Page 174 of Wait for Him

He is.

This six-foot man is using my body as cover from his pregnant fiancée.

"She was in the hallway, man. Unhinged. Fucking unhinged." I laugh and clap him on the shoulder. "Good luck."

"Listen. Jackson. Listen to me." He drops his voice like we're exchanging state secrets. "Don't do it. Don't get a woman pregnant. I thought it would be sweet and sexy. Cute little midnight pickle runs." His grip tightens. "She does things, Jackson. Horrible, unspeakable things to my body."

"Joseph!" Jenn's voice rings out from around the corner.

His eyes blow wide. It might as well be a scene out of Jurassic Park. The glass of water trembling. The predator's call in the distance. I'm doing my level best not to laugh because I genuinely can't tell whether he's being theatrically dramatic or this poor bastard needs a restraining order against his pregnant fiancée.

Probably both.

Knowing these two, definitely both.

I leave him to his fate and make my way back toward the sofa where Rian and Blaire are talking. My guard goes up before I can stop it, braced for whatever Rian's jealousy might be doing to one of my best friends while I've been gone.

But they're fine.

Better than fine, actually.

Blaire throws her head back and laughs at whatever Rian just said, and Rian reaches over and rests a hand on her knee while she's laughing with her. I stand there watching them for a second, feeling vaguely stupid for expecting a problem.

"She's a keeper, man."

Bennet comes up beside me, and we stay there a minute just watching them laugh.

Our girls.

My girl.

Fuck, I need to get used to that. If I'm doing this with Rian, actually doing it now, I can't keep tripping over the language every time it gets too close to meaning something.

She's my girl.

Period.

"Yeah, man. She's great."

"But you don't have the look, Jackson."

I turn toward him. "What look?"

"The way you used to look at my sister."

My head snaps back, and there it is on his face. Not judgment. Worse.

He fucking feels sorry for me.

We haven't spoken about Rose since he found me outside her apartment. Not really. We did what men do when neither one wants to touch the live wire between them. Went back to work. Had drinks. Talked shit. Became brothers again and left the whole subject sitting exactly where it fell.

"That's over. It was a long time ago. I'm sorry again for—"

He puts a hand on my shoulder and cuts me off.

"You don't have to keep apologizing to me. I'm past that." He takes a drink of his beer before continuing. "It took me a minute, Jackson. It did. I don't like being kept in the dark, and I'm not going to pretend I loved how I found out. But I've had a lot of time to think about it since then. All those years, all the shit I somehow didn't see because I wasn't looking for it."

I look away.