Not You: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romantic Comedy

by Abby Brooks

  I put a hand to his cheek and he nuzzled into my touch, his gaze meeting mine with an intensity that set my heart reeling. “I see it, Joe. I see it and I feel it and I love you, too.”

  His hands were in my hair before I knew what was happening. His lips crushed mine. The box clattered to the step, forgotten. All the meaning of his past had been downloaded into me. He wouldn’t have to carry it alone anymore.

  Behind us, Nan and Delores broke into cheers and applause. Joe and I both jumped, then relaxed into laughter. “It’s bad enough that you do it,” he said to Delores, “but I’m not ready for you to start sneaking up on us, too,” he finished with a shake of his head to Nan.

  He turned his attention to me. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”

  I wobbled my head like I was weighing my options. “Probably.”

  “Probably? I go to all this trouble and walk around in a get up like this and all you give me is a probably?”

  “Would you have believed me if I gave in without a fight?”

  He cupped my cheeks. “Not for a minute.”

  I laughed.

  Then I kissed him again because it had been too long without his lips on mine.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Joe

  Flames crackled and snapped in the fire pit, sending a shower of sparks up to the star-speckled sky. Kennedy perched on a lawn chair, a bottle of beer in her hand, her eyes trained on mine. “You sure you want to do this?”

  I took a long swig from my beer, staring at the box at my feet. “I’ve let my past drag me down for too long. It’s time to focus on the future.”

  “And what do you see in your future, Mr. Channing?” Kennedy asked in a gameshow announcer voice, holding her beer to my lips like a microphone.

  “That’s a good question, Doctor Monroe.” Sitting back, I stretched out my legs and crossed them at the ankles. “First, I see a successful contracting business.”

  The paperwork had been filed and I was just waiting on a letter from the state saying Channing Construction, LLC was an honest to goodness legal entity.

  “I like it.” Kennedy bobbed her head. “Though that one’s a given. After what you did for Nan’s house, you’ll have a waiting list of clients in no time. What else do you see? Really dig deep.”

  A breeze rustled through the palms, sending the fronds swaying and another spray of sparks dancing. “I see a new truck, since everyone hates the old one.”

  She pulled her mouth into a frown. “Interesting. I mean, I’m digging the symbolism, but I’ll admit I didn’t see that coming.”

  “I’m full of surprises, Penny.”

  “I’ll stop you when you’re wrong.” She smiled brightly, the fire reflecting in her eyes. “Anything else?”

  I saw a house, built by my own two hands. I saw a ring on her finger. I saw my baby in her belly and a gaggle of kids around a dinner table. I saw her never having to work for money-hungry medical offices again, focusing solely on volunteering at the clinic. I saw us, old, gray, and as crazy as Delores, sitting on our porch and gossiping about the neighbors. I saw me, with my lucky Penny, for the rest of our lives.

  It was too soon to say any of that, though.

  Especially because I got the feeling she expected it.

  Instead, I pinched my chin and studied the sky like I was looking for answers. “No. I think that’s about it.”

  “Well, it’s a start, anyway.” Kennedy sounded vaguely disappointed, but threw back the rest of her beer and smiled.

  Sighing, I shifted, lifting the box off the ground and chucking the lid into the fire. “No. That’s a start.”

  “And a good one, at that.” Her voice was quiet. Almost reverent.

  One by one, the pictures of my childhood went into the flames. Each rotten memory curled at the edges, blackening and boiling until it was nothing but ash, floating like confused snowflakes up to the sky. As they burned, I talked. I told stories I’d never told anyone. My childish hopes and fears. I explained the bruises and my insane need to protect Collin.

  “I think,” I said, my gaze locked on the fire, “I thought if I could make him safe, when he had so much less going for him than I did, then I’d be safe, too. That if I could give him the love and acceptance I needed, then some of it would splash back on me.” I shrugged. “Kids are weird.”

  “But it did splash back on you, Wiki. You and Collin have something not a lot of people have. As far as I can tell, he’s been there for you just as much as you’ve been there for him.” Kennedy grinned. “I mean, you stole me right out of his arms and he didn’t even flinch. He was the only guy for me for years.”

  “And now?”

  “Don’t even pretend to ask that question. You know how I feel about you.”

  Talking about my past had left me raw. Empty. But lighter, too. “I know I like the way you look at me.”

  She grinned. “And why is that.”

  “Because it says you love me.”

  With a saucy smile, Kennedy put down her bottle, then stood and lowered herself into my lap. “What else does it say?”

  I studied her face as the flames flickered and snapped beside us. “I don’t know. Are you hungry?”

  “I’m starving,” she said as she rolled her hips into mine, “but I’m not talking about food.”

  My dick flexed against her center and I grinned. “Yeah. Neither was I.”

  Later that week, Kennedy, Maxine, Delores, and I donned floral shirts and flipflops, and piled into my brand-new truck.

  “It’s about time you ditched the rust bucket,” Delores said from the back.

  “Hey. That rust bucket served me well, so I appreciate you speaking kindly of her please and thank you. But, it was time to put my past behind me. Time for fresh starts. Time to start thinking of the future.” I waved my hand in front of me, as if following a rainbow to its pot of gold.

  Kennedy rolled her eyes. “It’s time to get a move on or you’ll be late to your own not-so-surprise party.”

  The drive disappeared in a flurry of laughter, conversation, and Collin West songs belted at the top of voices. At a stop light, a man stared, laughing as the women around me bopped and sang. I smiled, shrugged as if to say, “What can you do?” then the light turned green and we drove away.

  The parking lot at The Pact was overflowing. The entirety of Lucas’ family waited inside, along with Harlow, Collin, and his old bodyguards—the Brutes in Suits. Although tonight, they were the Brutes in Floral Shirts, just like the rest of us. Strings of lights swooped from the ceiling, with giant flower leis cranking the tacky factor to eleven. Fruity drinks with paper umbrellas lifted into the air as I walked in.

  “Surprise!” The cheer was chased by laughter as the crowd enveloped me with hugs and congratulations.

  Collin thumped me on the back. “Happy birthday, brother. You know I love you, right?”

  The question caught me off guard. It wasn’t something he and I said all that often. “You’re just saying that because it’s my birthday and you feel bad that you made me think you’d stolen my girlfriend.”

  “Whatever, funny guy. Just don’t want you to forget it.”

  He shook his head as Harlow wrapped me in a warm hug. “And I love you, too,” she whispered, before stepping back, slipping a lei around my neck, then shooting me the bird.

  Lucas came into view, his gaze incredulous as it raked over my outfit. “I just can’t believe how quickly you’re growing up. First, you leave the nest. Now, you’re expressing yourself with color.” The fucker pretended to be choked with emotion as he gestured toward my shirt. “I’m just so proud.”

  I grinned. “You only wish you were as cool as me.”

  “All joking aside. I need you to know I’m really glad we’re friends. I count you as an honorary brother.”

  “What? Don’t you have enough of those already?”

  He shrugged. “You can never have a big enough family when it’s filled with people like this.” He dropped a hand on
my shoulder and peered around the bar. “Now where’s my wife? We have fruity drinks with umbrellas to deal with, and Cat gets saucy when she’s tipsy.”

  There was cake and ice cream. Presents and balloons. Singing, dancing, laughing, and drinking. Watching Kennedy joke with the guests, knowing she’d done all this to make up for what I missed when I was a kid…

  I loved her more with each passing hour. Catching me staring, she finished off a conversation with Lucas and his brothers, then wiggle-stepped her way across the bar, dancing in time to an old Liam McGuire album Collin picked out.

  “Hey, good looking,” she purred, leaning against the wall next to me. “Can’t help but notice you’ve been staring. It’s only fair I warn you that my boyfriend is very protective. He catches you gawking and something crazy might happen.”

  “He sounds like a pretty stellar guy.”

  “He has his quirks, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”

  I pulled her into my arms. “The feeling is mutual, Penny.”

  “You see all these people?” she indicated the group gathered to celebrate one more year of my life. “They’re here for you.”

  “Actually, they’re here because you asked them, so if you really think about it, they’re here for you.”

  She slapped me on the arm. “Why do you always have to fight me on everything? If they didn’t want to celebrate you, they would have told me to stuff it and stayed home. You have so many people who care about you.”

  Try as I might, I couldn’t deny that Kennedy had a point. The bar was filled with people wearing floral shirts and leis, toasting me with fruity drinks. The sense of love and community was thick. I was a part of this tribe. They didn’t want me to be anything but who I was. They knew the best and worst of me, and loved me anyway.

  I drew Kennedy into my arms. “You know the only thing I could think that night with Dr. Stalker at the Drunken Goat was how beautiful you were. How much I wanted to kiss you. How much I wanted you to know what you meant to me and that I would do everything in my power to protect you. Even make an ass out of myself.”

  “You did a good job of that.”

  “It’s kind of my specialty,” I replied, then silenced her with a kiss.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Joe

  Explaining what I was about to do would be difficult if Kennedy caught me before I was ready, but that only added to the excitement of the day. Sunlight glinted off the koi pond in Maxine’s backyard while my guests chattered quietly. Sweat gathered at my temples and I swiped it away.

  Living in paradise used to feel like torture. I complained about squinting through endless days of perfect weather like being grumpy made me a badass. I was as wrong about that as I was about me being an asshole.

  I didn’t need to complain to be a badass. That just came naturally. And, I wasn’t as much of an asshole as I thought.

  At least that was what people kept trying to tell me.

  A year ago, I’d searched for purpose. I thought I’d find it by building my career. That the thump of the hammer, the smell of fresh cut wood, and the sight of a job done well would teach me who I was. I’d found purpose all right, but not where I expected. Sure, standing in front of a finished project gave me blips of happiness, but connecting with the people who mattered was the real payoff. Kennedy and Maxine. Collin and Harlow. Lucas and the rest of the Huttons. They were my tribe.

  Finally, after years of thinking I was better alone, I had a group of people to depend on. They wanted me. They needed me. They accepted me. It was a feeling I wouldn’t trade for all the money in the world and the kicker of it was, some of them had been there all along. If I’d just opened my eyes sooner…well…best not to finish that thought. I opened my eyes when I needed to and that was what mattered.

  Channing Construction was a success. A year into owning my business and I only took the jobs that spoke to my heart, ones that left me excited to start each day. Between the money I’d earned touring with Collin and the money I brought in with each project, Kennedy hadn’t needed to find another job. All her time went into volunteering at the clinic. She came home late every evening, fulfilled and happy.

  There was only one more thing that needed to happen. If my calculations were correct, then we were just a few minutes away from ticking that item off the list.

  My boots—still black, of course, I’d changed, not turned into someone else—thumped over steppingstones as I creeped through the backyard to peek around the front of the house.

  Kennedy sat in her car in the driveway, phone pressed to her ear. She rolled down the windows as heat shimmered in waves around her. Her hair was pulled up off her neck, twisting and coiling as it cascaded in a long tail. Her full lips, painted a dark red, pulled into a giant smile as she rolled her eyes and leaned her head on her hand. I’d begged her mother to distract her and it seemed she was doing a fantastic job.

  Nerves jangling, I hurried back to where our friends and family had gathered, dutifully parking their cars a few blocks away and walking to the house while Kennedy finished up at the clinic. Collin sat ready with his guitar, flashing me an enthusiastic thumbs up as I caught his eye. Maxine beamed, pleased as punch with the state of things. Lucas sat with his wife and brothers. Kennedy’s mom paced in the very back of the yard, as far from her daughter as she could be, a giant grin on her face as she chattered into her phone.

  One thing had become clear over the last week as I put this shindig together. One of us was better at surprises than the other. If Kennedy had an inkling of what I had planned today, then I’d eat my boots. And I still loved my boots, even if I did trade them in for flipflops from time to time.

  “Everything looks beautiful.”

  I jumped and whirled. “Holy shit, Delores. How the hell do you keep doing that?”

  My favorite neighbor had donned her treasured powder blue velour tracksuit for the evening. She looked positively ecstatic as her eyes crinkled into a smile. “Your situational awareness is terrible. You should really work on that. Especially if you want to pull off this surprise.” With a swish of tortured velour and the faintest pinch on my rear end, she ambled away to join the rest of the guests.

  Life had a way, didn’t it? If I traveled back in time and told me from six months ago I’d be scurrying around Maxine’s house, trying to keep Penny Dreadful occupied so I could surprise her with a proposal, I’d have laughed in my face and shot myself the bird.

  I’d stumbled on the woman of my dreams in the most unlikely place.

  Before I got to know her, she challenged me to the point that I couldn’t stand being around her.

  But once I understood her heart and mind?

  There was no stopping the chemistry between us from igniting.

  It went up in flames, razing all I thought was true about life to the ground. From the ashes of my past rose a future so magnificent, it felt like trying to stare at the sunrise.

  A squeal from Kennedy’s mom and an excited gasp from someone in the crowd caught my attention. Whispers of “She’s coming!” spread like wildfire. I looked up just in time to find the woman who owned my heart staring in shock, her hands on her hips, surprise in her eyes.

  “I thought I saw you sneaking around the corner.” She lifted her chin as her eyes raked over the people gathered, one eyebrow arching as her mother waved hello with her phone in her hand. “What are you doing and why are you all here?”

  The look on Kennedy’s face and the excitement in her voice told me she’d already guessed what was on my mind. I could jump right into explaining, but where was the fun in that? Especially when she looked so sure she knew exactly what I was about to say?

  And so, I did what I did best. I went on the attack. “The more important questions is, what are you doing and why are you here?”

  “Me?” she asked with a hand to her heart and a twinkle in her eye. “I’m known to have a killer right hook, so maybe you shouldn’t mess around trying to surprise me.” That gorgeous m
outh pulled into a smile, begging me to come closer.

  Unable to resist, I started her way. “I’m not doing anything wrong here.”

  With fire in her eyes, she welcomed my every step. “You’re almost as bad a liar as I am.”

  “Spoken like someone who doesn’t know just how bad a liar she really is,” I said with a laugh. Behind me, Maxine chuckled, with affirmative “mmm-hmms” coming from both Delores and her mom.

  Kennedy’s lips parted, the corners lifting in a grin as her gaze hit mine. The glint in her eyes said she loved me, over and over, again and again.

  As I came to a stop in front of her, Collin strummed the first chords of her favorite song. I took her hands as he hummed the melody.

  “The first time I saw you, you were sitting in your car, talking to someone on your phone. I noticed your hair. Your lips. Your eyes. You didn’t see me, but the moment felt significant. A few minutes later, you threatened to pepper spray me, so I figured that sense was a warning to stay away.”

  Chuckles came from the peanut gallery, but all I saw was Kennedy.

  “And a few minutes after that,” she said, “you flipped me the bird and walked away.”

  “I was a fool to think walking away from you was possible. Every time I tried, I found myself right back where I am now. Standing in front of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Desperate for more. For everything.” I trailed off, shaking my head as I fell into her eyes. “When we first met, I thought I’d found a worthy adversary. Turns out, I found the missing piece to the puzzle of happiness instead. These people behind me, they’d done everything they could to make me feel loved, but it wasn’t until you thawed my heart that I could see just how rich I really was. And, as you can tell by my rambling, awkward words, I’m really nervous right now because I want to ask you to marry me.” I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out a ring that had been given to me the week before.