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“Still kind of sexy.”
“Reagan, he’s an asshole,” I say, rolling my eyes and laughing.
She waggles her eyebrows at me, and I sigh.
“Fine,” I relent. “Still sexy.”
It felt good to get it all off my chest, but I don’t want to monopolize the conversation, so I shift the topic away from myself and onto my new neighbor. We chat easily as we finish off the bottle of wine, and I’m surprised to find that it feels almost as if we’re old friends—as if we’ve known each other a lot longer than just one evening. Reagan laughs easily, and she makes me laugh too, regaling me with stories of how lost she was when she first moved to New York.
I commiserate with her as she tells me she’s in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, and we end up talking until the sun goes down, the lights of the city slowly blinking on beneath us.
By the time I finally crawl back inside my apartment, waving goodnight to Reagan, I feel rejuvenated and lighter than I have in a while.
No matter what comes tomorrow, I know I can face it.
Chapter 12
Declan
I’ve barely rung the doorbell when it’s all but flung open.
“Hey, Dec. Thank god you’re here.”
I have just a second to react, but it’s not long enough to ward off Cole coming in for a hug, pounding me painfully on the back. I’m just an inch taller than he is, but I have a longer reach. I’m able to hold him out at arm’s length once I pry him off me.
“You doing okay?” I ask, eyeing him with one brow raised.
“Yeah. It’s just been a hellish week. I needed this.” There’s sincerity in his words, but I can already see the light glinting in his dark blue eyes, proving that he’s shaking off whatever had him so stressed out. “Get in here.”
I follow him into his house, grinning and rubbing my jaw. “You need to get a life, Cole.”
“Have one. Love it. Still need this.”
“Finally!” Reed says, rapping his fist on the table as Cole and I enter the den. “Let’s get this going.”
“You both need more hobbies,” I grumble, but it’s good to see my friends. I haven’t made enough time for them lately. Work has been pulling my focus during pretty much every waking hour.
“You know we don’t have time for that shit.” Reed chuckles, echoing my thoughts. “Hobbies? What the fuck?”
“We all know your hobbies are women,” Cole says. “Dec? What’s your poison?”
“Macallan,” I tell him. “Same as always.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” Cole advises, but he pours from the bottle he has in his hand anyway. “We’re cracking into the good stuff tonight.”
“Women are the only thing I have time for,” Reed reasons, already nursing a glass of his own. “That, and whiskey.”
“You want to talk about it?” I ask him, arching an eyebrow as I take my seat at the poker table.
“What’s to talk about?” he counters morosely, studying the bottom of his drink before draining it. Cole takes the opportunity to pour him another, although I doubt it’s a good idea with the kind of mood Reed’s in. “I’m sure you’ve already read everything there is to know about the breakup. And then some.”
“And then some,” Cole agrees, taking a seat. “That’s rough, Reed.”
“Aren’t we here to take our minds off things?” I ask.
“Working on it,” Reed says, swirling the whiskey in his glass. His amber eyes, almost the same color of the liquor, aren’t too terribly troubled by everything that happened.
“Isn’t there a lesson in here somewhere that we should learn from, though?” Cole asks, shuffling a deck of cards before starting to deal us all a hand.
