Seth surveys the carnage in the room. “Start the fruit salad? I have this chicken salad mostly under control, just need to finish chopping and then mix it up.”
“Cool, I can handle that.”
It’s been ages since the last time we were in a kitchen together, but we work together well, and sometimes I forget how funny my brother can be. I’m having a good time, and I don’t even mind when Cole and Sabrina come back downstairs and flop down on the couch together rather than coming in to help us. Cole has changed into a tank top and shorts, and I definitely don’t mind the view.
We have dinner out on the back patio at golden hour, the breeze coming off the Sound cooling our skin, and it feels right somehow, sitting here with the three of them. Cole fits in with Seth immediately, and Sabrina is a chatterbox full of outrageous stories. I can see why Seth is smitten with her. And Cole keeps his hands to himself, but his foot brushes mine under thetable and when I look up at him, he’s gazing at me steadily, a soft smile on his face.
We’re reaching the end of the meal when I realize my beer is empty, and I push back my chair. “Hey, I’m going in for another drink — anybody else want one? Cole? Seth? Sabrina?”
“Ezra.” Sabrina puts both hands on the table and leans toward me with much more authority than I thought she possessed in her tiny frame.
I stop in my tracks. “Yeah?”
“Are you about to be my brother or not?”
“Um, yes?”
“Not even my grandmother calls me Sabrina,” she declares, and Cole starts to laugh.
“Yeah, dude, I’ve been wanting to say something for months now.”
“Okay, uh —” They’re teasing me, but I don’t mind. “Bree, can I get you another cherry sour?”
“That would be lovely, thank you.” She settles back in her chair, and Seth takes her hand, winking at me. I shake my head with a grin, heading back into the house.
Later, after we’ve cleaned up the remains of dinner, Seth and Sabrina — um,Bree— head upstairs, and Cole catches my eye, nodding toward the back door. The sun is just setting, and the sky is a tapestry of pink and purple and gold, wispy violet clouds painted with orange. I’m still a little buzzed from dinner, not enough to cloud my judgment, but just enough to feel gratefulwhen Cole leads me to a conversation pit down by the water and drapes an arm around my shoulders.
Still, I glance back up at the house, my eyes searching the second floor. “Are you sure they won’t,um—”
Cole laughs. “Didn’t you see the way Bree was looking at Seth all through dinner? They are going tofuuuuck—”
“Okay okay, I get the idea.” I shudder involuntarily. “That’s still my brother.”
“God, you aresucha prude —”
“Who are you calling a prude?” I slide my hand around his neck and pull him down to press our lips together.
Fuck, it feels good to kiss him. He’s been close by all evening, but just out of reach, handsome and charming and rumbling against every one of my nerves. It’s not long before he’s straddling my lap, my hands pushing his shirt up so that I can touch him, every one of my senses turned up to the highest possible degree, the air and the sky and his hair and the salt marsh, the taste of him on my tongue, the gravitational pull that always drags me towards him. And so when he slides to his knees, when he draws me out of my jeans and presses his face into my lap, I lean my head back and sigh, my cheeks painted in twilight, and I rest my hand on his hair and I think there has never been a moment that was this perfect.
***
“Guys, whereareyou? There’s like a whole army of goblins in here and I’m getting slaughtered — could really use some backup —” Seth is sitting on the edge of the couch, his fingers flying over the buttons on his controller.
“Sorry, I’ve got troubles of my own —” My eyes are fixed on my portion of the enormous TV screen, where I’m fighting off six opponents at once.
“Don’t worry, babe, I’ve got you —”
I catch a glimpse of Bree’s Elvish warrior maiden sprinting by at the edge of the screen, and suddenly the entire battlefield is lit up with a massive fireball.
Seth laughs, resting his controller on his knee as our battle stats flash up on the screen. “Well, that’s certainly one way to do it.”
“So, is this what we’re doing all day?” Cole is sitting cross-legged on the couch between Bree and me, flipping through one of the gossip magazines that had been spread across the coffee table before we arrived.
“Just for a little bit, honey,” Bree coos. “This game just came out and it’s fun to play it together.”
“Might as well get comfortable, then.” Cole lies down on the sofa, resting his head on Bree’s lap and tucking his feet underneath my thigh.
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Bree says to me as sheruns her fingers through his hair, smiling indulgently. “He thinks that just because he’s tall and gay and fabulous, he gets to drape himself wherever he wants, and everyone will just let him.”
