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"What's up with you?" Colton asks, eyeing me.
"How did you make Evie fall in love with you?" I blurt. Fuck. I should have been cooler about that.
Colton sits up slowly, a light in his eye. "Love. You want to talk about love? This is the best day ever. I got some this morning. The sun is shining, and now you want to talk feelings? It's the trifecta!" he crows, making happy fists.
"Keep your damn voice down," I whisper, eyeing the rest of my brothers. Declan has his headphones on thankfully and looks to be totally in the zone. But Zach and Maverick are heading our way. Fucking Colton and his big mouth.
"What's happening? Who's in love?" Zach asks, absently smoothing his fitted white t-shirt over his stomach. Of course his shirt is white. Even weirder, it'll stay white the whole day. Not a single drop of sauce or a stray crumb would dare fall on it. How he and Maya, a walking crumb factory, muddle along, I'll never know. But he's happy and so is she, so whatever they have going for them must be working. I do wonder if he has some sort of pocket vacuum he whips out before they bump uglies. The thought makes me roll onto my back, laughing.
Zach props his hands on his hips and glares down at me. "What's so funny?"
It's too good not to share, especially with Maverick right here. "It's just..you're allergic to crumbs and Maya leaves a trail wherever she goes. Do you have a pocket vacuum or something? Do you bring it out before sexy time?" I can barely get it out, but the guilty look that crosses his face makes me howl. Maverick catches it too, and he collapses to the mat giggling hysterically.
"It's not a fucking vacuum. It's a lint roller. I have a bunch of them. Maya keeps going to that shelter, so I always have to clean off her clothes for her," he says defensively, as if it's totally normal to use a lint roller on your lover.
Colton's shaking his head, looking disgusted. "She's never gonna marry you if you keep doing shit like that."
Zach turns smug. "Yeah she will. Trust me. She has no complaints."
Colton chuckles and holds his fist out for a bump. Zach grins and taps it. He has a point. Maya seems really damn happy, despite Zach's neat freak tendencies. They're opposites, but it works for them.
Bree and I aren't opposites. Does that mean the road will be easier for us?
Not likely.
That's assuming she even wants to go down that road with me. I know it's not fucking guaranteed. When she's ready, she can have any man she looks at. I just have to make damned sure that when she's ready, I'm the only man she wants.
Resigned to having the conversation with the peanut gallery, I ask my question again. "How did you get Evie to fall in love with you?"
Maverick's giggles taper off. He's trying to hold them in so he can listen, nosy bastard. Zach looks smug again. Of course he does. He doesn't' have to worry about any of this shit. He's got the girl too. He and Colton are on one side of this abyss, and Mav and I are on the other.
Time to knock them both down a bit, get this conversation back on level ground. "I mean, she's way out of your league. You're one step up from a caveman most of the time, so it's a damned miracle you actually married her. You know you're lucky, right?
He doesn't flip me off, or make a joke. Instead he throws me off balance by turning serious. "Yeah. I do know I'm lucky. Luckier than anyone on the planet. That's how I got her, man. I knew how special she was, and I made sure she knew I'm all in. That she was it for me, and I was willing to do anything to make her happy."
He leans back on his hands and studies me. "You been hiding a girl from us? Someone special?"
Zach settles onto the mat propping his arms on his knees, and peers at me like he's going to peel off the top of my head and find all my secrets. "Who is she? Someone from the club? Have we met her?"
"No, there's no one," I say, lying through my teeth, and not feeling an ounce of guilt about it. Telling the family about me and Bree —if there ever is a me and Bree— will have to be done carefully. Otherwise, I may find myself running from Cara and her very sharp scissors.
No, before that happens, I'm going to need to prove myself and recruit a bunch of the family to my side. That's the long game. In the short term? Lying's a totally valid plan. "I just...you're all getting paired up, and maybe someday I might want what you have. I just...don't know much about it."
Maverick nods almost to himself and lays his head on the floor, apparently waiting for words of wisdom. Zach and Colton seem to sit taller. This could go one of two ways. They act like dicks and give me a bunch of terrible advice, or they actually help. Or a mixture of both, so three ways actually.
Colton leans forward and points a finger at me. "Women are really damn confusing. They're thinking about way too much all the time. If you can't get their brains to calm down, you don't have a fucking chance."
Zach frowns. "Maya's not really like that. She's sort of the opposite. She had everything figured out, or she thought she did, and she just put her head down and barreled along. I had to work hard to get her to...Oh. Yeah. That's what that was. What he said. Women are thinking way too much of the time, and usually, they're thinking the wrong thing."
"The wrong thing? What would Evie say if she were right here?"
Colton shifts uncomfortably. "We're not going to tell her now, are we? It's bro code asshole. What's said in the gym stays in the gym."
"Unless she asks," Zach says firmly. "If Maya asks, I'll tell her. I don't keep secrets."
"Fine. If Maya asks if we talked to Nick about how to make a woman fall in love with him, then you can tell her. Deal?" Zach nods, looking all kinds of relieved.
"Truth is important," I mutter, thinking of the conversation with Abby and John last week.
