I shrugged and tucked my hands in my pockets. “A magician never reveals their secrets.”
Sawyer handed the tickets to Lukas, who looked at them and smiled. And then Sawyer stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me. With my hands trapped in my pockets, I couldn’t exactly return the hug which made it a little more awkward than it already was.
Not to be left out, Lara pressed forward, inserting herself between Sawyer and me, forcing him to pull away as we both laughed about it.
“You’re a silly dog,” I told her, taking my hand out of my pockets so I could give her the attention she craved. “I should get going, though. I just came by to give you those.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?”
“Maybe another time. I have a cat family at home to look after, and I’ve been out most of the day.”
“I’ll walk you out.” Lukas handed the tickets back to Sawyer, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and followed me to the front door. He stepped outside with me and pulled the door shut.
“That was nice of you, but he’s right. You didn’t have to do it.”
I shrugged. “Look, I know that, okay. But he was super great about the whole…” I made a vague gesture, unable or maybe just unwilling to articulate what I was talking about. As if Lukas needed an explanation anyway. He’d had a front row seat to my insanity. “I was twenty going on twelve that day. All things considered, he gave me a lot more grace than I deserved.”
“You’ve been through a lot. He knows that.”
“I have been through a lot. But you were there for me when no one else was, and I know I’ve apologized to you for how I acted, but sometimes I feel like it’s not enough.”
“Asher.” Lukas grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Listen to me. You are family. Family forgives. You don’t need to apologize anymore. Okay?”
I let out a shaky breath. Sometimes it was still hard to think about Leo or to talk about him, but I was getting better at it as time went on. “I understand why he wanted to keep me away from people in the industry, but I’m kind of mad that he kept me away from everyone. I think things might have been easier on me. If it wasn’t for you… you were the only thing that kept me from feeling alone.”
“You’re family, Asher. And not because of who Leo was. You’re family because of who you are and nothing will ever change that. Just maybe don’t kiss me again, okay?”
I rolled my eyes. “Jeez. Kiss a guy who thinks of you like a brother once and he never lets you live it down.”
Lukas ruffled my hair. The asshole. “What are big brothers for?” His voice was strangely thick with emotion, and I thought about teasing him about it, but instead I flung my arms around him and gave him a quick, tight hug.
When I let him go, we both cleared our throats and pretended that we were totally fine and not at all about to cry. Lukas stayed on the front step until I was gone. I knew because I kept looking back at him. It made me warm inside since that was something Leo would’ve done.
Once I was home, I heated up a couple mini pizzas while I had a shower and then I sprawled out on the couch and let the kittens climb all over me while I pretended to watch a movie. I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke to familiar voices whispering and the couch dipping with someone’s weight.
“He’s so cute,” Jax whispered. “We shouldn’t wake him.”
“But I want to tell him about our date,” Blue said.
At this point, I had to admit that they were shitty at being stealthy, and maybe that was the point.
“He’s so sleepy, though. Look at him.” Jax had moved closer and he was obviously somewhere near my head. “He’s so peaceful.”
“The only peace I care about is having a piece of that ass.” My voice croaked in an unsexy way as I reached for Blue. My eyes opened a crack, and I had to blink them into focus.
“Awww, we didn’t mean to wake you,” Jax said, looking not at all sorry.
“But now that you’re awake, did you want to hear about our date?” Blue leaned down and kissed me.
My eyes finally adjusted and I spotted the hickey on his neck.
“Now that I’m awake, you’d better tell me about it,” I grumped, lacking all seriousness.
“You heard him, Jax. He wants to hear about it.” Blue got up off the couch and before I knew what was happening, Jax bent down and scooped me up, blanket and all, and carried me bridal style to the bedroom.
We spent most of our time at my apartment because it was the biggest, and I didn’t hate having them here.
“Well, you see, first we had drinks.”
