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He laughed, totally at my expense, appraising me like he could read every thought in my mind. “Sure, brother. Don’t act like you’re not over there salivating. You should have seen what you looked like when I walked up. Vibrating like some kind of barely hinged beast. Half a second from getting up from that booth and stalking over to her to make a claim.”
“I wasn’t about to make a fucking claim.” I scoffed the dismissal.
“And what are we claiming?” Cody’s voice cut in, and my attention whipped up to find Cody and Caleb waltzing up to the booth.
Shit. This just got better and better.
“Nothing,” I sighed.
“Our boy here is sweet on the new server.” Ryder jutted his chin at me.
“I’m not sweet on the new server.” I sent him daggers. He’d been pushing me for a while that I needed to start living again. That it was time and I couldn’t spend my life alone.
But he didn’t get it. What I had done and what remained. This obligation that burned like a storm in the middle of me. A hurricane of retribution that couldn’t remain unfulfilled.
Ryder laughed. “Someone get a mirror so we can show Ezra the bald-faced lie that is written all over him and see if he can continue trying to deny what’s going down inside of him right about now.”
I stood from the booth so Caleb could slide in beside me. “Just drop it, yeah?” I grumbled.
Cody nudged Ryder’s shoulder, and Ryder slipped in farther so Cody could take the spot next to him.
“I think we need to see exactly what it is we’re dropping before we make that decision,” Cody pushed.
Cody was as big as me, wearing a baseball cap over his brown hair, wavy curls getting free at the sides. His beard was thick, and he was dressed in worn jeans and a ratted tee since he spent most of his time working out in the sun.
Just him mentioning checking out Savannah had a swell of possession riding high. Loved the guy like a brother, but he was the biggest player I knew. The last thing I wanted was him seeing anything when it came to her.
Except she was already on her way back, no hesitation in her step when she saw the rest of my crew had arrived. Caramel locks swished around her delicate shoulders as she approached, commanding the windstorm that raged around her.
It pressed at the walls and howled in my ears.
She smiled, pouty lips stretching to reveal a flash of white, straight teeth. “Hey there. Welcome to Time River Market & Café, everyone. I’m Savannah, and I’ll be taking care of you today. I heard this table is extra special.”
A knowing gleam lit in her eyes, and I wondered just how easily she could fit into this place. Like she might become a permanent fixture.
Cody tossed one of his cocky smirks up her way. “Ah, I see Dakota has already told you who we are, though I know we’re hard to miss.”
His smile was slow and evaluating, far too interested as he let his gaze wander over her, head to toe.
Irritation buzzed in my chest. I shifted uncomfortably in the seat, and I had to keep from kicking him from under the table.
“I might have heard a story or two,” she said in her throaty voice, like she was already in possession of every sordid detail. She pointed at him with the end of the pen she had poised over her notepad. “You must be the brother, Cody.”
Cody grinned and tipped the brim of his cap. “That’s right, darlin’, and it’s more than a pleasure to meet you.”
A chuckle got free of Savannah, but it was knowing and filled with incredulity. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, too. What can I get you to drink today, Cody?”
“I’ll have one of my sister’s famous strawberry iced teas.”
“Make that two,” Ryder piped in, though he glanced between me, Cody, and Savannah, clearly concerned that I might come over the table to choke Cody out.
“And you’re Ryder,” she surmised, her smile slow.
He smirked as he sat back in the booth. “The one and only.”
“According to Dakota, that seems to be the truth.”
Cody groaned. “I don’t need to hear about this one’s escapades with my sister, thank you very much.”
Ryder laughed. “If you only knew.”
“Gross, man. Gross.”
“What Dakota and I have is beautiful. Nothing gross about it.” Ryder drew it out, rubbing it in.
I quelled a chuckle because Ryder loved throwing his relationship with Cody’s sister in his face. Dude deserved it with the way he’d gone all protective big brother when he found out about Ryder and Dakota being together.
He was blind if he hadn’t seen they were meant to be. The two of them had been coming for a long, long time.
Like Ryder said—what they had was beautiful, the dude so far gone over Dakota it wasn’t funny, even though that wasn’t close to what Ryder was insinuating right then.
