“There’s the birthday boy,” Grant said, snickering. “You’ve been playing pool?”
If he had, they couldn’t see over there with the press of people.
“I went to check on Jana,” he said, then stepped aside to reveal Jana in another one of Rebel’s outfits.
“Look who I ran into,” Rebel announced, ducking around Diesel and pulling Kayce into view.
“What’s up,” Kayce greeted, heading to the only empty seat next to Devon, who sat next to Kaia.
Rebel didn’t stop him. She bounded to Kaia and hugged him. “How are you, Huahua?”
“Interesting nickname,” Ryan said.
Rebel smiled. “No one told you?”
“That you want to be called a dog?” Diesel asked.
“Can I have a sip of your beer,Huahua?” Rebel said sweetly, the emphasis on that stupid nickname designed to annoy the fuck out of Diesel.
“Oh, uh…” Kaia looked at CJ for guidance. “Maybe, I should ask Meggie?”
“I’m going in the kitchen in a few minutes. I’ll ask her,” Rebel said.
“Why don’t you go now?” Diesel said tightly.
“Happy birthday, brother,” Narci said, walking up with Torrin and Huck, and clapping Diesel on the back.
He ignored them as well as Jana to focus on Rebel. “I know you fucking heard me, Rebel.”
“Let’s go to the jukebox and pick out some songs,” Rebel told Kaia, nodding in that direction.
Suddenly, Jana stumbled into Huck. Luckily, his reflexes were quick and he steadied her.
“Diesel,” Heidi cooed, pretending she didn’t see Jana and squeezing as close to Diesel as possible. “Cricket and Kearney sent me over to get you, babe. We want to toast your birthday and play a round of pool.”
Jana looked out-of-place and mortified. Not only didn’t Heidi apologize for shoving her, she sneered at her. “Reb, watch over Jana for me,” Diesel said, and allowed Heidi to guide him away.
Jana wilted completely and bowed her head, a reaction CJ had never seen in his fucking life. Not after such blatant disrespect.
Torrin drained his beer and set the bottle on the table, staring at Jana like she was a fucking specimen in a lab. Narci whistled, which didn’t help at fucking all.
“You putting up with that shit, Jana?” Huck asked, adding his two fucking cents.
“No, she isn’t.” Rebel looked at Jana and nodded in the direction Diesel and Heidi went. “Go over there, Jana,” she ordered.
CJ agreed with his little sister. As a matter of fact,healmost followed Diesel and confronted him. But he no longer knew if his disapproval of how he treated women fed into his jealousy and made him dislike Diesel for another reason. Or if his jealousy had turned into dislike and made him overreact about other things.
“I can’t,” Jana said. “I’ll look too needy.”
Rebel stomped her foot. “As opposed to looking fucking pathetic? Can you find your fucking backbone or do you need me to buy you one?”
“C’mon, babe. That’s harsh,” Kaia chided.
“Harsh but true,” Rebel replied.
“Can I just go back to the treehouse?” Jana asked.
“That’s all you fucking do!”
