Dawn McAvoy, Emery’s mom, hopped out of the boatlike classic and let the three guys into the back while directing Mama Bash, with her artful style and pretty gray-and-white hair to the front. The two ladies shared a passionate kiss, and then Dawn saluted me before peeling away.
She’d declined my invitation because she “preferred more intimate gatherings.” Guessintimatecould mean a few things, considering.
Woody ended the make-out session with Em. He caught my eye with a wry grimace and made the cut-it gesture at his throat. What Emery didn’t know… was probably best for everyone involved.
I wasn’t one for multiples, but my chest ached at the way the Bashes still had eyes for each other after so many years together. God, if I could only be so lucky…
I was so desperate for that kind of relationship that last week I’d sat with a ridiculously expensive matchmaker, flipping through notebooks as we talked about my goals, likes, and dislikes.
All the men she’d shown me were… fine. Handsome and appropriate for a man of my age and means. I’d chosen three candidates, as required by the contract. Still, not one of them sparked even a fraction of the excitement I’d experienced when I’d gotten a text notification from Rowdy as I’d left the matchmaker’s office.
Rowdy: Tell my cousin I’m running late for pasta night.
Rowdy: This guy won’t stop talking about his Pop collection.
Me: I thought you preferred it when they didn’t talk.
Rowdy: True. But he’s hung, so I’ll allow it.
A shout went uparound the group, taking me out of my thoughts.
“Rowdy!”
Oh, thank God.
I spun on my heel and the breath fled from my lungs like I’d been sucked into the vacuum of space. Rowdy Lockwood was one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. Unlike his cousin Woody’s sharper features, Rowdy’s dense dark eyebrows and trimmed beard were set off by his soulful eyes. They were an endless pool of warm dark chocolate, fringed with thick, inky black lashes.
That wasn’t what took my breath away, though. This evening’s hypoxia was due to Rowdy’s thick brown-black hair. He almost always wore it back in a messy man bun, but tonight it was down in loose waves that dusted his angular shoulders, tiny braids behind his ears.
I wanted to hug him from behind and bury my face in those untamed tresses.
I wanted to grip his hair at the base of his skull and drown him in kisses.
I wanted to bury myself inside his narrow ass and?—
One of the pretty twinks shoved a red plastic cup full of the powerful sangria into Rowdy’s hands and dragged him into the middle of the room.
“Rowdy-man! You’ve gotta catch up!”
Rowdy took one look at me and downed about half of his sangria. Laughing, he wiped the scarlet drink from his chin, smiling at the lot of us, glowing like he’d just been fucked by a god. That thought made tonight’s drinks slosh unpleasantly in my stomach.
From what I could tell, Rowdy spent his free time fucking every eligible gay man in the Austin metroplex. It was good to have a hobby, I supposed, even if I secretly hated that goddamned hobby.
At the big age of thirty-eight, I’d assumed I was too old for a crush, especially not on someone so much younger, but here we were. My gaze traveled from his gorgeous hair down to his full lips, then down to his typical Henley-over-Wranglers-and-boots style.
You’d feel so good against my body, Rowd.
Unbidden, I imagined us slow dancing in this very living room, just like the Bashes, absent the people. I rubbed my chest as I thought of his sweet grin paired with eyes set off by deep smile lines from years of happiness.
I’d sooner cage a wild bird than try to pin that man down. But God, how I wanted to make him mine.
Seriously, what the fuck was in this sangria?
The only thing I knew for sure was that his sweet smile made my heart speed up, just as it had the first time we met. I’d beenshooting the shit with Emery in his kitchen when Rowdy walked in and gave us the business. I’d fired back, calling him a sassy bottom, and his reply was everything.
“Sassy bottom, bossy bottom, bottom you couldn’t handle in your wildest fucking dreams.”
“We’ll see about that.”
