Erin McCarthy - Fuzzy Logic

"Yeah, well, I've lost my appetite now."

She laughed. The shoe was on the other foot now. "I guess we're even then. Hope was at my Pleasure Party last night and trust me, I heard way more than I ever wanted to know about your sex life."

"Hope was here?" Interest crept into Jason's voice. "What did she buy?"

"I can't tell you. That would be violating my customer confidentiality."

"Oh, come on! She's my girlfriend. You're my sister."

Since Jason still had his eyes closed, Ashley leaned over the side of the bed, hoping there might be a stray T-shirt lying around. Unfortunately, she forgot she was connected to Lucas. She yanked his arm a foot before she realized it.

Lucas groaned. "Ash, you just ripped my shoulder out of the socket."

Ashley winced and fell back against her pillow. "Sorry."

Jason's hand fell off his face. "Lucas?" His eyes popped open. Then bugged out. "What the hell am I looking at?"

Lucas lifted his head and shot a bleary glance at Jason. "Oh, hey, Jason."

Ashley twitched the sheet over Lucas's butt and prayed a shark would swallow her whole. This was so embarrassing.

"Umm, well, Lucas and I…" Had hot monkey sex.

"Well, no shit!" Jason said in exasperation. "What I want to know is why my best friend and my big sister are getting it on with each other?"

"That's a stupid question, man." Lucas yawned. "Give me ten minutes to shower and I'll meet you downstairs."

"Lucas, honey?" Ashley cleared her throat. "Aren't you forgetting something?" She lifted her hand up, and by default his.

"You handcuffed my sister?" Jason set his coffee down on her dresser, his face going from red to an alarming shade of plum purple. "That's it, I am so going to kick your ass."

"No!" Ashley squeaked, ready to fling herself over Lucas if need be.

But Lucas just snorted. "Relax, Jason, we were just goofing around. Can you go look through Ashley's Pleasure Party stuff and find the key? It's probably in the box the handcuffs came in."

"Oh my God. I'm going to be sick." Jason backed out of the room. "You're a dead man, Manning. Here you are, my best friend, and I trusted you to look after my sister for all these years, and this is how you repay me? I'm going to kick your ass the minute the cuffs come off."

"We're getting married," Ashley said.

Her words were smothered under a blanket of testosterone.

"You couldn't kick my ass with the cuffs still on." Lucas rolled onto his back and eyeballed her brother. "And I have looked out for Ashley. More than you have."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Jason's hands curled into fists.

Ashley rolled her eyes. This brotherly concern was touching and all, but they both seemed to be missing the point. "We're getting married."

No one heard her.

"It means that all these years Ashley's been thinking she's the family dumb blonde and you let her think that. You talk down to her and that's not cool."

Oh, that was throwing a big old glob of chicken fat on the fire.

"I don't think of Ashley as a dumb blonde. Do I, Ash?" Jason looked absolutely affronted.

Since he'd been telling blonde jokes just about since he'd started speaking at eight months old, she wasn't sure why he looked so startled. "Well, actually, Jason, you average about three blonde digs a week. You introduce me as your beautiful, but not very bright sister, and at one point suggested I would make a hell of a shampoo girl."

He frowned. "I said that?"

"Yeah." It was burned into her memory. Lucas's hand caressed her back, giving silent comfort.

"Well, that's because you're my sister, I care about you. It's my way of ribbing you, like a brother should. Like when I give you a hard time about shopping. It's because I'm really proud of you. I mean, you're gorgeous, and you always look like you stepped out of a magazine. What guy wouldn't want a sister so classy? But I couldn't let you get an ego about it."

"No chance of that." But her hurt feelings started to ebb, as she realized something for the first time. Jason looked confused, the poor guy. Maybe he wasn't so smart after all. At least she understood people, which was obviously more than she could say for him.

"Look, I'm sorry if any of that stuff bothered you. I didn't mean to hurt you, Ash."

She could see that, and it was a huge relief. It wasn't Jason's fault they had never talked about this before. He couldn't have known it bothered her if she never said anything. And she had always loved her brother, known he cared about her. "I believe you, Jason. It's okay."

"You were always so popular, so good with people. I never had any of that. My only friends were Lucas and the guys in the chess club." Jason grinned. "They all thought you were so hot. When we were in eighth grade and you were a junior, they all paid me five bucks to walk through your bedroom and touch your cheerleading uniform."

All the fuzzy warm feelings she'd been having evaporated. "What? Jason Andrews! That's horrible." She threw her pillow at him and turned to glare at Lucas.

He held up his hand. "Don't look at me. I didn't pay five bucks to touch your pom-poms."

"Nah. I let him do it for free."

"You didn't!" Ashley gaped at Lucas, who looked painfully guilty.

"I didn't actually touch anything, I just sort of walked around your room." He scratched the whiskers sprinkling across his chin and shot Jason a dirty look.

"Oh, my God. You're both twisted." Ashley shifted on the bed, a little stunned that she had been the object of Lucas's teenage fantasies. "Now, Jason, can you get out so I can get dressed? And please go find the key."

"Sure." Jason snorted and started to turn.

"We're getting married, Jason," Lucas said, his words arresting her brother.

How come no one heard her when she had said that?

Jason turned back around, looking horror-stricken. "Very funny." He gave a forced chuckle. "You had me for a second there."

"I'm serious."

They locked eyes. Stared each other down. Jason's gaze shifted to her. "Is he shitting me?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm in love with Lucas." Geez, it was so exciting to say that out loud. It felt so right, so real. Like it had always been there, and she hadn't known it. Ashley's cheeks grew hot, even as Lucas squeezed her hand, kissed the top of her head.

"Oh. Oh. Well." Jason shuffled his feet. "Marriage, huh?" Then his face split into a grin. He crossed the room and punched Lucas in the arm, gave him a half hug, with thumps on the back. "Dude, we'll be brothers for real! That's so cool."

Put out at being neglected, she said, "Hello… big sister here, planning a wedding, going to wear white… where's my hug?"

Jason spared her a glance. "You're naked, Ash. I'm not hugging you. And you might want to rethink the wearing white thing. Not very believable since you handcuffed yourself to a guy."

Idiot. "Lucas is naked too," she pointed out.

Jason jumped back. She grinned in satisfaction.

Lucas laughed at the mischievous look on Ashley's face. She knew how to rile up her brother.

For that matter, she knew how to rile him up too, but in a different way altogether.

Knowing he was grinning like the village idiot, Lucas wrapped his arm around Ashley and pulled her to him for a kiss. Her mouth was swollen, soft, her morning taste earthy, her curls tousled, her cheek still bearing the imprint of her pillow.

He was going to get to wake to this sight every single day for the rest of his life. He couldn't imagine how he'd gotten so damn lucky.

"If I find the handcuff key will you still go golfing with me?" Jason called from the living room, his lingering presence extremely unwanted.

Lucas did have to admit it was cool to think that Jason was going to be family now, officially. And he wouldn't have to worry about liking his wife's relatives. He already knew them all, and thought of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews like a second set of parents.