Betting on the Best Friend's Brother

Copyright © 2023 by Melanie Jacobson All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For Amy Lou Who asked for advice for her writer sister Contents 1. Chapter One 2. Chapter Two 3. Chapter Three 4. Chapter Four 5. Chapter Five 6. Chapter Six 7. Chapter Seven 8. Chapter Eight 9. Chapter Nine 10. Chapter Ten 11. Chapter Eleven 12. Chapter Twelve 13. Chapter Thirteen 14. Chapter Fourteen 15. Chapter Fifteen 16. Chapter Sixteen 17. Chapter Seventeen 18. Chapter Eighteen 19. Chapter Nineteen 20. Chapter Twenty 21. Chapter Twenty-One 22. Chapter Twenty-Two 23. Chapter Twenty-Three 24. Chapter Twenty-Four 25. Chapter Twenty-Five 26. Chapter Twenty-Six 27. Chapter Twenty-Seven 28. Chapter Twenty-Eight 29. Chapter Twenty-Nine 30. Chapter Thirty 31. LAB REPORT: Ava Kincade’s Dating Experiment 32. Chapter Thirty-One 33. Chapter Thirty-Two 34. Chapter Thirty-Three 35. Chapter Thirty-Four 36. Chapter Thirty-Five Epilogue Acknowledgements About the Author Chapter One Ava There’s this thing going around on T-shirts and memes rebranding bossiness as “leadership skills.” But honestly, sometimes people are just bossy, and my roommate, Ruby Ramos, is one of them. I glare at my phone as it vibrates with another text. She’s been at it for an hour. RUBY: Party starts at 5. When are you getting here? RUBY: Party is in thirty minutes. You on the way? As if I don’t know how to tell time. I know how to tell time very well, which is why I’m staying in my lab until the party is over. RUBY: Don’t make me come get you and drag you back here. AVA: You can’t. You’re hosting. RUBY: You are also supposed to be hosting! AVA: I chipped in food. RUBY: A vegetarian charcuterie board does not exempt you from saying goodbye to Sami!!!!!!!!!! AVA: I don’t want to live in a world without Sami in it. RUBY: So you’re pretending this isn’t happening? AVA: Duh. RUBY: She’ll only be on tour SIX WEEKS. AVA: WHY WOULD YOU HURT ME BY REMINDING ME. RUBY: You’re ridiculous. I’m sending Joey to get you. AVA: . . . AVA: . . . AVA: . . . AVA: It’s fine. I’ll be home in 20 minutes. Luckily, I was working on the MiSeq, so there’s no big cleanup like when I’m working in the wet lab. I record the last of my measurements and close the file, powering down my computer. Part of me always believes the answer I’m looking for will be in this round of data, this batch of slides, but it never is. Not in the eighteen months since I’ve had BioTekk’s permission to pursue this research on my own time. But it will. I’ll find it. Right now, though, I better find my car keys or Ruby will one hundred percent send her brother to fetch me. And the one thing I both crave and avoid at all costs is time with Joey. I get another text as I pull into my parking space at home. RUBY: I’m getting Joey. AVA: Unclench, girl. I just parked. Ruby sends a gif of a girl patting a kitten’s head. The condo complex, the Grove, is built in a square with all the front doors facing the inner courtyard with its pool and community grills. I can feel the bass of the music before I even open my car door, and when I open it, the buzz of voices and laughter joins the beat. The condos on our side of the Grove square have small backyards and low fences butting up against a sidewalk separating them from the parking lot. I can enter through our back sliding door and avoid the party out front for a few more minutes. I bought one of only four units that have four bedrooms in the complex. I knew I’d always be able to keep the rooms rented in the Austin market, and for the last two years, I’ve been lucky enough to fill the other three rooms with my best friends from college. Well, except I’ve known Ruby longer. We’ve been friends since I moved in next door to her when we were kids. That’s why she’s comfortable bossing me around more than she does Sami and Madi—although they get their fair share. Still, it all works. I love living with women I know well. It’ll be so strange when the dynamic changes, which it will. Sami has been dating our neighbor, Josh, for six months, and I have a feeling that her band’s first summer tour will end with both Josh and Sami realizing they want to be together all the time. As in married. I’ll be happy for them if that happens. I’ll just avoid thinking about a roommate change until I have to. I drop my work bag in my room and head for the closet to find something to change into. Something party appropriate. I glance down at my jeans and the T-shirt I got from a genetics conference last year. Normally, I dress more professionally for work, but since today is Saturday, I hadn’t bothered, knowing I’d be the only person onsite. This is casual enough for a pool party. No reason to change. I close my closet. As soon as I open the front door, conversations greet me at a full roar, the smell of chlorine and grilling food swamp my nose, and the Austin humidity blankets me. The bright flashes of bikinis would outdo Mrs. Lipsky’s parrot, except Ahab would never stand for that, so he’s making sure he’s holding his own by cursing at the top of his shrill lungs. Mrs. Lipsky, our neighbor, rescued him from a tiki bar in Galveston, where the patrons taught him to swear like a sailor. It always takes me a bit to adjust from the quiet of the lab to anywhere else, but . . . whew. My senses are already maxed, and I haven’t