Shrugging, Jason took a sip of his beer.
Mitch folded his arms stubbornly over his chest while he scowled at Jason. “I never thought this day would come,” Mitch said with a snort of disgust.
“Oh, and what day is that exactly?” Jason asked as he leaned his head back to catch some sun. Anything was better than watching a grown man pout.
“The day Jason Bradford became pussy-whipped,” Mitch announced, earning a chuckle from Brad.
Jason threw Brad a killing glare, but the man ignored him. So, he focused his attention on the little bastard who was obviously drunk or possibly high, probably both.
He snorted. “I’m not pussy-whipped,” he said, since he’d done everything but slide into that little piece of heaven, he didn’t think the term applied to him. The things they’d done together made him stifle back a groan. He loved what they did and at the same time, he absolutely hated it.
Having Haley, but not having her was difficult as hell. For any other woman, he would have simply shrugged at the “no actual sex” rule and walked away. But for Haley, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. She was the love of his life, his future, and the woman he planned on spending the rest of his life with.
So, for now, he’d grit his teeth and fight against the urge to jump her every time he saw her. His little grasshopper wanted to stick with foreplay, so that’s exactly what they were going to do. As long as she kept doing that unbelievably erotic thing with her tongue and teeth along the ridge of his-
“I’m surprised he’s not panting after her right now,” Mitch said, yanking Jason away from his thoughts of Haley, naked, bending over, and…
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as discreetly as possible.
“We don’t spend every minute of the day together,” Jason shot back.
Mitch shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“Well, I’m not with her right now, am I?” Jason snapped back.
“Probably because she didn’t want you with her,” Mitch said, snagging another beer. “She’s probably getting sick of you.”
Jason snorted. Then for good measure, he snorted again. His little grasshopper wasn’t getting sick of him. He was damn sure of that. She absolutely adored and loved him. He knew it, even if the stubborn woman hadn’t said it yet, but she would. Then, he’d tell her how much he loved her, but only after she told him because he really didn’t want to feel like an idiot for saying it first. He’d never told a woman that he loved her before and had absolutely no idea how to go about doing it now. So, the safe plan was to wait until Haley said it first.
No, the reason he was hanging out with the guys today wasn’t because she was getting sick of him. It was quite simple. He was banned from going yard sale hopping with her for one year. Not that he cared, he didn’t. It did seem a little unfair to him, that’s all. It’s not like he intentionally went out of his way to embarrass Haley. Those things just seemed to happen to everyone around him. Most accepted that little fact of life, but that hadn’t stopped Haley from banning him.
He may have told one, or six, people that the stuff they were trying to hawk on their front lawns was crap and all of a sudden, he’s banned. Well, that and the box of antique dishes that he broke might have had something to do with it. He didn’t know why the guy was pissed. He gave him the fifty bucks for the broken dishes. He should be the one that was mad after all, he was the one who was out fifty bucks for a set of broken dishes.
“I bet Haley’s off with another guy right now-Ow! What the hell?” Mitch whined as he rubbed the nasty-looking red spot on his forehead that would no doubt be a noticeable bump by morning.
Brad sighed as he picked up Jason’s half-empty can of beer when it rolled to a stop by his feet. He poured the rest of the beer onto the lawn as he shook his head in disbelief. “You knew better,” he told a sulking Mitch.
“I was just kidding!”
Brad shrugged.
“That’s fucked up!” Mitch snapped.
“Don’t talk about my little grasshopper,” Jason simply said. The man should be happy that all he did was throw his beer at him.
Mitch grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and pressed it against his forehead. “She’s not even that beautiful,” he muttered quietly to himself.
Jason was out of his chair and lunging for the little bastard before the last syllable left his mouth. Brad being Brad, dropped his beer and jumped between the two of them seconds before Jason would have slammed into him. All three men fell off the deck and hit the ground with Brad doing his best to stop Jason from killing Mitch.
“Get him off me!” Mitch screamed like a girl as he tried frantically to crawl away. With Brad on his back, trying his best to hold him back, Jason lunged and managed to grab Mitch’s leg and proceeded to drag the man closer so that he could beat the shit out of him.
“For fuck’s sake, take it back!” Brad yelled as he struggled to restrain Jason.
“Aaah!” Mitch screamed as he was dragged inch by inch towards a future in a body cast. He tried to dig his nails into the lawn to no avail.
“I didn’t mean it like that! She’s hot! Insanely beautiful! I just meant that you’ve dated really beautiful women before and you’ve never acted like this before! Oh, my God, don’t kill me!” The words rushed out of Mitch’s mouth, ending on a squeal as Jason dragged him beneath him, flipped him over, and raised his fist, ready to beat the crap out of one of his best friends.
Mitch held his hands up, palms out, trying to get Jason to stop. “I swear to God, I didn’t mean it! I love her!” At Jason’s growl, Mitch rushed to continue. “Not like that! I love her like a friend! I think she’s great! I swear I didn’t mean it!”
