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“I just mean… I never asked. Just had a temper tantrum, and you had to talk me down from it.”
She scoffed. “Come off it. You would have talked yourself down. I was just trying to mitigate.”
“I don’t think I was angry with Jaxon,” he said. “Just think I was surprised.”
“I’m not the one you need to tell,” she said.
“I know, I know. And there I go making it about me again. None of this is about me. It’s you who-”
“Stop it,” she snapped. “Stop treating me like a bloody victim, Brad. I’m not some damsel in need of your saving.”
“Fucking hell, Teagan, I know that,” Brad said, sighing. “Look, I’m just saying, if you need anything, I’m here. I’ve always been here.”
“Always been here to overreact,” she muttered, deciding she’d had enough of this conversation, opting to change it. She craned her neck to see into the kitchen. “What’s Frank making?” she asked. The blender soon drowned out everything, just as the scent of fresh bananas wafted through the air. “Hey, it’s banana daiquiris!” Teagan gasped as soon as the blender shut off. Jaxon returned, tossing their bag into one of the chairs and moving in to stand between her and Brad, draping his arm over her shoulder.
“Great. Now I’ve got a mess in the kitchen and upstairs,” Brad groaned.
“Oh, get your head out of your ass and have fun with us,” Teagan countered.
“Get my head out of my ass?” he asked, repeating it as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. “I thought you’d be the first to admit that this should be a tactical meeting of sorts. It’syourpictures that ass has. Or is this reaction something I should have kept to myself? An overreaction, Teagan? Is it an overreaction?”
Teagan frowned, feeling as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. “Fuck off, Brad,” she turned, all ready to have to explain to him why the fun night was needed and then spend the rest of it sulking, except Jaxon beat her to it. Well, the explanation anyway.
“Hey Brad, calm your tits. We made a plan and we can’t act on it till tomorrow morning. The only other things we can do are sit around and worry. And since Teagan’s been spending an awful lot of time doing that, I think this is what she needs, so if you need help, I can get a crowbar from the back of my truck and extract your head from your rectum, or you can just shut your mouth because while your heads up there, it’s just you talking out of your ass and none of its helpful.”
Brad’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Excuse me for being the grounded one.”
“Right. You are the grounded one. While you hang out there on the ground, I’m going to go upstairs and drink banana daiquiris with my girlfriend and yours too. Have fun.” Jaxon reached out and squeezed his shoulder.
He slid his arm around Teagan and steered her out to the kitchen where Frank was pouring the icy, pale yellow drinks into Dave and Brad’s mismatched tumblers.
“Hello,” Frank said with a wide grin. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced, but know you’re Teagan, by process of elimination… and also because Shea told me her sister had long red hair. Think I’ve seen you down at the bar a few times, yeah?”
Teagan smiled. “I’m not there as often as my other siblings, but I am occasionally. Pleased to meet you, Frank.” She took one of the proffered glasses and took a long sip, sighing happily over the pleasant burn as it went down. “Fuck me, that’s good.”
“Perhaps later, either when we have fewer witnesses or we drink enough of these and have fewer inhibitions,” Jaxon teased Teagan before holding out his hand to Frank. “I think we’ve met before.”
“We have,” Frank replied, reaching out and shaking his hand. “Brad’s birthday party.”
And then he turned on the blender again and all hope of conversation was lost.
Once all the drinks were blended and poured into glasses, they didn’t think about talking much anyway. Frank made fucking amazing banana daiquiris and while Teagan herself preferred margaritas, she found half of hers to be gone by the time she approached the stairs.
She offered Dave a sip, but he declined. “I’m staying up to keep watch,” he informed her.
“He’s the bouncer,” Shea informed her. “Cover charge is a banana daiquiri. You know, to keep the boring asses down here where they belong,” she directed over her shoulder at Brad before bending at the waist with her tumbler of frozen daiquiri and barreling headfirst up the stairs through the blanket tunnel they’d created.
“It’s my house,” Brad called after her.
“It’s mine too,” Dave countered.
“And what? You’re going to keep me from going upstairs?”
“I’m the bouncer of this sleepover,” Dave quipped, smirking as he uncapped his bottle of water and took a sip.
“You’re the ass, is what you are,” Brad muttered. “And it’s not a bloody sleepover, Dave!”
Meanwhile, it was becoming apparent to Teagan that they hadn’t thought this thing all the way through. But she was about three inches into her daiquiri already, and she certainly wasn’t going to hang out down here with Dave and Brad, so that left the daunting prospect of crawling back up the stairs.
