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“If you don’t shut the hell up, I’m going to puke in your suitcase.” I cursed at Reid as he sang Frank Sinatra on his way out of the living room of Maverick’s beautiful vacation home on the morning of my wedding, like the ass hole I was learning he could be.
I was sitting on the couch with Dexter, my legs stretched out across his lap and a pillow over my head as I waited for the obscene amount of ibuprofen I’d taken to start working so I could start feeling human again.
“Seriously though, who knew Maverick and Reid could drink so much and be so unaffected?” Nat groaned from where she laid on the floor across the room. She’d been laying on the couch when I came out to the living room, but at some point she’d fallen off.
“It’s fucking rude, really.” Dexter chirped from next to me and I poked his side with my toe.
“Shouldn’t your tolerance be the same as theirs with as often as the three of you go off and get into trouble?” I asked, my voice muffled under my pillow. He reached over and pulled it off my face, letting the sunlight assault my eyes and hugged it to his chest.
I was glad to see he’d traded his puke bin for a pillow finally. It had been touch and go there for a while.
“Someone has to stay sober around those two hooligans.” He said and I smiled for the first time all morning.
“Remind me to be that person next time, would you?”
“Not a chance darling, I call dibs for the rest of eternity.” He groaned, scooting down further on the couch, and putting my pillow over his face. “Ooh, this is heaven.” He moaned and I tried to snatch it back with my toes, but he grabbed both of my ankles and held them captive to keep me from succeeding.
“I thought you were my favorite Dex, but I’m second guessing that now.” I lied.
“You don’t get to take that title back now, missy. Not after the four rounds of karaoke I won for you last night.”
I scoffed, sitting up quickly and then groaning and holding my head as I fought the nausea to scold him for his bold face lie. “You sounded like a dying cat during Dancing Queen and who knew you could get even worse for Shania Twain in the next round.”
I could just make out the smile on his face under the edge of the pillow and cursed him for baiting me. He knew he sucked, but by the time the karaoke started last night at the bar we were at, he and I were both way to drunk to care. We put on one hell of a show from what I could remember, before Maverick dragged us off the stage and back to the house. Which was good, because Nat and I had a puking competition on the walk back up the beach and it would have been embarrassing as hell to do that in the middle of the bar.
“God, can you believe you’re getting married today?” He asked from his dark cave, and I felt a smile pull my lips as I thought about it.
“Let’s just hope Mav goes through with it before he realizes he’s marrying way, way down with me.” I mused, playing with my engagement ring, and turning to sit with my back against the cushion next to Dexter.
He’d always been so quiet that I’d had a hard time getting a read on him before, but since I called him during my little shoplifting legal battle, he’d been a perfect ally and I found myself actually drawn to his quiet friendship. It was quite the contrast to Reid’s boisterous and outgoing nature and yet somehow I fell right in between the two formidable men my almost husband called his very best friends, and they’d accepted me into their pack.
“Did you know every time you say some self-deprecating bullshit like that, Maverick intentionally starves two underprivileged kids in a third world country?” Dexter asked flatly from next to me and I elbowed him roughly, causing him to groan and lift his head, dislodging his pillow cave.
“Why would you say something like that?” I gasped in shock as he laughed at me.
“Because that’s what he used to say to me when I did that shit.” He lifted one eye lid to look at me and shrugged his shoulders. I looked over across the room to where Nat laid face down in the carpet and I was pretty sure she was passed back out because she hadn’t moved or spoken in the last few minutes.
“So…” I said quietly, waiting for Dexter to open his eye again that he’d just closed before continuing. “I was surprised when Mav told me there would be no plus one needed for you this weekend.” I tapped his ring finger on top of the pillow on his lap that was encircled with a gold band. “Considering.”
He looked from the end of my finger to my face and then over to Nat before he closed his eyes again and stayed silent. I thought perhaps that he was going to straight up ignore me, but after a while he sighed and swallowed. I watched in fascination as the long column of his neck muscles worked under the tight skin there in his reclined position. I’d been wrong when I’d met Dexter for the first time thinking that his blonde hair and blue eyes made him look like the boy next door type. Because last night when he’d finally let loose a bit and relaxed, I saw a different side of him, and he was anything but mediocre.
He was downright hot with a brooding quiet mystery to him that I knew for a fact would have intrigued me in a sexual way if I wasn’t so consumed with Maverick and his dark looks and moods.
“I’m…” He started, and paused, swallowing again as I waited for him. “It’s…” He faded off again and sighed. “I’m more attached to my ring than my marriage at this point.”
I raised my eyebrows at him, “That leaves me with more questions than answers, you do know that right?”
He smirked an almost sad one-sided smile, “You and me both Cora.”
I was about to ask him more, but the front door opened, and Maverick stalked in, wearing a pair of low hanging athletic shorts and sneakers, dripping with sweat fresh from a run and my brain short circuited.
“Damn, I’m a lucky woman.” I mused and nudged Dex with my elbow. “He’s sinfully sexy right? It’s not just my beer goggles?”
Dexter groaned next to me and put his head back down on the cushion, covering it with my pillow once again. “I see better every time I look in the mirror.”
Mav raised an eyebrow at us where we sat all buddy-buddy as he wiped his discarded t-shirt over his face and chest. “You two look cozy.” He said and I could hear the bit of challenge in his voice.
I smiled sexily up at him where he stood ten feet away and laid my head on Dexter’s shoulder and shrugged. “I needed someone to distract me from these cold feet.” I lifted my bare feet into the air and wiggled them at him as he scowled deeper. I dropped my feet and my smile at his dark look. “I was just kidding.”
