Joss has a face that was made for laughing. Maybe even a soul. He tips his head back, hair falling out of its knot and down his spine. It’s still wet from the shower, so it doesn’t catch the rays so much, but somehow I see every shade of gold.
Tanner nudges me. Speaks.
I don’t hear him. “What?” Fuck. How many times have I uttered that word in the last twenty-four hours? “Sorry.”
Tanner spears me with a stare. “Everything okay?”
“Yup.”
“Sure? You were totally zoned out then. I’ve never seen you do that in daylight.”
I don’t want to think about what he’s seen. Tanner’s a stoic guy, but I remember his haunted eyes when he told me how low he sank before his brother scraped him up. His patience when I’d been so fuckin’ sure it wouldn’t happen to me. “I’m good, bro. Just getting used to the vibe, you know?”
At that, he snorts into a laugh. “That won’t happen. Get ready for conversations that mean the opposite of what you think they do and to be made fun of every day for the entire time he’s here. British dudes are savage.”
Noted. Joss has been nothing but kind to me, but no one laughs at Tanner more than Jax does. Except maybe his brother.
Thinking about Gabriel Reid pushes my thoughts to the week-old message I’ve left unread. My own half-brother is busy enough that he won’t notice for a while, but Rowan will come for me eventually, and I’m not in the mood.
I’m never in the mood.
Joss and Jax finally separate. Jax has red eyes, but Joss’s are clear and bright. He tilts his head at me, not speaking, but I hear the unspoken question.You good?
I nod. “Got pipes to get to. You folks have a good day.”
Pushing off the banister, I jump the last few steps and land beside Joss. I sidle past him. Our shoulders bump, and he gives me a slow smile I return before booking my ass out of there.
The bar door swings shut behind me. Alone, I take a breath. But I’m not alone. Molly is there, sitting in front of a pile of wine boxes and pouting at her phone. “Someone pee on your oatmeal, sweetheart?”
She huffs out a sigh. “I had the worst sex of my life last night.”
My lips curl in a cringe. I’m red-blooded enough to appreciate Molly is all that, but at this point, we have serious sibling energy. I don’t want to hear about her sex life. I wouldn’t tell her about mine.
You don’t have one. Last time you banged a girl there was snow on the ground and you were so stuck in your head you couldn’t come.
Nice.
My path to the kitchen takes me past Molly. I make myself stop and commiserate through gritted teeth. “Dustpan guy was a shitty lay, huh?”
“Dustpanguy?”
Yeah, I said that out loud. “Mols, he was boring as shit.”
She sighs. “I guess I was hoping that meant he was a freak between the sheets. Is it too much to ask to have oneorgasmin my whole life?”
The bar door opens as she finishes her sentence. Jax is gone, but Joss and Tanner are right there.
Tanner winces as if he’s just seen his grandmother’s panties.
Joss grins and comes closer, offering Molly a consoling shoulder pat that lets me know they’ve already met. “Bad dick?”
“How can you tell?”
He shrugs. “If it was the bloke you were with last night, he seemed like more of an emotional comfort fish than a good fuck.”
My eyes bug out. And my chest expands with the kind of laugh I barely remember. One that has Tanner looking my way with a smile that makes him forget his new employee is talking to his most beloved bartender about a crappy one-night stand he doesn’t want to hear about. It should annoy me that I can’t laugh without it being weird for my friends, but it doesn’t.
It’s hard to annoy me.
