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“What took you so long?” Lyla yelled toward the cage, and Howler scowled at her before grinning.
I shook my head, not understanding the two of them in the least. It was too much of a headache even to try.
Chapter 8
Mia
“Hold still so I can see it,” I grumbled as I dabbed at Barrick’s lip over dinner later.
We were sitting at some diner a few miles from the Underground with Braxton. It was just the three of us since Lyla had gone with Howler after the fight. Most likely to an after party from what I’d overheard them saying, so it was anyone’s guess when my roommate would be home later.
“It’s fine,” Barrick complained, popping a fry into his mouth and then stuffing one in mine. “My teeth just cut into it when I got hit.”
“It’s going to bruise.” I wanted to wail because his face had just started to heal after his own fight earlier in the week. The gash above his eye was closed, and he only had a single butterfly stitch over it. “Doesn’t it sting when you get that grease and salt in it?”
He rolled his eyes and pushed two more fries into his mouth. “You’re acting like I broke my jaw, firecracker. It was just a pop to the mouth.” Dipping a fry in ketchup, he touched it to my lips. “Come on. Eat for me.”
Sighing, I glared at him for all of a second before opening my mouth and biting the fry in two. Smirking, he ate the rest before picking up his burger that was brimming with veggies and condiments.
Shaking my head at him and what smelled like a really delicious cow, I stabbed a fork into my grilled chicken salad.
Across from us, Braxton was trying not to laugh as he enjoyed his own burger and fries. “What?” I groused, chewing my salad unhappily.
“You two act like you’ve been together for fifty years already. Are you sure you only just met?”
“Maybe we knew each other in a previous life,” Barrick answered, wiping his mouth.
“Maybe she ruled your world in that previous life,” his cousin countered.
Barrick’s dark eyes caught mine, his dimple barely peeking out as he nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed in a low, deep voice that made something pull deep in my gut. “Maybe she did.”
The diner suddenly felt suffocatingly hot. I picked up my water and took a long, thirsty sip in hopes of cooling myself off. What was it about the way this man looked at me that made me want to strip myself bare for him…in every way imaginable?
“Lyla’s probably not going to go back to the dorms tonight,” Braxton mentioned when the waitress brought the check, and Barrick handed over his credit card.
“Wait,” I told the woman, reaching for my purse. “Let me pay for mine.”
“Yeah, that will be no,” Barrick said, pushing the card and check into her hands. “Don’t listen to her, ma’am. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Lips twitching, the middle-aged waitress walked off to process his card, and he just flashed me that damn dimple again. “You didn’t pay for the jeans, and I sure as hell am not letting you pay for your own dinner.”
“I can pay my own way.”
“Of course you can, little dancer. But you’re not going to while I’m around.” He focused on his cousin, who was watching us patiently. “What was that about Lyla?”
“She’s either going to go home with Howler or back to Judge’s place. Do you think Mia will be okay at the dorm all on her own?”
“It’s a dorm. Nothing will happen to me there. Jeesh, you two act worse than my dad.” I picked up my napkin, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it at Brax’s face. He deflected it at the last
second, hitting it with his hand and knocking it toward Barrick.
“Knowing Lyla, she’s liable to be there all weekend, especially if it’s Howler’s weekend with Josie,” Barrick said thoughtfully, then nodded his head decisively. “Let’s stop by the dorm and grab Mia some clothes for the weekend. She will stay with us.”
“Say what now?” I squeaked, glancing from one to the other like they’d lost their minds. “I don’t need to stay with you two. I have a perfectly good dorm room with a perfectly good bed and every other amenity I might need, thank you.”
“I’ll make you breakfast in the morning,” Braxton enticed. “Pancakes. Bacon. Eggs. Whatever else you might want.”
“No, really…” But pancakes sounded so good. I hadn’t had any in weeks, and I missed my dad’s Saturday morning special with a full breakfast he made himself since it was the housekeeper’s day off.
