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The bartender comes over and hands us two lemonades, which Bishop must've ordered for us. We've both had a shitty time with drugs and alcohol in our lives. We're both sober now, and we both intend on staying that way.
We tap our glasses together.
"They're just curious," he says once he's taken a sip. "You know what they're like."
I nod because I do. They're a bunch of loved-up, good-hearted fools. And I'd take a bullet for each and every one of them. They're the best people I've ever met in my life.
When I arrived in Brookhaven a bit over three years ago, I'd hit rock bottom. I showed up on Bishop's doorstep broke, homeless, and having left a miles-long trail of destruction behind me. No one from the gang so much as raised a judgy eyebrow my way. They all accepted me for who I was right off the bat.
"I'm curious, too," he says, leaning over, smiling at me all friendly like.
Even though I know he's partly angling for gossip, my heart dances away happily in my chest.
Because, see, when I first came to town, the reception I got from my brother was vastly different. I was lucky he didn't punch me in the face and leave me out in the cold.
It's what I deserved after what I did to him. I'll carry that shame with me until the day I die. Doesn't matter that I was off my face and in the throes of addiction, there's no excuse for stealing fifty grand from him. It fucked him over so badly he was forced to live in a van. I'm working my ass off at the hardware store to repay him every last penny, but still, nothing will ever truly make up for it.
I'd spent our entire brutal childhoods, where we got shuttled from one foster family to another, looking out for and protecting him as best I could. We survived all that only for me to betray him in adulthood.
But Bishop, being the extraordinary man that he is, gave me the best gift I've ever gotten in my life. He forgave me. If he hadn't, I'd probably be drunk or rotting in jail somewhere, not perched on a bar, drinking a lemonade, speculating with him about my love life.
After a few beats, he comes right out with it. "You got a thing for Locky?"
I swill some lemonade around in my mouth. "And if I did?"
"Then you'll have to brace yourself."
"For?"
His smile grows even bigger. "Locky and you are the last remaining single guys in the group. It'd send Fulton and the others into heaven if you two hooked up."
I smile, too. That's totally something I can picture the guys having a field day with. "He's one of a kind, Fulton."
"Wouldn't want him any other way." Bishop beams, then sends me a brotherlystop avoiding the questionlook.
I swivel around on the stool, my gaze zeroing in on Locky sitting with the guys, doing his best to put on a brave face despite the shitty thing that's happened to him, then spin back around.
"I do." I run my hand down my beard. "I like him."
"First time liking a guy?"
"Yeah. First time."
"Confused?"
"Not really."
"Scared?"
"Fuck yeah."
He chuckles. "Good."
"Good?"
"Yeah. Relationships are scary. Comes with the territory."
"It's more than that," I mumble into my drink.
