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He gave her a smile back but then focused on me, on my drink. “Nice.”
“If you touch my drink, I will scream bloody murder.” I’d just finished pouring it.
He pulled back his hands. “Uh, is there beer?”
“Try the fridge.” Alex nodded behind him.
“Oh.” Trenton opened it and found two entire drawers of beer. He snagged two, opening both and closing the door. “Score.”
“Double-fisting?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It was a rough game.”
Alex let out a deep sigh. “I want to get fucked up tonight.”
I held up my drink. “I propose a game.”
They held their drinks up to mine, all ears.
“Every time a girl comes up to you and flutters their eyes at you, we drink.”
They both laughed. “We’ll be drunk in five minutes,” Alex noted.
“They don’t flutter them that much . . .” Their looks said otherwise. “Do they?”
They shared another laugh.
Oh, boy.
Alex turned serious, frowning at me. “I need to say something to you.”
My heart sank. “What?”
“I’m out of here,” Trenton said under his breath.
I grabbed his shirt, holding him in place. “You’re staying.”
“You’re fucking my best friend,” Alex said.
I started to pull Trenton so he was blocking me from Alex.
Trenton shook his head. “No way. I’m not getting in the middle of this talk. Also, here’s my say. I don’t like it, but if I don’t see it, I’m going to pretend it’s not happening. With that, I’m out of here. Love you, Rams, but I need a female touch tonight that’s not related to me by blood.” He pointed at my hand, still holding his shirt.
I let go.
He left.
I focused on Alex, who watched me with a not-happy look on his face. His mouth was in a flat line.
“You’re pissed?”
“I’m not happy, so go from there.”
“Did Scout explain how it was messing with our heads?”
He nodded stiffly. “He did. I’m like Trenton. I don’t like it. Scout and I had words, and I mean where we almost came to blows. My best friend. After you, my two brothers, I love that guy. But I got eyes. I saw how he’s tormented by shit too, and I saw his reaction to something that says more than even he knows.”
I straightened. “Like what?”
“That’s not for me to say. I’m just repeating what we already said earlier. The second, the very instant feelings start, you two are dunzo. You hear me? Otherwise, it’ll get messy, and I don’t want to lose my best friend.” His eyes flared. “Because you know it’s family. It’s always family. You, my brothers, I’ll always choose you guys over anyone else. But having said all that, I’ve watched you two. You don’t seem like you’re falling for him, and I get that he can say things to you we can’t. Maybe that’s something you need?”
That was kinda the truth. “He got in my face today about not talking about the article.”
“He did?”
I nodded. “He yelled at me, said I let Max break me this week.”
Alex got quiet.
“He might’ve been a little right.”
Alex nodded. “He has that tendency sometimes—that, and wanting to rip someone’s head off.”
“I’ve seen that side.”
He got a whole new weird look over his face before he shuddered, and wiped his expression clean. “I’m not going to ask about that.” He gave me back my own emptied glass. “Make me another drink.”
“I—”
“You’re banging my best friend.”
I closed my mouth. “Another drink coming right up.”
Once I was done with the bartending, he pulled me to his chest, giving me a hug. “Love you, cousin. Nice having you here.”
I squeezed him tight. “Love you too.”
“Now.” He turned me around, his arm around my shoulders. “Forget the eye fluttering game. Clint’s probably making out with someone already, let’s cockblock him. He’ll explode on one of us, and when he does, we both empty our drinks.”
“Who wins in that situation?”
“The one he doesn’t explode on.”
I considered it. “Let’s do it.”
The party was winding down. It was past one in the morning.
Most had gone by now. Gem and Theresa took off an hour ago, catching a ride with some of Theresa’s friends. It’d been fun to go around, playing pool with my cousins, hearing Gem laugh with the gamers, seeing Theresa happy in her corner with her friends, and being able to enjoy this old feeling again. Socializing. Hanging out. Not being scared when someone was going to say something to target you, ridicule you, and when you’d have to ‘fight’ albeit that be emotional, mental, verbal, or the worst of the worst, physically.
I was heading inside when I saw Gabby, Amalia’s friend who spread my business from back in Cedra Valley here. She was in the kitchen, grabbing food, when I’d just come in from the patio outside.
Our gazes met.
She froze, and I felt a kick in my gut, remembering a promise I made her that I was the kind of enemy that would wait, watch for the perfect timing, and then pounce for my revenge.
