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Zax: Suuuuure, blame Suzie for you getting wasted and stripping down in public.
Asher: Twat, she dared me!
Grey: What are you? Five. Oh, she dared you. *eye roll emoji*
Callan: I wouldn’t talk, brother. If I recall, you got yourself arrested one drunken night with Suzie.
Grey: *Middle finger emoji*
Asher: Enough with that BS. Thor, how does it feel to be the first one of us to get married? Give us the insider tips. The dos and don’ts of saying I do to an irresistible woman.
Me: You’re an asshole. Do I look like a magazine?
Asher: Tatted and Pierced Hackers Weekly. 100%
I choke out a laugh, rubbing my hand over my mouth and across my forehead. I have no fucking clue what I’d do without these guys other than be more of a recluse than I already am. Their friendship has been the mainstay in my life. The saving grace when I was a hairsbreadth from letting it all go.
And how did I repay their loyalty, friendship, and brotherhood? By fucking Georgia, keeping it a secret for two goddamn years, and then hurting her. So this is it. Another round of penance. I’m doing this for her, but I’m also doing it for them. Because they would do it for me without ever thinking twice. Because they didn’t let me go, even when I deserved for them to.
I hit the buttons on the machine again, so I don’t get clubbed with the woman’s cane, and type…
Me: I found stuff. I’ll need a call later. It’s nothing urgent, and I’m handling it. Just… a bit fucked.
Zax: Just tell me what time. You’re three hours back from us, but that doesn’t matter.
Grey: Do you need us to fly out there?
I hit the buttons again, watching the wheels on the machine spin and ping into place, showing me I just won five dollars. Evidently, it’s my lucky day.
Me: No. I’ve got it. We fly back to Boston on Tuesday. If I don’t call you tonight, I will first thing tomorrow.
I tuck my phone into my pocket and lean back against the seat, my eyes scanning the casino, my thoughts scattered, when a flash of white moves in beside me. “I’ve been looking for you.”
I glance up at Georgia, who you would never know was crying or had my hands in her hair not even fifteen minutes ago. There’s not a streak of mascara beneath her eyes, not a hair out of place. She even has her red lipstick reaffixed. As always, she is the vision of perfection.
I turn back to the game, hitting the buttons again. Georgia watches as the machine rolls and then nudges me over a bit on my chair so she can sit on the edge of it, practically right up against me.
“A bit too late for second thoughts.”
I grunt. I’m not having second thoughts. I’m having other thoughts, and those are far more dangerous. She doesn’t know that if love had been enough, I never would have left her, and if broken pieces could ever be made whole again, she would have always been mine.
“Are we okay?” she asks softly, her voice tinted with worry.
“We’re married. How could we not be okay?”
“I suppose we weren’t okay before all of this, but hating you doesn’t sit well with me anymore. You know, since we’re married now.” I get an arched eyebrow and a wry grin. “But we have to go upstairs and pretend to be newlyweds. We have to pretend to be in love. Do you think we can do that with each other?”
“You’re the actress, Georgia. I’m only here because I was the last single man standing, and I know how to keep quiet.”
Her mouth twists in annoyance at my petulant tone. “Were you always this sarcastic before, or was I too blinded by my childish infatuation to notice?”
“I didn’t speak before.”
She twists and fully meets my eyes. “You did to me.”
I blink at her, at the assurance in her tone and countenance. It has my heart racing in my chest. I have no memory of talking to her or anyone at that time in my life. I was barely existing, and where words were never comfortable for me before, they were impossible then. I remember being captivated. I remember being obsessed. I remember not knowing how I’d ever be able to stop.
But talking? Nope.
