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Chapter 3
Fox~
“Yeah, I mean…I think she’s the one,” Joshua gushed over the phone, and I wasn’t exaggerating with the word gushed. He sounded like a preteen girl with his first crush. I was happy for him, though.
“You think?”
He let out a self-depreciating sigh. “Well, no,” he muttered. “I mean, she is the one, I just…what if I’m not her one?”
While I knew that Joshua Brooks was a good guy, not everyone gave the guy a chance when first seeing him. He was socially awkward, and it was all his mother’s fault. She’d taken her bitterness out on him and his sister after their father had divorced her. Even though Joshua was as intelligent as they came, he lacked social confidence. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the guy, but mental abuse was a real sonofabitch, and he’d endured his fair share. It didn’t help that he was bisexual, either. In this day and age, that shouldn’t be an issue, but when you were already confused about the kind of person you wanted to be, throwing being bisexual into the mix couldn’t help.
We’d become friends when Stu Hartford had tried to bully Joshua into giving up his seat near the favored oak tree near the basketball courts. Joshua might have had some issues, but he hadn’t been a pussy about it. Still, with Stu having a good twenty pounds on Joshua, it would have been a bloodbath. However, I had intervened, breaking Stu Hartford’s nose.
Joshua had looked like an easy mark with his light blonde hair, big brown eyes, and scrawny built. Granted, that was eons ago, and he’s since then filled out and has grown into himself, but those early years had been rough.
In contrast, me and Cotton had taken after our father. We both had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, looking nothing like Mom’s auburn hair and green eyes. Cotton and I looked exactly like Dad, too. However, I had topped out at six-foot-one, and Cotton had stopped at an even six-foot. There was no denying that we were Harringtons, though.
“Dude, she’s been dating you for what? Six months now?” I replied. “Trust me, she would have bailed now if she didn’t like you.”
“Yeah, I know. Still, liking me and spending the rest of her life with me are two different things,” he argued.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing, Josh,” I told him. “Don’t overthink it.”
He let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, I know. You’re right,” he muttered. “It’s just…when you find that one person who is right for you, it changes everything.” My chest felt tight, but I wasn’t going to stop him from expressing his thoughts because I had issues. “I want to make her mine now, not years from now. It’s like…like I’m terrified that something or someone is going to come and take her from me. Like…I feel panicked. Does that make any sense?”
More than you know.
“So, you don’t let that happen,” I replied simply.
“Just like that?”
“Yeah, just like that,” I told him. “Josh, if she’s the one, then the rest of it will work out. Don’t self-sabotage yourself.”
“You’re right,” he sighed. “I’m just…it just hit me hard last night, and I wanted to scream it to the world.” He let out a small chuckled. “Instead, I settled for calling you.”
I smiled to myself. Joshua really was a good guy. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“Maybe you can visit one of these weekends,” he suggested. “It’ll be fun.”
I thought about that as I sat in my car, glancing over at the building that I was parked in front of. A weekend away didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. In fact, it sounded like a much-needed mini-vacation from Serenity Springs and all the bullshit going on. Now that Stone’s PI was all over August like an unpleasant rash and the girls were protected, a couple of days away wouldn’t make a difference to anyone other than me.
“As a matter of fact, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” I replied. “I could use a weekend down in Southern California.”
“Cool,” he said excitedly. “I’ll see you soon, then?”
“Sure thing.”
“I miss you, bud,” he remarked easily, not embarrassed to tell me how he felt.
“I miss you, too, Josh,” I returned just as easily. He wasn’t my best friend for nothing.
After hanging up, I sat in my car and did my best to find the strength to turn on the ignition and take my sorry ass home. I was the only asshole in town who drove a silver Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante, so it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed my car parked out front. I wasn’t exactly being inconspicuous.
I wasn’t even sure why I was here. Though my concern for Hastings Martin was real, I could have texted Saxton to ask how she was doing. I also could have just stopped by Saxton’s place to check on her. We had moved her in with him on Monday between the end of classes and their midnight wedding. Granted, there hadn’t been much to move since Hastings had lived in Kincaid’s condo, but the girl had packed a shitload of clothes and shit like that. It’d been a good thing that there’d been no furniture to move as well.
So, with Saxton on speed dial and Hastings living with him, there was no reason for me to be parked in front of Kincaid’s condominium building. In fact, there was no reason for me and Kincaid to even speak to one another. Sure, we were in this whole August Remington mess together, but we didn’t have to interact personally outside any of the group meetings that we’ve been having lately.
If I really wanted to convince myself that I was a glutton for punishment, I could argue that I was concerned about her safety. Rylee, Hastings, and Sutton had Stone, Saxton, and Ross to watch over them at night, but Kincaid had no one. Now, while normally I’d bet against August going after Kincaid Black, he’d been stupid enough to attack Hastings, knowing that she belonged to Saxton Voss, so I wasn’t giving him any credit for intelligence right now.
