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A year ago, when Jackson met Oleander, he’d had to earn her affection and love with all kinds of crazy ideas that seemed to work. They were really good together, though, so he knew it was worth all of the chaos that went into it. Even before he got to know Frankie, just seeing her with Milo told him that she wasthewoman his best friend had been waiting for. He was beyond happy that his boys had found their lifelong partners, but he sometimes missed having them play wingmen when they went out for drinks.
“Are you two done?”
Jackson and Milo clinked their drinks with victorious grins and nodded at him.
“All right, give us all the historical details,” Milo told him.
At the same time, Everleigh came rushing towards the table, arms filled with things. All three of them were on their feet as everything spilled onto the floor and they moved to help her gather her belongings.
“Why are you carrying so much stuff around?” Gavin asked, setting everything on the table beside theirs.
“I…I don’t have a good answer for that,” she responded with a laugh, then brushed her wild red hair out of her face. “Okay, what did I miss?”
While Everleigh wasn’t some innocent wallflower, Gavin was glad that she hadn’t been there for the conversation from a few minutes ago. She was softer than the three guys and he liked protecting her as much as possible. Which, obviously, she did not appreciate.
Milo came back with a fruity drink and set it in front of Everleigh. “Gavin was about to give us the details on his relationship with Ginny.”
“Is she the one who works with Frankie?”
Jackson nodded. “But before there was Frankie, there was Gavin. That sounds weird.”
“She’s actually best friends with Spencer and we grew up together, sort of.”
Everleigh leaned forward, elbow on the table and chin resting in the palm of her hand, her bright green eyes focused on him. She looked different and he was happy for her, because it was clear that falling in love was doing his friends a whole lot of good.
“She was my first love,” Gavin started, moving his glass around on the table and launched into their sordid history. He’d told the guys a pretty good version on the roof that night at the Christmas party, but for Everleigh’s sake, he went into a little more detail. Actually voicing his feelings and admitting that he’d been hurt and so caught up in everything felt good. But also made him realize that maybe he had gone into that relationship with Ginny expecting something she had no intention of giving him.
“The Christmas party was the first time I’d seen her in twelve years and all that hurt and anger just bubbled to the surface. Now whenever I see her, I get irrationally angry and want to kiss her and fuck her and push her away. It’s…fucking me up.”
“Hongry. Likehangry, but when you’re horny instead,” Jackson said, grinning proudly. But the smile faded when Everleigh shot him a glare. Jackson cleared his throat and he looked at Gavin. “Do you hate her?”
“No. That would be so much easier, though.”
“In romance novels, there’s this thing the characters do. We call it ‘get it out of our systems’ and maybe that’s what you two need to do,” Everleigh offered, making all three of them frown at her. “What? Sometimes sex gets all the pent up frustration out.”
Milo was the first to react with a snort and pointed at Everleigh. “She has a point.But, maybe you should also try and talk to her again.”
“What good will that do?”
“I’m a big supporter oftalking, but you’re more of the broody type, so I’d suggest practicing before you do anything,” Everleigh said, reaching across the table to give his arm a squeeze.
Jackson and Milo burst out laughing and Gavin rolled his eyes at his friends. Everleigh wasn’t wrong, though. He was definitely coming across as broody and it was turning into angry whenever he was around Ginny. Especially when she asked ‘what happened to us?’ like she didn’t know what she had done to him.
“Clearly the first time you talked about what happened was to yell at each other. What is the point of being angry with her when you’re not even surewhyyou’re angry.” Milo put a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently.
“I know why I’m angry. She broke my heart.” The words came out almost strained and he swallowed the lump in his throat as he called for another drink.
“I think even the broodiest person can have a civilized conversation,” Everleigh added with a smile.
“And no hate sex,” Jackson said with a firm nod.
What’s the point of a heated conversation if there’s no sex involved?Gavin sighed and nodded.
CHAPTER9
If it wasn’tfor Spencer’s big mouth, Ginny wouldn’t have had to lie about why she was at the shelter to see Gavin. Then again, being honest and telling Juniper Rhodes that she and Gavin had history would have been a lot harder. If she was being honest, telling Juniper that her youngest son was a hot as sin pain in the ass would have been entertaining. While she didn’t appreciate Spencer tossing her under the bus like that, maybe building a working relationship with Gavin would be better than trying to build something else with him.No, I don’t want anything else with him.
So there she was, researching different events that shelters had run and coming up with a bunch of ideas that she could pitch to him. Ginny actually didn’t knowwhatit was about Gavin that drove her insane—in both the good and bad ways. On the surface, he still looked like the handsome, sparkly-eyed, messy haired boy who knew how to kiss and could make her come in seconds. His anger had clearly been festering for a long time, so he wasn’t as sweet as she expected him to be.
