“Tanx,” Bax announced with a loud boom like he was in a stadium and not their kitchen.
“You’re welcome,” Tanner said deadpan. “Now what’s the name?”
“Ha!” Bax draped his arm around Tanner’s neck. “You are now Tanx.”
“No Tanx,” Tanner said, ducking from under Bax’s arm. That’s what they came up with? For real?
“Dude, Tanx, it is not your choice,” Knox added. “We were the triple-x, now you’re official. We’re the quad-x and… Mach.”
“Doesn’t have the same ring to it.” Bax pulled his lips to the side. “Ah, well. Live and learn.”
“Why?” Tanner asked. Why couldn’t they come up with something better than Tanx?
“We’re going to make T-shirts,” Courtney said, painting the air with her hands and pretend paintbrush. “Mugs and keychains. All kinds of swaggy stuff.”
“No, I get that.” He did. The other guys all had merch. Even Mach had some with his name. Tanner’s tees all had his face on them or a pair of drumsticks. “I mean, whyTanx?”
“Because we just thought of it.” Bax shrugged as he tilted the beer to his lips. “Four letters, ends with an X.”
“Your name has three letters,” Courtney pointed out.
Bax frowned. “Well, fuck. It’s still Tanx.”
“That’s fun,” Sam said, playing with the label on her beer bottle. “You all have fun nicknames. I love it.”
“I don’t get one.” Mach played being dejected. He didn’t mean it, though. When Mach really got upset, he went quiet, then he rolled around in that quiet for a good long time.
“Cause he was born with a kickass name,” Bax clarified. “No need to add to that.”
“Mach is a pretty kickass name,” Sam agreed. Then she glanced at Tanner. “Well, it is… Tanx.”
“Not sure this is my favorite,” Tanner said, at the same time his chest puffed up and he kept repeating that a few years ago he’d found his fam. They’d accepted him. They gave him a nickname. That was the shit.
With Sam here, too? And him finding his voice with her? Didn’t suck.
“We should do Sam,” Tanner suggested.
“Oh, let’s not,” Sam’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.
And those lips of hers… fuck him the way they made his mouth go dry and his brain go to automatic stupid. He couldn’t pull his gaze away. Not that he wanted to.
The rest of the room seemed to dissolve into the background until it was only the two of them there.
“I just remembered that I have a thing to do at a place tonight,” Mach announced. “You all are coming, too. Remember?”
“Yes,” Becca chimed in. “The thing at the place. Let’s go do that.”
They all evacuated like a swarm of rockers following their muse, leaving Tanner and Sam alone again.
“I like them,” Sam said, still playing with the beer bottle label but not really touching the brew. “They love you.”
“They’re pretty awesome,” he agreed, stepping forward into her space, moving his thumb to her cheek.
She nuzzled it, and the air crackled around them.
Her breaths quickened. His heart beat faster. There was only the two of them at that moment.
Moving into the air over her lips, he understood he had to tell her. She had to know he knew before they took this thing between them any farther.
