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I leaned against the bar, watching my friend closely. “Your sister doing better?” She’d had a pretty hard time of it since Tainted Knights had returned from their summer tour. Not a day after getting back, she’d had a miscarriage, and from what Lucy had told me, Kassa’d been pretty emotional ever since. I hadn’t seen her except in passing, but Lucy went over to check on her regularly.
Jace rubbed a hand over his face and shrugged. “Fuck if I know, man. She’s not crying as much lately, so I guess she’s doing better. She doesn’t talk to me about it, though. But Gray said she’s getting there. Slowly but surely.”
“So you’re really okay with the whole Gray and Kassa being together thing?”
He clenched his jaw, his eyes filling with storm clouds for a moment before he blew out a breath and shrugged. “If there was anything Gray ever did right, it was take care of my sister. I trust him to keep her happy. But if he hurts her, I’m gonna need to hide a body really quick. You gonna help me with that shit?”
“Any time, any place, my brother.”
“And that’s why you’re my best friend,” he laughed. “You hungry? Kin’s supposed to meet me here later after the girls get done with whatever the hell they’re still doing for this wedding of yours, but she said she was eating with them.”
“I could eat,” I said with a shrug. “You want to order in and eat in my office, or go down the street?”
“Whatever, man, I’m not picky.”
Since I had some paperwork, I led him into my office and tossed him a few menus to choose from while I worked.
After making the call for our dinner, he sat back in the chair in front of my desk, playing with his phone. “If you ask me, I can’t figure out how come they still have more stuff to sort out for this wedding. It’s been seven months of nonstop planning. Kin even stayed behind during my tour to help Lucy with it. What else do they gotta do?”
“We still have to get our tuxes sorted, and Lucy said there were a lot of little things that still have to be decided on.” I grimaced. “She doesn’t really include me in most of it. And when we’re alone, we don’t even talk about it much. She said when she’s home, she doesn’t want to think about planning the wedding. And I’ve respected that.” I just wished she would talk to me more. I could feel how tense she was even when she wasn’t discussing the wedding, and it worried me day and night that she refused to tell me what was bothering her.
My friend frowned. “So you don’t know what’s going on with your own wedding?”
“I know the important things. The place, the time, and that I’ll have the most beautiful bride in the fucking world walking down the aisle to me. I told her and Nat that I didn’t give two shits about the rest of the stuff.”
His dark blond brows lifted toward the ceiling. “But you do, though, don’t you?”
“Not enough to ruin this for Lucy,” I told him honestly. “She and the moms have been having fun planning everything, from what I’ve seen. They’re bonding, and they’re all happy. That’s all that matters to me.”
Jace was quiet for a long while, seeming to think that over for a few minutes while I took care of the paperwork. Then he shrugged it off and rubbed his hands together. “Okay, now that things have calmed down with Kassa, and I’ve recovered from the summer tour, let’s talk about the most important part of all. Your bachelor party.”
I groaned in annoyance, but we both knew I was just as excited as he was for whatever he was planning for the party. “All right, get it over with. Let’s hear it, then.”
“I can sum it up in five words. Me, you, the boys, Vegas.”
I scratched my chin. “You’ve caught my attention.”
“A full weekend of drinking, gambling, having fun. And no girls. No Lucy. No Kin…or Kassa or fucking Angie.”
“Speaking of the girls, what does Kin have planned for Lucy’s bachelorette?” As excited as I was for my own party, I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about what Kin was going to do for Lucy’s.
“She hasn’t said a single word to me about it. I’ve asked, and she said it was a surprise. Said I would blab to you, and Lucy would end up finding out. And I quote, ‘you’re a fucking gossip queen when you get with Harris Cutter. I’m not telling you shit.’ End quote.” He slouched down in his chair and glared up at the ceiling distractedly. “Redheads are the fucking devil, man.”
I watched him for a moment, seeing the tension in his face, the darkness in his blue eyes. Jace and I hadn’t been hanging out nearly as much as we used to before his summer tour with Tainted Knights, so I didn’t know when or even why there was this new desolate tension in my friend.
“Everything okay with you and Kin?” I asked, shooting in the dark since I had no clue what was going on with him lately.
He tossed his phone in the air and caught it. “Kin’s great.”
My brows lifted, and I dropped my pen on the desk. “But you aren’t?”
The phone was tossed in the air again and caught over and over again, but the expression on his face never changed. “I’ve been better.”
“Want to talk?”
He caught the phone one more time before dropping his hand into his lap and shaking his head. “Nah, man.”
I shrugged. “Okay, but you know I’m here if you ever want to unload, man.”
