Page 34 of Bend

For a second we just stand there, the music humming through the floorboards, people moving around us in loose waves of conversation and laughter.

And somehow the night suddenly feels a lot more interesting than it did ten minutes ago.

Chapter Six

Wolfe

This/That - Naits

I’ve always had a weakness for good music, good liquor, and pretty people who know exactly what they’re doing.

A few hours later, that weakness has me half buzzed, loose in the shoulders, and standing in a house that’s gone warm and wild around the edges. The party’s fuller now, louder too, bass humming through the floorboards while laughter spills from the kitchen to the deck every time the back door slides open. The air smells like sweat, summer, beer, and whatever perfume Echo’s wearing, and every time she drifts back between me and Thorne, smiling like she knows she’s trouble, the night kicks a little harder under my skin.

She’s been with us for the better part of the last few hours. Dancing, drinking, and laughing. Sliding so easily into our orbit it feels like she’s always been there, like the three of us found a rhythm somewhere between the music and the liquor and never bothered stepping out of it. Thorne’s looser now too, his cheeks a little flushed, and his grin easier than usual, still carrying that same playful edge he had outside when he was flirting with her earlier, all charm and smart mouth and that look he gets when he lets himself just be in the moment, without worrying about what people might think.

And me?

I’m exactly where I like to be.

Good music. Good company, and warm bodies brushing mine like none of us are in any hurry to move away. And somehow the night suddenly feels a lot more interesting than any of us expected it to.

Echo looks between us like she’s weighing something up. Her pretty dark eyes are sharp, giving away almost nothing unless she wants it to. Up close, she’s even prettier than I clocked back out on the driveway.

Not polished-pretty though. She’s all edges and heat and that restless kind of energy.

Echo sets her drink down, steps in close, and catches a fistful of my shirt and Thorne’s like she’s made up her mind for all three of us.

Then she tugs us into her.

It’s playful, but there’s intent behind it. She brings us right into her space, close enough that my hand goes to her waist on instinct while Thorne’s hand lands at her hip a second later. He lets out this quiet laugh, surprised by it.

The bass is deep enough to feel in my ribs as Echo sways between us, brushing against one, then the other, turning her head so her hair slides over my shoulder before she twists toward Thorne.

She leans back into me for a beat, warm and loose, then rolls forward again toward him, smiling when his hand tightens at her hip.

I watch her.

Then I watch him.

Thorne’s still grinning, still trying to play it off like this is all harmless fun, but I know him too well for that. I catch the little changes. The way his shoulders square. The way his breath catches when Echo presses closer against him. The way he tenses up when things start feeling a little too real.

That’s always how it is with him.

He’ll flirt all day long. Throw a grin at a girl, run his mouth, and make everybody in the room laugh. Outside earlier, he’d been doing exactly that with Echo, all swagger and pretty-boy confidence, and of course she’d eaten it up.

Dudes hot, charming, and he knows how to use both.

But this is different.

This has me in it and that’s exactly where he starts getting twitchy.

My hand shifts on Echo’s waist as she turns between us again, and this time my knuckles brush Thorne’s where he’s holding her.

His blue eyes flick to mine, just for a second, but I still catch it.

The heat. The awareness. That sharp little pause that always shows up between us right before he tries to laugh something off.

I know what it means.