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“Let me guess,” my best friend, Evan, said. “You need a whole evening just to wash your vagina.”
I winced and shook my head. Luckily, Ryker knew by now how an offensive, unfiltered asshole Evan could be. We’d been friends since before we were teens.
Ryker flashed Evan the bird. “Sounds like you want to help with the job. Come around seven, will you? Don’t bring a scrub brush. As long as you’re there, your tongue will do.”
“Jesus, you two still act like a bunch of kids.” I followed Ryker out of the living room, but he headed for the front door, and I made my way to Evan’s kitchen. I grabbed a bottle of beer and searched for a bottle opener.
“Just use your teeth, princess,” Evan said.
“I lost a crown doing that shit. Not again. Do you know how expensive dental work is?”
Evan took the bottle from me, lined the cap up under the edge of the counter, and smacked it down with enough force to get the cap to come off. He’d hit it too hard, though, and half the contents of the bottle spilled onto the floor.
“There you go.” He handed me the bottle. I raised my eyebrows. “Shut up. You’ve already had one anyway.”
“It’s light beer.”
He rolled off some paper towels and mopped up the mess. “That’s because they’re Ashlee’s.”
For years he’d chased Ashlee around town but had given up when she got married and moved away. But now she’d returned, divorced with a child that looked suspiciously like Evan, and he was back to pursuing her.
“Ah, she made it past the door this time, then?”
“You know it.” He tossed the paper towel into the trash can and scowled. “But everything’s probably shot to hell now.”
“What d’ya mean?” I leaned back against the counter, crossed my ankles, and took a swig of the beer.
“She won’t answer my calls.”
“What did you do? Not that nonsense talk you do around Ryker and me?”
“Nah, I just goof around with you goons. With Ashlee, I’m a gentleman.”
He said it with a smile, popping his nonexistent collar. I chuckled good-naturedly, but I knew he was telling the truth. Most people noticed his foul language first and didn’t know he had a good heart. But the more time they spent in his presence, the more they realized he was actually a decent guy.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Remember that geek from high school? Troy something? He’s back.”
Except Troy didn’t look like the geek from our high school anymore. He’d grown into his lanky limbs. His hands were stronger. His legs had muscles, and sweet baby Jesus, I’d woken up drenched in sweat thinking about what those muscles could put me through.
“Yeah, he’s staying next door to me.”
“Fuck, that’s right. Why didn’t you tell me he was back?” He slapped me in the chest.
“He got home two days ago. This is the first time I’m seeing you since.”
“Anyway, his return reminded Ashlee of the way we used to rough him up in high school. Now she’s having second thoughts about me. I mean, what the fuck, man? It was high school. We’ve moved on. Why is she still bringing up the past?”
“I don’t know. It’s easy for us to think so, but he might not have let it go.”
And I couldn’t blame him either. We’d been awful to him—I, even worse than Evan. We’d had a good thing between us, and I’d ruined it by bullying him. I’d never been able to get the betrayed look in his eyes out of my head.
“It was a decade ago,” Evan said.
“You were taken from your father at nine because he beat the shit out of you. That was even longer. Does it affect you any less today?”
He fell silent. I could almost see the neurons firing in his brain. His shoulders slumped. “I never thought of it that way,” he said softly. “We were young, dumb, and cocky shits back then. Guess I thought the things we did were just a part of growing up.”
