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“What’s with you and Noel these days?” Mav asked, as if he knew what I was thinking about, sidling up next to me as I watched the water fly past us. There was nothing in any direction, just the open navy of a calm sea and the sun blaring down at us. Dying to have eyes on the shoreline, on the promise of home, I kept my focus on the horizon despite logic reminding me we were hours from being able to spot it. “I just mean, it seemed like things were…escalating there.”
“Mind your business, kid.”
He chuckled as Axel joined us, crossing his arms over his chest. “When it was Rhyett’s business, you had no problem telling the whole family about it.”
“That was different,” I practically growled.
“Like hell it was,” he said, barking a laugh.
“Nother.”
“What?” Mav asked, turning to lean his ass against the railing, clearly just as unadvisedly comfortable on the water as the rest of us.
“It wasn’t Noel.”
“Because Brex didn’t deserve the privacy?” Axel demanded, apparently in the mood to poke the bear.
“Course she did. But they started out as some cheap one-night stand. It’s not like either of them took it seriously in the beginning, either. Haven’t said shit since he decided she wasmore.”
“Soo…you’re saying that thereissomething there?” Mav hedged, fishing for more details than he was entitled to.
“Don’t know.”
“Yes, you do,” Axel challenged. “Sounded like you were gonna kill me when I came to get you Sunday night. That means something.”
“Don’t know,” I said again, shrugging my shoulder.
“Jesus, you’re frustrating,” Axel grumbled, shaking his head. “Leave it, Mav. The caveman doesn’t know how to communicate.” Mav did not, in fact, decide to leave it.
“Come on, man, I’m just curious. Everybody is. You like her. Beyond the sex.”
“Of course,I like her. How could Inot? Ten minutes with the woman andScroogehimself would fill stockings.” That’s what the world needed. More light, like Noel. More people who took something simple, like how a local took their coffee, and made it special. Annoyingly optimistic, just like my big brother, but when it was her…it just…hit differently. Maybe she was naïve, but she made me want to be better. To do better. “Andthe sexis none of your goddamn business.”
His face fell, and I had a sinking suspicion it had nothing to do with my snarled warning. Uncharacteristic worry played over his features. Finally, our baby brother cleared his throat. “Don’t wait to tell her, Jameson. I just…I have this feeling about her, alright? That’s why I’m prying.”
I turned to scowl at him, demanding, “What kind of feeling?”
“The good kind.”
“Be more cryptic,” I drawled sarcastically. “It’s really helping.”
“Look who’s talking,” Axel jabbed as Maverick smirked.
“The…meant-to-be-family kind of feeling.”
“Jesus, man. That’s a stretch.” No. It wasn’t. I’d already wanted her. But the idea of something happening to her had cemented it in my brain. Noel was mine. Was always supposed to be mine. I’d been a fling kind of guy because they’d been fling kinds of girls. She…wasn’t.
Noel McShane was the real deal. The timing couldn’t have been more spectacularly horrible. But it was what it was. “We’re just getting to know each other.”
Maverick shook his head, face going uncharacteristically serious. “I don’t think so. Don’t fuck this up. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Noted.” Like I wasn’t wrestling with exactly that. My girl thought this was for show. Thought this was to ward off Eric. I needed to get my ass off the damn water and make sure she knew otherwise.
We’d just pulledup to the dock when I leapt for it, bristling when Kenny jumped off theTide Turnerwith his eyes on me.Everythingbristled.Thatdidn’t look good.
“Hey, man, I’ve got somewhere to be,” I said by way of greeting. I didn’t very well care what the hell was going on in town or with Kenny. I just wanted to get home. Because two days away were two days too damn many. Fuck, we weren’t even technically together—just screwing—and I was acting like a lovesick puppy.
“What’s going on with you, man?”
