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“Nice to see you, Scotty. Been awhile,” she said, grinning as she placed her mug of tap water into the microwave and set the timer. “That black eye looks painful. I thought my uncle’s fight was with Mickey?”
“It was, but I made the mistake of stepping between them when Mickey was getting ready to throw a punch,” he told her, grinning like he always did whenever she came around.
“You punched your best friend?” she asked me, looking concerned.
I suddenly felt bad for my fist connecting with Scotty’s face. All he’d wanted to do was spare me from Daryl’s lethal punch. “Yeah, collateral damage. I’ve already apologized several times.”
“Once… you apologized once,” Scotty corrected.
“You know I’m sorry about it,” I told him, trying not to come across as the asshole in all of this.
“Okay. Okay,” Colt said. “Now that all the apologies are done, along with the intros, can we get down to why we’re here?”
“Um, can I get my tea made first?” CindyLou asked, her voice causing my balls to ache. “With milk, if that’s possible.”
“Whatever you need,” Scotty told her, jumping up to grab the carton of milk. “Sugar?”
Oh man, the guy had it fucking bad for her.
She nodded. “Sure, thanks.”
I didn’t know what to do with myself or how to react. I thought I’d gotten over her, moved on, but seeing her now, I knew that had all been total bullshit.
Fuck me!
Once the microwave sounded off, and she had a mug of hot, steaming tea in front of her, courtesy of her own teabag, Colt leaned back on the counter and said, “Daryl kicked us out of his house this morning, and the way I see it, we only have one alternative. CindyLou’s moving into my place this afternoon… into my spare bedroom.”
Normally, whatever Colt wanted us to do, I’d usually go along with it. Scotty too. He was the oldest and the more level headed of the group, but this was different.
I directed my question right to Colt, as if he and I were the only two in the room. “Wait a minute. Let’s calm down here. CindyLou’s moving in with you? Why the hell would she want to do that?”
“I’m right here,” she said. “If you have an issue with that, you need to ask me about it, not Colt.”
My gaze fell on her, on her amazing face with a smile that sent my heart into over-fucking-drive, and a body that fucked with my dreams at night. Then there was her general warmth and her ability to listen to all my shit and not judge me like everybody else did. What the fuck was that all about? And now she was moving in with Colt? How the fuck did this happen?
“Daryl’s fight is with me, not with either of you. Why’d he kick you two out? What the hell happened to piss him off?”
“We had sex last night on his porch,” Colt said, before CindyLou could say another word.
“Well, that’ll do it,” Scotty mumbled, then let out a heavy sigh.
“If you’ve got a problem with that, Mickey, we’ll have to settle it right now, cause there’s no time for any bullshit this morning. We’ve got a headliner coming in tonight at the Coyote, and none of us can afford not to be ready for it.”
I’d already learned their songbook, but there were still a couple of tunes I needed to practice today, not that I was in the mood to do much of anything but feel sorry for myself all day. Something I’d gotten very good at.
I didn’t know what the fuck to say. CindyLou could fuck anybody she wanted to, but fuck it all, wasn’t there some kind of loyalty between friends? Like between Colt and me?
“What the fuck, Colt,” was all I could get out.
“Right now, a pissing contest between you two isn’t important,” CindyLou said.
“Seems kind of important to me. Not that I should care. I mean there’s nothing between us, CindyLou. It’s not like we have any kind of connection or anything.” I was rambling, looking for a landing strip to land my plane.
She placed her mug down on the island and came over to me. “That’s where you’re wrong, Mickey.” Her gaze fell to the floor, then her sweet eyes met mine once again. “Maybe we should go somewhere to talk. Just you and me.”
“Awe, hell,” Scotty said. “This sounds serious.”
“Whatever you’ve got to tell me, Colt and Scotty are gonna find out about it anyway, so you might as well tell me right now.”
