Theo didn’t say anything, just watched me silently, and I got the feeling he was hoping I’d say more. If our positions were reversed, I’d probably be dying to know what was going through his mind, considering we were all so closely intertwined.
And maybe there’d be some jealousy there. Just a little.
I threw back more wine, and Theo topped the glass back up.
“I’m glad he’s happy,” I said carefully.
Theo snorted. “Are you really?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because he went two-for-one shopping at a university for his new boy toys.”
“I don’t think they’re just boy toys.”
“What are they, twenty-two? That doesn’t scream ‘lifelong partners’ to me.”
“Zach’s a bit older,” I said, and immediately wondered why the fuck I was trying to justify King’s choices even now. It was automatic, never wanting to make him look like the bad guy—and he wasn’t, really. Sure, he’d cracked my world in two, but I’d never wanted to be with someone who didn’t know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I was the one. Who didn’t wake up wanting to choose me every day.
King had done me a favor, really. It was just sometimes hard to see.
“Why do you do that?” Theo asked, reading my thoughts exactly.
“I don’t know.”
“He’s not here. You can talk whatever shit you want to about him.” He mimicked zipping his lips. “I’m a vault.”
“I know you are.” I sat up and flipped all the skewers to cook on the other side.
“Then talk to me. Tell me what a fucking asshole he is. I’d love to hear it.”
I started to say he wasn’t that at all, but then shook my head. “He just wasn’t the right guy. It happens.”
“Goddammit, Shep, do I have to pay you to say something bad about the man? Just do it. It’s therapeutic. Look, I’ll go first.” He straightened in his chair. “King downgraded big time when he lost you. East is a brat from hell, and I think it’s hilarious he probably spends more time reprimanding him than fucking him.”
I smirked despite myself. “Maybe that’s what he wanted.”
“A brat from hell?”
“Someone to reprimand. Maybe I was too?—”
“Good for him?Oui, there you go. That’s the spirit. What else?”
“That wasn’t what I was saying. It’s just, Ty—King—and I…” I trailed off, searching for the right way to describe the situation. “We’re too much alike. Both strong willed, driven, confident?—”
“Alphas.”
“Huh?”
“You’re both alphas. Both want to be top dog. Hello, the big boss and his second-in-command? What could possibly go wrong?” Theo pursed his lips. “We always wondered how that worked behind closed doors.”
My hand froze on the skewer I’d just picked up. “We?”
“Yeah, you know, the rest of us.”
I shook my head and went back to what I was doing, trying not to imagine the conversations over mine and King’s…intimate relationship.
“It worked fine.”
