AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I could. Easy money, steady work. Home turf. Probably even get my old apartment back over the garage. Get back out of the city.
No more hearing Nic through the walls. No more ten-minute trips to Natalie’s place.
It would be a commitment, and somehow, that word doesn’t put me off the way it used to. But less of Nic and Natalie is not an option for me.
“I really don’t,” I say finally.
I don’t know where something like this can go, between me and her and him, but I’m not done with it yet. I want to see where we can take it. If there’s even the smallest chance they’re feeling like me… I’m not going anywhere.
I know a situation like this is unlikely. I realize lightning basically struck for Callie and her men. It’s probably not forever for me.
But what if it is? What if we could have that, too? Waking up to them every day, that tangled mess of limbs. His eyes, her smile. To get to come home to them every night.
What if we could have that?
If there’s even the smallest chance, I can’t let it get away. The decision feels already made, like I chose this weeks ago, before we even began this thing. My gut, my head, and maybe even something else.
I’m staying.
I don’t have the words to say that to my cousin, though, so I keep it to myself. He’s looking over at the bar again anyway.
“So who is she?”
“Who?” he asks, jerking his eyes guiltily away from the pair at the bar, his cheeks pink.
“The redhead at the bar you’ve been staring at all night. I didn’t realize you were into her. We could have sat up there.”
Sully clears his throat. “Not her.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s not the redhead,” he says, his voice rough and quiet. “It’s him.”
I glance over my shoulder again.
“The bartender?”
Sully nods once. I run my tongue over my teeth.
“Huh.”
“Yeah.”
The bartender whispers in the ear of the redhead. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t even once glanced our way.
“That’s rough,” I say. Because what else do you say to your cousin-slash-brother who apparently has a big bisexual crush on a straight man?
Sully rubs his forehead and looks back at the table. “Yeah.”
“The bar down the street from my place has a pool table.”
“Yeah,” he says again. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
24
NIC
Cat’s tail twitches right in my face, showing exactly what he thinks of my life choices right now. Mainly in protest that I chose another set of push-ups instead of parking on the couch with him in my lap. I have to admit, I’ve been an inattentive owner, even by cat standards lately.
