Nix was offended when Evan chuckled before burying his fingers in Nix’s hair. He felt a little better at his Daddy’s betrayal when Evan started to scratch at his scalp. God, Nix loved Evan’s hands.
“It was my first thought upon meeting him,” Evan commented.
Okay, now Nix was a little annoyed. Just a little though because while scratching, Evan had started to tug on his strands as well. A gentle reminder that he was still in charge. Besides, that wasn’t entirely fair! He was awesome. Everyone should have a friend like him.
“You wanted to tie him up when you first met him?” Aries asked. He was playing with his new hockey action figures on the coffee table as they all relaxed before dinner. Aries and Nix were on the thick fur rug while Vin, Evan, and Gem all lounged on the furniture in the small sitting area.
The room was decorated like Christmas had thrown up. Maybe Nix had gone overboard there, but it was so awesome. His mom was going to love it, which was why Nix had gone all-out.
It was intimate and warm with the fire blazing just a few feet away.
“He likes to play a game that he calls ring around a goalie during practice to try to distract me,” Evan said.
Aries’s eyes grew wide. “That sounds awesome!”
“It’s fun,” Nix said.
“And doesn’t work,” Evan mentioned.
“That’s not the point,” Nix argued. It kept him close to Evan during practice, which was Nix’s favorite place to be. It had started as a way to try to distract Evan, but now Nix did it just because he could. Even when Evan was decked out in his full gear, Evan would catch Nix’s eye. Nix was addicted to having all of Evan’s attention. Although he wasn’t going to share that. Nope, sometimes it was best to keep his own secrets. “It’s fun.”
“I wonder if Zany would think it’s fun,” Aries said.
Nix cackled. “You should find out.”
“Or,” Vin drawled. “You could take practice seriously. Maybe then you and your brothers could beat the two old guys.”
Aries scowled, said something too low for Nix to hear, and went back to playing with his hockey figures.
And that was when he noticed Vin’s figure off to the side away from the other players in the middle of the table. Leaningforward, Nix tapped the top of plastic Vin’s head. “Why’s your Daddy over here by himself?”
Aries pressed his lips together before he answered. “He’s in time-out.”
“You put your Daddy in the sin bin?” Nix asked with delight. His little brother really was taking the earlier loss hard. Vin and Evan had won by one goal, but they had won.
“He’s naughty,” Aries claimed.
Vin sat forward in the chair from behind Aries to peer over his shoulder.
Nix expected Aries to get some kind of reaction from Vin, to possibly get a little bit in trouble, but the vampire shrugged and smirked. “I do spend a lot of time in there.”
“’Cuz you’re a big meanie who knocks people down,” Aries stated with a pout.
“You shouldn’t have been showing off. Again,” Vin replied. He settled back in the chair again. “You keep showing off and I’ll keep knocking you down.”
This was amazing! No one ever called Aries on his cockiness. The coaches from their college team had fallen all over themselves with delight and greed at signing the hottest upcoming hockey player and his brothers.
Nix wasn’t jealous. Well, not much, but even he could see for himself that Aries just had something special inside him. Not that Nix would ever admit that out loud. To anyone. Ever. No, Nix was going to be giving Aries shit for the rest of their lives. He was an amazing brother like that.
He returned his attention to Gem and Evan as they began to discuss some common friends they had. Gem had always been the social one out of the triplets. Nix made friends with everyone that he came across while Aries was a little too shy and mostly became friends with those that were drawn into his orbit. Neither Nix or Aries collected people though. Gem did.
It had been that way their entire lives.
Gem made connections. He still spoke to the kids that they had grown up with. Everywhere Gem went, he always came home with a number and Gem followed up with actually calling people.
Admittedly, Nix was terrible at keeping in touch with people. He just didn’t have the attention span when there was so much happening in his life.
Leaning forward, Nix set his mug on the coffee table. After their hockey game, he and Evan had showered together. After they dressed, Evan had held up the cord of rope and Nix hadn’t even hesitated.
