Caleb Hart
Mateo Rossi
Jax Reed
"The song's everywhere," Jax said, pulling out his phone with the kind of pride usually reserved for people showing off ultrasound pictures. He was practically vibrating with satisfaction. "Already climbing the charts. And look—"
He turned the screen toward her.
A screenshot. The Cupcake Song, already titled, already hashtagged, already everywhere. And right there in the tags, circled in red like Jax was a teacher grading a particularly satisfying exam:@ChadWhatever??
"Tagged accordingly," Jax said, grinning.
April almost laughed. Almost. Because "accordingly" was doing a lot of work in that sentence, and the clown emoji was somehow both juvenile and devastating.
And now Jax was handing her more ammunition, more ways to hurt Chad, more ways to make this bigger.
April's hand came down gently on Jax's phone, pushing it back toward him.
"That's enough," she said quietly.
Jax blinked. "What?"
"The plan was to ruin his Tuesday." April looked around the booth. "With Jiro's song, we've already done more than that. It's enough."
Silence.
Jax stared at her. His face recalibrated.
"But thank you for the name tags," April added, her tone warming slightly, squeezing his wrist once. "Stop plotting and sit with us."
Jax tilted his head, then leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her shoulder.
"Noted. War crimes suspended. Just vibes."
Then he pocketed his phone and slid into the booth without argument.
Across from her Caleb was watching. His eyes tracked how Jax stopped immediately, without protest, when April told him to.
Killian picked up his name tag first, pinning it on without ceremony.
Arthur followed.
Then Liam.
Mateo.
Jax, naturally, had already been wearing his before anyone asked when he'd put it on.
Mateo leaned back, still grinning from the way April had shut down Jax's tagging campaign with the efficiency of someone closing a browser tab. "You know what that reminds me of?" He gestured with his drink. "Food critic once sent back a dish three times. Three times. So the third time, I sent it back with a note that said, 'This is perfect. You're the problem.'"
"What did he do?" Liam asked.
Mateo's grin went absolutely feral. "Gave me four stars."
Liam laughed. Not the polite society version. The real one. The kind that suggested feelings under all that old-money frost.
Mateo turned toward April and tapped his glass against hers. "You shut Jax down better than I ever handled a food critic." He kissed her cheek and went back to sipping like nothing had happened.
