Page 126 of One Wild Wish

Her and me both. My recent evenings made my teen masturbation-athons seem amateurish. I could swing by her place later, after drinks with Jimmy, steal a few hours with her before sleep and waking for my flight. But that’s not how I wanted things to begin with Ainsley. “If I can cut my trip short, I will.” I pushed to my feet, then helped her up. “You need me to dust off your ass?”

She shoved at my chest, and her belly rumbled. “What I need is food.”

What I needed was to get my life in order.

* * *

By the time I walked into The Blue Door, most of the unpretentious wine bar was full. Luckily, Jimmy and Emmett had already secured a table. The dim lights cast a glow on the wine collection filling the back wall as Eric Clapton drifted from the speakers. I found an empty place at the crowded bar and nodded to Cameron. “Hey.”

He reached for a bottle of Pliny. “The usual?”

I’d been here enough that I could order with as little as a head nod, but my impending trip and my slight deception with Ainsley had me craving something harder. “Double Scotch on the rocks.”

“Coming right up.” Cameron was as tattooed as Jimmy, but instead of sporting a mess of wavy black hair, his blond pompadour was neatly styled. He poured my drink, then pushed my tumbler of amber liquid toward me. “Who’s the new guy?”

I glanced at my friends. Jimmy had been a fixture here awhile, introduced me to it when I’d moved back, but it was Emmett’s first night here. “My brother.”

“Seriously? You look nothing alike.”

Emmett’s wavy dark hair, olive skin, and darker eyes gave him a European look. As a kid, my sandy hair and square jaw often had people labeling me All-American Boy. “You mean I’m much better looking?”

His gray eyes cut to my brother, an appraising perusal that had my eyebrows inching up. Emmett attracted every available man in sniffing distance. I picked up my glass. “He’s trouble. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Cameron was a good guy, and I dug hanging out here. Last thing I needed was my brother the manwhore making the place uncomfortable.

Still, Cameron cast a searching glance at him. “Noted. You can settle up after.”

I made my way to the boys and sunk into a seat opposite them. “Here’s to a crazy day.”

“Good to see you, too.” Jimmy clinked his wineglass with my tumbler, Emmett following with his beer bottle. Jimmy swirled his glass. “To what do we owe the crazy?”

After the day I’d had, that was a loaded question. I hadn’t mentioned Ainsley to Jimmy yet. Emmett didn’t have much more dirt on the subject. Neither knew about Tessa’s accusations and how painful seeing her would be on tomorrow’s trip.

All this drama had my mind drifting to the one person who’d helped me when things had caved in with Tessa. Summer Daniels. Meeting her on my first Habitat build in D.C. had been a stroke of luck. We hadn’t been in touch since before my divorce, and I hadn’t thought about her in ages, but this trip to my past was dredging up all kinds of memories. The urge to contact her struck. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure she’d want to hear from me. Not with how our last talk had ended.

That left the boys.

My generous swallow of Scotch burned a warm path down my throat. “I’ve met a girl.”

“Nice.” Emmett grinned. “The one you were having lunch with at the Habitat build?”

“Yeah, but there’s a funny story there.” Guitar licks reverberated through the room, chatter rising and falling with it. The guys stared, waiting on me. This story wasn’t just funny. It was downright ridiculous. “She was being all cagey with me, tossing out all kinds of mixed signals, because she thought…” I sighed, aware I was inviting ridicule. I looked at my egotistical brother. “She thought you and I were an item.”

His grin spread until I could see his fucking molars. “She thought you were gay? That we were dating?”

All I could do was nod.

He released a roaring cackle. “Honestly, man, don’t buy me anything for my birthday. We’ll consider this my gift.” He grabbed his ribs and tipped forward, laughing his ass off.

Jimmy joined in, nearly spitting out his wine. When the wheezing assholes finally calmed down, Jimmy dragged his wrist over his eyes. “Because I can’t resist, what made her think that?”

Christ. I shouldn’t have told them. Emmett would never let me live it down, and Jimmy would have enough material to make our soccer matches hell. I scrubbed my hand over my mouth as I mumbled, “She knew Emmett from the gym.”

They both leaned closer, eyes squinting. Jimmy spoke first. “Didn’t catch that.”

Emmett’s contribution: “Louder, fucknut.”

I was so screwed. “She met this loser”—I jabbed a finger toward my giddy-ass brother—“at the gym and had a crush on him until she found out he was gay. So when he met me at the Habitat build and decided to grab my ass, she assumed we were a couple.”

If they were wheezing before, the two of them were nothing but a pair of frenetic hyenas now, smacking the table and hooting. Every eye in the place was on us.