Better than the Real Thing by Brooke Crawford

Author:Brooke Crawford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Pty Ltd
Published: 2025-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

MO

The next morning, Mo woke to the same cloud of confusion he’d gone to bed with. Netta. Netta. Netta. Was she all he could think about these days? He rolled over, buried his head under the pillow and let out a low groan of frustration.

Yesterday. What the fuck had that been all about? He’d thought they’d had such a good time at Bianchi’s—it had felt like a date— but she’d been so distant after the rehearsal. And then, oh God, that mortifying attempt to hug her as he left the hotel room. She hadn’t even remotely hugged him back. She’d just stood there, motionless, like she was trying to wish herself out of her own body. Maybe he’d read it all wrong and she just straight up wasn’t interested—she was just in it for the money.

He kicked back the blankets and sat, stretching his arms above his head and then out to the sides, squeezing his shoulder blades together. He’d been so close, last night, to telling her about what had happened with his mum. Netta had this way about her that swung a sledgehammer at his walls without her even having to try.

He threw on a windcheater and shuffled to the kitchen. Mav sat at the bench, halfway through a coffee.

‘Morning,’ Mo mumbled.

Mav gave him an up-and-down appraisal. ‘You look like shit.’

‘Thanks, mate.’

‘Where were you last night?’ Mav curled his left hand into a tunnel and poked his right index finger in and out of the hole.

Mo laughed. ‘Don’t be juvenile. I wasn’t with anyone. Not like that, anyway.’

Mav raised his eyebrows inquisitively, reluctantly putting an end to the hand sex.

‘I was with Netta yesterday,’ said Mo. ‘She—we—thought it’d be a good idea for us to get to know each other a bit before the gala.’

‘What’s she like? I mean, apart from being the imposter who took my ticket?’

Mo waited till the coffee grinder had finished its carry on before he answered. ‘She’s … different.’

‘Like …’ Mav tapped his forehead.

‘No! I mean she’s not the type of woman I usually meet.’

A grin spread across Mav’s face. ‘You mean she’s not into you?’

Mo pressed the button and watched as the coffee dripped into his cup. There was no way to answer that question without sounding like a self-absorbed dickhead.

Mav laughed. ‘Well, I can see how that could be confusing for you, mate.’

‘It’s not just that. She just seems, I don’t know, different,’ he said again. ‘I feel weird around her. I have to keep stopping myself from telling her everything I’ve ever thought.’

‘Oh my God.’ Mav stared at his brother. ‘You’re into her!’ ‘No.’

‘Yes.’

‘Nope.’

‘We’ll see.’ Mav’s grin was so broad it almost swallowed his face. ‘What’s her deal, anyway? I’ve been replaced by this mystery woman and I don’t even know how you met.’

Mo hesitated. As far as Mav was concerned, the diary didn’t exist, so the truth was off the cards. ‘She’s a friend of a friend of Rhona’s,’ he lied. ‘She’s Australian. She’ll be heading back to Melbourne not long after Christmas, I think.

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