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“Women love to gossip,” I muttered. I should have known she wouldn’t keep our little convo to herself.
Jamie laughed. “Bro, yeah, they do.” His smile faded. “But you still said it. And you always show up for us. We’ll do the same for you and Wes.”
I nodded. “Bro, thanks.”
His blue eyes went wide. “Did you justbrome?”
“You’re hearing things,” I told him and started across the parking lot.
Jamie’s long-ass legs had no problem keeping up, his arm draping over my shoulders. “We just had a bro moment.”
“No, we didn’t,” I protested.
“Bro, yeah, we did.”
“Please stop.”
“You buying breakfast?” Jamie asked.
“If it gets you to stop talking, then yes.”
“I’m getting extra waffles.”
“How is that different than any other day?”
Pausing mid-reach for the door, he laid a hand over his heart. “You do know me.”
“Get your ass inside,” I told him, lips twitching.
“Hey.” The serious tone in his voice made me look up. “I’m happy for you and Wes. For reals. That bro looks at you with his heart in his eyes.”
“Yeah,” I said, voice a little hoarse. “I know.”
“Take care of him.”
I met Jamie’s eyes, making sure he saw my steady resolve. “I will.”
I’d never let anything get in between us ever again.
27
Wes
Brother.Brother’s best friend. Guardian. Secret crush. Wet dream. Headache. Heartache. Wish.
Max had been so many things to me over the years.
But what he was now was my favorite. Boyfriend.
The word didn’t even harness everything he was to me, how much he made me feel. But of all the things he was, it was the one thing I wanted most. The one thing I thought was expressly forbidden.
Boyfriend.
Max was mine now, and he didn’t seem to care who knew it. I could say his openness to beoutwith me was surprising, but it would be a lie. Truth was I never let myself think of how he would be as a boyfriend because then I’d have to confront the things I’d never experience.
Max was decisive. He always had been. Maybe it was stubbornness. Or perhaps the first years of his life had been so precarious that he liked knowing where he stood. Maybe it was both. So when he did something, he did it completely. And now that something was being mine.
The second he stepped into Shirley’s with Jamie, my eyes found him over the back of the booth as if they hadn’t seen him in years. Beneath the table, my feet moved restlessly, eager to take me to him.
