Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Eat me.” My cards are trash. Best I can hope for is to pick up a flop pair.
Luke tucks his cards away like they tried to bite him. “Who’s Arlene?” he asks.
My brother grins broadly. “Evan’s got a stalker.”
“Jealous,” I answer.
Cooper continues, chuckling to himself. “Old lady from the nursing home got his number somehow and calls him at all hours. She’s smitten.”
“You should hit that.” Tate chucks his empty beer bottle in the garbage can and is rewarded with a glare from Cooper when we hear it shatter. “Old broads put out.”
“First, gross,” I say, stunned as I find myself with three of a kind when Cooper deals the flop. “Second, I’ve taken a new vow of abstinence.”
Wyatt snorts. “Come again?”
“Not anytime soon,” Cooper answers, swallowing a laugh. Child.
“You got the clap or something?” Danny gets some bright idea to steal this pot and splashes it with an overaggressive raise that says he’s working on a full house.
“No.” I roll my eyes. “Call it a spiritual cleanse.”
Tate coughs out a “horseshit” while folding.
“I say Evan doesn’t make it one week.” Danny throws a ten-dollar bill on the table. Dick.
“I’ll take that action,” Coop scoops up the bill, adding his own to it. “Anyone say five days?”
“I got five.” Tate slaps down his money.
“Wait, does the stranger count?” Wyatt makes a jerking motion in the air with his left hand.
“You offering?” I wink at him.
He flips up his middle finger, then places his ten-dollar bet that I won’t last forty-eight hours. My friends are supreme jackasses.
We keep playing. A few beers in now, everyone’s playing with one eye closed, fast and loose with their chips. Which is fine by me, as I take nearly three hands in a row.
“So Mac went to pick up Steph for brunch the other day,” Cooper says, contemplating his cards. “Said your car was outside in the same place it was parked the night before.” He aims the accusation at Tate. “What’s up with you and Alana?”
Tate shrugs while pretending to count his chips. “We hook up sometimes. It’s not serious. Just great sex.”
It’s been “not serious, great sex” for a while now. Long enough that some people might start mistaking habit for addiction. And addiction for commitment. Which is to say, if Tate’s not careful, he’ll find himself settling down whether he realizes it or not. It’s uncertain, at this point, whether he’s given any thought to the idea beyond the special kind of denial that is friends with benefits. Cooper found himself in a similar trap last year, which damn near split our crew right down the middle when it looked like him and Heidi were headed for war. Thankfully, they called a cease-fire before more damage was done.
Then again, there’s a lot to be said for great sex. Gen and I have great sex. Phenomenal, even. The kind of sex that makes a guy forget about promises and good behavior. But for the time being, good behavior is my creed. I made a commitment to Gen, and I want to show her I can be trusted to keep my dick in my pants. It’ll be worth it. Eventually. Or so I hope, anyway.
“Of course it’s not serious,” Wyatt says to Tate. “Alana’s just toying with you, bro. Like a lion playing with its dinner. She gets off on it.” I don’t miss the sharpness to his tone.
Neither does Tate. But rather than confront Wyatt about whatever bug crawled up his ass, Tate throws me under the bus instead. “If you wanna talk about chicks who get off on games, why don’t you ask Evan over here about him dirty dancing with your ex last night?”
Asshole. I shoot Tate a glare before turning to reassure Wyatt. “It was only dancing, minus the dirty. Ren’s just a friend, you know that.”
Luckily, Wyatt nods, unfazed. “Yeah, she’s been pulling out all the stops to get me back,” he admits. “I’m not surprised to hear she’s been flirting with my friends. She likes to make me jealous. Thinks it’ll drive me so crazy that I’ll get back with her.”
Cooper lifts a brow. “But you won’t?”
“Not this time,” Wyatt replies. He sounds dead serious, and that gives me pause. Wyatt and Lauren’s relationship had always followed a similar pattern to mine and Genevieve’s. Is he really out for good? His grim expression tells me yes, yes he is.
For a moment I entertain the idea of doing the same—extracting myself from this push-and-pull routine with Gen. Saying goodbye to her, for real.
Just the thought sends a hot knife of agony directly into my heart. Even my pulse speeds up.
Yeah …
Not happening.
CHAPTER 20
GENEVIEVE
“Okay, I’ve got one,” Harrison says as we walk past the crews rigging their boats. He’s been at this since he picked me up this morning. “Why do they put barcodes on the side of Norwegian ships?”