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Goddammit.
“Timothy.” Mina is unamused. Not Celia-level yet, but close. It raises my hopes that she’ll put an end to this. The entire room is silent, watching the unspoken exchange as Timothy gives her the biggest puppy dog eyes. It’s so obvious I can practically hear them.
Timothy: Please, please, pretty please, can I backflip off the roof?
Mina: Are you serious with this shit?
Timothy: Please, baby? It’s 99.9 percent safe (for me) and I want to make Nic do it.
Mina glances at me, back to Timothy. She sighs. “We leave for our honeymoon in a few days. You better not break anything I’m going to need.”
Timothy leaps onto a barstool, pointing at his wife. “Don’t worry, baby—I could land dick first and still be ready for game day.” He turns back to me, looking smug and satisfied as he rolls up his sleeves and loosens his tie. “Gauntlet thrown, Warwick. Come show me how a badass superhero does it. Unless there’s some reason you might want to chicken out? Anyreputationsyou might be concerned about?”
My glare feeds his grin.
“Outside, everyone!” His voice rings through the house. “We need judges for this epic match of…ego? Nope. Dick size. Definitely dick size.” He grabs me by the shoulder, shoving me ahead. “Come on, asshole.” I’ve given him an excuse to get on the roof, and he grins happily at me, squeezing my shoulder.
Celia’s voice rises above the commotion as everyone filters out of the room behind us, sweeping us outside. “No trips to the ER, boys. Please.”
I’m going to break my neck. The thought passes through my head again when I clamber onto the roof after Timothy. If I couldn’t stop him from playing The Floor is Lava at the Warwick wrap party, there’s no way I can stop him when he has Mina’s permission and Celia is oddly chill about it.
I can try. “Should you be doing this?”
He shrugs. “The ground is covered in snow, I’ll clear the roof. You going to be able to do this?”
That’s a good question.
He rubs his hands together with glee. “You wanna call this off, you know what you have to do.”
What I have to do, I strongly suspect, involves declaring my intentions toward Jessie from the rooftop.
I catch sight of her as she slips into the back of the crowd. Her eyes meet mine and her face pinches with worry.
“You know we all know, right?” Timothy’s voice is low enough that only I can hear him. “Just make it official so you don’t have to sneak around.”
I blow out a deep breath. Everyone knows. Or Timothy’s full of shit. Fifty-fifty odds.
He nudges me. “Thanks to your inability to keep your dick out of my sister for a few days, I lost a bet to my wife. You don’t want to know what I owe her—actually, it’s mostly sex, so thanks.”
I meet Jessie’s eyes.Do they know?I mouth.
Her eyebrows pinch and lips purse, but she nods.
Dammit. Whatever happens when the holidays end, I’m going to have to deal with it.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll make it official.”
He grins, clamping a hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you. Really. Best Christmas ever.” He claps his hands twice and calls down. “Nic has something to say, so listen up.”
It’s not the idea of telling everyone that I’m afraid of. It’s the consequences.
They already know. Just admit it and get off the fucking roof.
I clear my throat and stuff my hands into my pockets to warm them up. “Jessie and I are having a holiday fling.”
Cheers and whistles fill the cold air. A few elbows nudge their neighbors. Jessie’s eyes are saucer-wide, her lips parted in anoh.
“No shit!” Mina calls up.
