“I second that,” Bri says, already pushing up. “Also, I need something cold to drink.”
Blade’s up instantly. “You sit. I’ll get it.”
“I can walk, caveman.”
“No,” he says, already moving. “You grew my kid all day. I got this.”
Bri puts her hands on her hips and glares at him. “Logan Jameson. If you don’t back down and let me into that kitchen, I won’t touch your dick for a week.”
The room freezes for half a beat. Switch winces. “Oh shit. She used your government name.” Everyone loses it. Laughter breaks out from every corner of the room.
Blade just smirks, slow and unapologetic, but he does step aside. “You know damn well you couldn’t stay away from my dick for a week, sweetheart.”
Bri’s mouth twitches like she’s fighting a smile. “Keep talking and you’ll find out.”
Blade lifts his hands in surrender. “Yes, ma’am.”
She breezes past him into the kitchen like she just won a small but deeply satisfying war. Bella and Ansley follow after her, their voices dropping just enough that I know damn well they’re about to have a whole conversation about us and definitely about Brooke.
Bri leans against the counter. “I just hope she’s having fun. She deserves that.”
“She does,” Bella says. “And I’m proud of her for actually saying yes to a date for once.”
Ansley grabs a cupcake. “Still wild that Brooke Calloway finally let a man shoot his shot.”
Bri snorts. “He must’ve been cute.”
“Apparently very cute,” Bella says. “She texted the group chat like she found a unicorn in a suit.”
I pretend not to hear a damn word, but I hear all of it.
Switch nudges Blade with his foot. “Smoke?”
Blade’s already on his feet. “Yeah.”
Switch looks at me. “You coming, or you gonna keep pretending you ain’t wound tight?”
I stand. “I ain’t wound up.”
“Sure, brother.”
We head out back, cool night air hitting after all that heat and noise. Switch lights up first, passes the lighter to Blade, then to me. I don’t smoke much, but tonight feels like one of those nights where it makes sense.
Switch pulls a small bottle from his pocket. “Stole this from the cabinet. Bella’s gonna raise hell.”
Blade unscrews the cap. “She’ll live.”
He pours into three mismatched shot glasses he somehow already had out here, hands one to me, one to Switch, and keeps one for himself. “We ain’t getting drunk,” Switch says. “Just taking the edge off.”
Blade snorts. “Speak for yourself.”
We knock them back.
“To game night not ending in bloodshed,” Switch says.
“To that,” I grunt.
The burn hits my throat and settles low in my chest, loosening the tight coil just a hair.
