“Mind your business, boys,” I muttered, grabbing my towel and glaring at Jace.
Jace spread his hands like he was doing a PSA. “What? I’m just saying the world deserves to know the truth, Matthew. Transparency builds trust.”
“Transparency?” I snapped. “You’re the reason this happened!”
Parker blinked, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. “Wait—what?”
Garrett straightened, eyebrows climbing. “Oh no. This is gonna be good.”
I pointed at Jace. “He vanished on some secret-society bullshit, wouldn’t answer his phone, and I thought he was dead in a ditch somewhere. I was losing my mind. So, when Darla showed up at the door with some cookies?—”
Jace cut in, grinning. “The cookies were clever. I have to give it to Darla. Bring snacks, fix the app, collect nudes. Efficient.”
I ignored him. “I asked her to fix the app Jace installed on my phone so I could track his location in case he was in a basement somewhere, dying. Except apparently, she didn’t believe in free labor.”
“Icouldhave beendying in a basement,” Jace said with a grin. “With six dudes in cloaks. That would have been very culty. You’d have loved it.”
“You traded a thirst trap for tech support,” Parker smirked.
Garrett bent over, laughing. “That’s the most tragic barter I’ve ever heard.”
“She said she worked in IT!” I shouted. “How was I supposed to know theIstood forinappropriatelyand theTforthirsty?”
Jace put a hand to his heart and fluttered his eyelashes dramatically, obviously looking deranged while he did it. “And that’s how I know Matthew Adler loves me.”
“If you ever disappear again, I’m letting natural selection do its job,” I hissed.
Jace smirked, unbothered as ever. “Relax, Daddy Darwin.”
“That was actually a smart comeback, Thatcher,” said Garrett, lifting an eyebrow and looking impressed.
“Why do you sound so shocked, Harper?” Jace growled. I stifled a laugh because Jace was touchy sometimes.
“That was acompliment,” Garrett huffed. “I was saying it was borderline clever; what’s bad about that?” he continued, because clearly he wanted a barbell to be thrown at his pretty face.
Jace clutched his chest. “Borderline? Excuse me, Harper, I’m a fucking scholar. Words are my art form.”
Parker snorted. “Didn’t you once write an essay in your high school English class titled ‘Why I Shouldn’t Have to Write This Essay?’”
“Yeah,” Jace shot back, “and it still got a B-plus, so suck it, Hemingway.”
I couldn’t stop my laugh that time, and Jace whirled on me. “And you, you’d miss me too much if something happened, so let’s not pretend otherwise.”
I groaned, dragging a hand down my face. “Yeah, I’d miss you,” I said. “Every time I would walk past a dumpster, I’d think, ‘Didn’t that used to talk?’”
“You two need couples therapy,” commented Garrett.
Parker didn’t even look up from the weights. “They’d make the therapist cry in the first five minutes.”
“Yeah,” Jace said cheerfully, clapping me on the shoulder. “But at least we’d give the therapist something pretty to look at.Brighten their day and all that.”
I glared at him. “One more word.”
Jace’s grin turned…innocent. Which was always a bad sign. “Okay, one more. Perfect. Because I’ve got one.”
I groaned, already bracing myself. There was nothing quite as terrible as Jace’s jokes. And he seemed to not ever run out of them. “No. Absolutely not. That’s more than one word. Which is against the rules. Whatever’s about to come out of your mouth…keep it there.”
Jace’s grin only widened, eyes lighting up like he’d just been handed divine permission to ruin my life. “You don’t even know what I’m gonna say.”
