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"It's okay if he stays," she insisted.
"No, the fuck it's not," I shot back, getting a smile out of her. "There's extra towels in the closet," I told her, reaching for a pair of sweatpants for myself, slipping them on, reaching for a tee.
Hearing her close herself into the bathroom, I made my way back out to the kitchen, finding Atlas already up and making a pot of coffee.
"Leave."
"Have a heart, bro. I needed some sleep."
"You have an apartment."
"Funny thing about that."
"Christ, what?" I asked, turning back from grabbing mugs.
"All the traveling around, somehow missed the note about how they weren't renewing my lease. Dragged my jet-lagged ass up the stairs, stuck my key in the lock, and nothing. Went down to the super who wasn't a fan of being woken up at one in the morning, and found out what went down. They stored my shit in the storage unit in the basement. Gonna need to get everyone together to move it to an actual storage facility until I can get a new place. Until then, I'm couch surfing, it seems."
"Surf somewhere the fuck else," I suggested.
"You think anyone in this family aren't fucking like bunnies?" he asked, reaching for the creamer. "What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is Katie isn't comfortable with it."
"She's got a place, right? Why don't you guys shack up there for a few days? Weeks?"
"Why don't you shack up at a hotel for a couple days or weeks?" I shot back.
"Crushed, I'm crushed," he declared, pressing a hand to his chest. "She's cute," he said, nodding toward the bathroom.
"Yeah, she is," I agreed.
"Works for Fee, right? I think I've seen her at the office. With big glasses on, covering up that pretty face of hers."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"I want it to," I admitted.
"Hm."
"What?" I asked, shooting him a look as she took his cup of coffee and made his way back to his makeshift bed.
"Nothing. Just didn't see you settling down, baby brother," he teased.
"What? Making you feel old and unsettled?" I shot back.
"Please, if anyone was going to make me think wonders never cease, it was going to be Nixon finding someone to love his grumpy ass. You? I get you. She's cool with you doing the phone sex thing?"
"I quit. Before Katie and I started things up," I clarified. "It was time for a change. I'm working with King."
"I'm probably going to be joining you all for a few weeks. Maybe months," he added.
"You never stay any place that long."
"I don't usually fuck up my living situation either. Think I've had more wings than roots lately. I need to get my shit in order again before I head back out. What?"
"Did those writer women fuck some sense into you on that tour?" I asked, getting a wicked smile from him.
"Something like that, I guess," he admitted. "Just need to crash for a while. Get a place. Get some money back in the coffers. Boring-ass grown-up shit," he said, putting his coffee down on the table, reaching for his sketchbook instead, flipping through.
I saw a rickety old bus.
And the faces of four women who were just enough his type that I was finally getting a full picture of how messy that whole situation might have gotten.
Running off from that to come home to find he didn't have one anymore, yeah, I could see how that was making him see he needed to get things in order for a while.
Atlas might have been afflicted with incurable wanderlust, but he'd always had a decent head on his shoulders.
And, let's face it, he wasn't getting any younger. Watching all of us start to get serious around him had to make him think, start contemplating what kind of future he wanted for himself.
And while that future would always include traveling, that couldn't be all he had either.
He was finally starting to see that.
"Oh, hey, sweetheart," he said, giving Katie the kind of smile that likely explained all those women on the bus falling for his bullshit.
My hand reached out, smacking the back of his neck, getting a chuckle out of him,
"I have something for you," he went on, ignoring me.
"You have something for me?" Katie asked, bringing her coffee over toward the living room, sitting on the other side of me, spine straight, but not as tense as she had been before the shower.
I wished I could have taken it with her, could have pushed her up against the wall and gotten another taste of her pussy, slid inside her, bodies slipping against each other, her moans echoing off the shower enclosure.
Fucking cockblock Atlas.
"Yep," he said, flipping back a couple pages in his sketchbook. "Here you go," he went on, turning it to face her. "Your toothless cannibal mountain men," he explained, beaming at her as her eyes went round, a surprised smile toying with her lips.
