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Chapter Ten – Jess
Chris’s hand is outstretched, and he’s seconds away from hitting the buzzer when the door swings open with a dramatic flair, and Tyler raises his eyebrows at us. “It’s about damn time. What took you so long? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago.”
I feel the blush peek out of the gray off-the-shoulder sweater I’m wearing tonight. Hardly the kind of sweater one wears to hide embarrassment, but there you have it.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Were you two boning again? When the hell do you come up for air?”
Chris reaches over and flicks Tyler’s red cap off his head. “Learn some damn manners, or your nose is gonna be matching your hat.”
Tyler’s ice-blue eyes sparkle with mischief as he bends down to pick up his cap. He runs a hand through his black hair before settling it back on his head. “You keep promising me a little bit of pain, but you never deliver. Maybe one day you’ll fulfill my fantasy, huh?”
I snort out a laugh. For as long as I’ve known Chris and the gang, he and Tyler have had a love-hate relationship, but I know Chris loves the back and forth. He may even love Tyler, even if he’d die before admitting it.
“Will you forgive us if we came bearing gifts?” I raise the jug of frozen margarita while waggling my eyebrows.
“Hell yeah, baby girl.” Tyler pulls me in for a hug and kisses me on the top of my head before letting me go. “I’ve been dreaming about these babies since our last game night.”
I’m not the type of person who makes friends easily. Or should I say I make friends, but they aren’t always good for me—case in point, my ex-friends, Wendy, Karen, and Holly, who ditched me at the bar—but that all changed when Chris introduced me to the gang. Even though it took a while, what with him spending months on Skyla’s protective detail and such, it was as though we all just jelled in a matter of moments, and that was it. I could immediately tell these were the kind of people you could rely on, no matter what. Maybe because I knew how they all banded around Skyla when she went through hell eighteen months ago, or maybe it has to do with them treating me like one of their own from the get-go, but I can’t say I’ve ever felt this sense of family among friends until I met these guys.
Speaking of which…
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Jared and Chase had to work tonight, and Sky’s on the phone with Courtney. She’s still at the hospital,” Jensen tells us as he walks into the kitchen, fist-bumping Chris, then pulling me in for a bear hug. Jared is Tyler’s lover, and Chase is Courtney’s. They’re both really great guys. I’m sorry they won’t be joining us tonight, and I’m sure Courtney and Tyler will miss them more, but we’ll see them again soon.
“Apparently, there was another impaling accident that required Courtney to work a little later. She’s on her way now, but she couldn’t wait to tell Sky.”
“If Courtney comes in here and starts telling us about that shit, I’m out. I can only stomach so much of her work talk in one day. She called me at lunch and put me right off my tuna sandwich,” Tyler gripes. He and Courtney have been best friends since college, and they love to rag on each other.
To tell the truth, though, I’ve been subjected to a few of Courtney’s ER stories myself, and all I can say is I’m going to need something stiff to drink if we’re going to have to endure another one of those tonight.
As if Chris can read my mind, he reaches into the cooler and pulls out a bottle of tequila. “Who wants a shot?”
Tyler winks. “I guess I’m gonna get a little of that pain one way or another, huh?”
We all laugh, and Skyla walks into the kitchen. “What did I miss?” Her gorgeous, sleek brown hair frames her beautiful face, making her matching brown eyes stand out.
“Nothing yet.” Jensen hands her a shot glass, his olive eyes filled with adoration for his wife.
Two shots and a margarita later, I don’t even flinch when Courtney pulls her honey-blonde hair into a pony and tells us about the guy who slipped trying to jump a fence. Apparently, he had to have a foot-long piece of palisade fencing removed from his cheek. They’d had to cut some of the metal off to free him, and hearing how his teeth broke from the impact did make my stomach take a tiny dip, but not as much as it would’ve if it wasn’t full of alcohol.
We’re all feeling no pain at this point, laughing and drinking around the fire in Jensen and Skyla’s backyard. I’m sitting between Chris’s legs, my back resting against his hard chest with his arms wrapped around me, the bottle of beer he’s been nursing since we arrived swinging casually between two fingers. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.
“You want a refill, angel?” he whispers in my ear, sending a trail of goosebumps all over my body. I can think of something I want more than a drink, but I keep that thought to myself for later.
“If you hurry back. I’m kinda enjoying my seat.”
He squeezes his arms tighter and then kisses me once more before he stands up. I wrap my arms around myself. It’s a beautiful fall night in San Diego, the weather just cool enough to make sitting around the fire comfortable, but the temps have dipped a few degrees since we came out here, and without Chris’s strong arms encasing me, I’m feeling the chill.
In less than five minutes, he’s back behind me, and I’m snuggled in his arms again. I’m staring at the fire, lulled by the flickering flames, alcohol, and a sense of peace from being held by him when he leans forward and produces my beanie from his back pocket.
“I thought this would help keep you snug.”
“You’re keeping me snug. Don’t you want it?”
He runs a hand over his skull trim, his deep brown eyes full of love, then answers me by placing the hat gently on my head before gathering my red curls to the side and kissing my neck.
“Can you hear that?” Skyla asks from her similar spot between Jensen’s legs.
