“But you don’t.” He pockets his phone.
“Not at all.”
His eyes move to the camera I’m still holding because I’ve been using it to capture the party this evening. “You going to put that thing down for dinner at least?”
“What? You don’t think Oakley and Travis want candid shots of people eating?”
“I really don’t,” he says, playing along with the joke.
“I suppose I can put it down for a bit.” I notice Travis and Shelly are setting the table and put my camera down on the counter in the kitchen. But Jackson catches my eye, and I remember an encounter I saw a little bit ago between Asher and him.
“Hey, what’s up with Jackson and Asher?” I ask Walker but keep my voice down. I know Jackson brought a date tonight, but I’ve barely seen him with her—and that one moment with Asher seemed... intimate.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe I spend too much time looking through a camera lens, but I’ve learned to pick up on things that most people don’t see. And I swear I saw something there.
A spark.
“What do you mean?” Walker looks genuinely perplexed as he grabs an appetizer and pops it into his mouth.
“Is there something between them?”
That one sentence almost loses me a boyfriend because he immediately starts choking on the pig in a blanket he was chewing on. I have to slap him on the back and hand him a drink to help him out. His voice is still a little hoarse when he looks at me again, his eyes watery from choking. “Asher and Jackson?”
I shrug. “What? Would that be so weird?”
“Yes,” Walker says immediately, taking another swig of water. “Really fucking weird.”
“Um! I heard that, Uncle Walker!” Amber says, popping up out of nowhere, I swear. She wasn’t here a moment ago.
“Amber,” Shelly says, laughing. “Come help me with the silverware.”
“Sorry, kiddo,” Walker says.
“It’s okay, Uncle Walker!” she says before sprinting to the large dining room table to help her mother, and then Walker’s eyes are back on me, and his voice is quiet.
“Oakley’s Crew members don’t date each other. That would be a disaster.”
“Why’s that?” I ask, curious.
Because I suppose that makes a little sense. Walker and I couldn’t be more different, and Cane and Archie may be similar, but they don’t work together. I think they’d kill each other if they did.
“Because we’re all like brothers. And we’d kill each other.” I laugh because that’s what I’d kind of assumed.
“Oakley and Travis own the business, and they’re married,” I say triumphantly, like I won something.
“Yeah, and Travis can send Oakley out with any crew whenever he starts to annoy him.”
“Well, damn.” I grin. “You got me there.”
He tilts his head at me. “Why did you ask that anyway?” He glances to the side where Rebecca is standing, chatting away with Missy and Shelly. “He brought a date tonight.”
Rebecca seems like a really nice woman, and I don’t know Jackson all that well—though I’m starting to get to know the whole crew. They’re like a big family—one I didn’t even know I wanted. They’re pushy and loud. They care a whole hell of a lot, and they’re nosey as shit, but I wouldn’t change them one bit.
They’ve become my family too. And I don’t see even a quarter of the spark when Jackson is near Rebecca that I saw in the half second I caught with Asher and him.
“No reason. Just curious,” I say. “I’m starving.”
He looks suspicious but doesn’t call me on it and instead takes my hand, leading me to our spot at the table.
