Page 22 of A Little Bit Uncertain

“Can I ask you a question?” I turned it on him to avoid the question. Many years ago, I’d perfected that skill. “You seem to have a soft spot for her. Why aren’t you making a play for her?”

“Honestly, I love her … like my third sister. She is everything I would want in a partner, but I just can’t see her in that way. And I assure you, she feels the same. I’m her third brother, which is why I’m giving you a talk now. The words trauma bond come to mind.” He chuckled, though it sounded more like a reluctant acceptance rather than humor. That raised my curiosity. What had happened to her? To both of them? If I pushed on that, I might break my ‘proceed carefully with Maeve’s friends’ rule, and didn’t want to be rude, so I dropped it. I’d find out in due time. “But she’s good people,” he continued. “A tender heart. Would give you the shirt off her back. All that stuff. She deserves the best.” He hiccuped. I still didn’t quite get a read on if he had a thing for her.

“Noted. I have no intention of anything questionable,” I stated.

“Let’s jump in the fucking lake,” Maverick blurted out, halting the Audra talk.

Tucker, Murphy, and Bennett shot their eyes to him and then exchanged looks with each other. “Maverick wants to jump into the lake?” Tucker repeated. “What the fuck happened to you tonight? Better yet, today? This is old Maverick behavior.”

“Let’s fucking go. Like when we were teenagers and we would sneak into that one old guy’s backyard. But now you guys have that kind of backyard. Did you ever think you would have Orchard Lake as your backyard?” Maverick slurred out. He was completely in control last night, so him buzzed was amusing to me. Though I’m sure my buzz was amusing to them, too.

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Bennett said, standing up and stripping down to his boxers. The others followed suit. My option was to hold my ground and be the only one who didn’t strip down to my skivvies, or suck it up and join them. I chose the latter. So at about midnight, five grown-ass men were doing drunk cannonballs off the pier into the lake. I’m shocked the cops weren’t called for a noise complaint. Or maybe they were, and the officers knew who was doing it and left us alone. Rules were different in a small town.

After copious laughter, judging splashes, and general chaos, we made our way back to the fire pit. Murphy ran inside to get us towels, and we sat out there by the fire for a little longer, trying to dry out our underwear. At that point, I decided it was smarter for me to pass out on a couch than attempt to make it home.

So, on my first official guys’ night here in Savannah Springs, I passed out on the couch like I was back in my teens, doing stupid things with my adventure group.

Even though I had been in this town for fourteen months, in the span of the last few, things were changing.

And though it was entirely unexpected, it felt damn good.