Chapter 11
Ronin
“You ready?” I asked, pushing my hand through my hair as I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
I hardly recognized myself, a new, odd glint to my eyes that meant something had changed.
I hadn’t been unhappy before. I hadn’t been sad or missing anything.
But now that Kincaid was back? And the idea of what I thought I’d lost had been proven untrue, things felt newer. More cemented.
I knew Julia felt the same because we often talked about it, but I didn’t know how Kincaid felt. And tonight was not the night to get into that conversation.
Kincaid looked at me, his face serious in his reflection. “I think so. But are you sure that it’s okay I’m going?” he asked, his voice gentle.
“Yes. It’s guys’ night. The Montgomery men, or at least those connected to the Montgomerys, are going out. And they invited me. And because you’re with me, you’re invited, too.” I paused. “And once they get to know you, you’ll be invited even without me.”
That made Kincaid snort. “Since I work from home usually, or at least on my own, I don’t have any friends here other than you and Julia.” He frowned. “I don’t know what that says about me.”
“It says we’re living in an age where it’s harder to make friends as adults. But don’t worry, you’ll like these guys.”
“I’ve met Ethan before,” Kincaid added.
“And you’ll like his brothers, Ethan’s husband Lincoln, and Bristol’s husband, Marcus. I work with him.”
Kincaid rolled his eyes. “I know. You’ve already given me the complete breakdown of the family tree. At least the ones that live in this city.”
“I wanted to make sure you knew what was going on,” I said, shrugging. “There are a lot of them, and they can be intimidating. I didn’t want you to be intimidated.”
“With all the crap that you and I have been through, Ronin, I don’t think a single family will intimidate me.”
That made me snort. “Apparently, you haven’t met the rest of the Montgomerys. Your tune will change.”
“I don’t know if you’re trying to make me feel better about meeting them or trying to scare me. You’re sending conflicting messages.”
I shrugged. “Possibly. That’s my prerogative.”
“I’m going to be singing that song for a while.”
That made me laugh. “I haven’t heard it in ages.
” I leaned forward, kissed Kincaid on the lips like we had been doing it for years rather than only recently again, and knew that soon this honeymoon bliss of when we didn’t talk about anything serious would have to come to an end.
We’d soon have to make decisions and talk because things were getting serious without us even thinking about it.
I didn’t want Julia to get hurt because we weren’t talking.
I didn’t want to get hurt either, but it was easier to worry about the love of my life than myself.
That way, I didn’t have to think too deeply.
“Where are we meeting?” he asked.
“A local sports bar. It’s kind of nice, all-leather interior, and doesn’t smell like ass.”
That made Kincaid laugh. “That’s always good. We aren’t young anymore. I don’t need to hang out with a bunch of dude-bros and scream at the television over a sports program I actually don’t care about.”
“I bet if it were hockey, you would care.”
“Of course, I would care. But we’re not watching hockey, are we?” he asked.
“No, but I bet we can get down to an Avalanche game if you want.”
“That’d be fun. But I know between Julia being out of town for this project and her upcoming big one, and my next out-of-town thing, we’re going to be a little busy.”
I shrugged. “We’ve got time. We’ll pin it in the map for the future.”
Kincaid didn’t say anything about that, and I ignored the hurt I felt. Maybe he was just thinking and wasn’t worried about the fact that he wasn’t making promises beyond tomorrow.
I needed to stop overthinking things, but that’s what I did. I overthought, and I got myself into shitty situations. I hated the idea that I didn’t know what was happening with Kincaid and my relationship with Julia. Let alone what was happening in the offshoots of that relationship.
We got in the car, and Kincaid turned on My Prerogative. I closed my eyes, holding back laughter as Kincaid sang off-key, and we made our way to the bar.
“You’re welcome to have a drink tonight,” Kincaid said, and I frowned.
“Shit. I didn’t even think.”
Kincaid just laughed. “I’m fine going into a bar. I’ve done it before.”
“I didn’t tell the others anything about your past. It wasn’t my right.”
“And I’m grateful for that. No one needs to know what I’ve done. They just need to know the me now. You can know,” he added. “You and Julia. But the others? No, I don’t know them well enough or at all for that matter to dive into my deepest, darkest secrets.”
“We can go somewhere else. I’ll tell them I’m not in the mood.”
“No, I’m fine. I’ll be the designated driver. It’s what I’m good at.”
“If things get hard, we’ll leave. I promise.”
Kincaid’s eyes went dark, and he looked down at my crotch. “If things get hard for you, just let me know.”
That made me laugh outright.
“That’s one way to put it.”
“I’m just saying, I’m right here when you need me.”
“We’ll have to see what comes up later.”
Kincaid snorted at my horrible joke, and we made our way in.
The place was a bar, but it was more of a lounge that happened to have a bar.
The Montgomerys were at the other end, most of them drinking soda with a couple of beers on the table.
I knew they didn’t know that Kincaid was an alcoholic, but none of the Montgomerys went full tilt when it came to drinking anyway.
Still, I should have thought about the whole bar scene.
I had just been so worried about Kincaid and our future and him meeting my friends that I hadn’t thought about the important shit.
I needed to get my head out of my ass and worry about what was in front of me rather than what I couldn’t fix.
Kincaid stopped me before we made our way to the corner and put his hand on the back of my neck. “Stop it. I’m fine. I’m glad that you didn’t think of it right away. It means it’s not the first thing you think about when you look at me.”
“I think about a lot of things when I look at you,” I whispered, baring myself more than I wanted.
Kincaid gave me a dark look before he shook his head, and we made our way to where the others were.
Ethan saw us first and grinned. “Hey there. You’re here. We thought you got lost. Or, you know busy...” He winked, and his husband rolled his eyes.
“Very subtle, Ethan.”
“What? I’m just saying.” Ethan grinned.
“What he isn’t adding is the fact that they just arrived before you because they were busy,” Liam said dryly, and I laughed.
“Everyone, this is Kincaid. Kincaid, this big, strapping inked man in the corner is Liam. You know Ethan, that’s his husband Lincoln, and Marcus is in the corner over there. And, sitting in front of you is Aaron, the baby of the family.”
Aaron flipped us off. “Excuse me, not the baby.”
“Whatever you say,” the brothers said at the same time, and I laughed, Kincaid joining me.
Aaron continued. “We got a big booth since the bigger table is already taken with a bachelor party.”
“Bachelor party?” I asked, frowning. “Most people don’t come here for bachelor parties.”
“No, I think they just wanted something casual,” Liam added.
“Yeah, not everybody needs strippers and blow for their send off,” Aaron said.
Kincaid just shook his head. “I’m glad to know we’re not getting that here. Julia would probably kick our asses.”
“Dude, I would kick your ass,” I said, and Kincaid just grinned.
“What can I get you guys to drink?” a waiter said as he walked toward us. He was a slender guy, probably in his early twenties, and hot. I noticed that half the men at the table checked the guy out, and he did the same. Liam just met Marcus’s gaze, and they shook their heads, grinning.
We were all taken, but we weren’t dead.
“I’ll just take a Coke.” Kincaid smiled.
“Is Pepsi okay?” the man asked.
Liam shook his head while Kincaid laughed. “No, how about a club soda with lime then.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that.” The waiter winked at my man. “I think we’re switching to a Coke distributor soon. Nobody ever likes Pepsi here.”
“Because it’s sacrilege,” Kincaid said, and the waiter kept looking at him.
I cleared my throat pointedly, and the waiter blushed, saw the way that Kincaid’s hand was on my thigh, and had the grace to look a little ashamed of his overt flirting.
“Anyway, what can I get for you?”
I held back a smile. “I’ll take the same as him.”
“You can get anything you want,” Kincaid whispered. “Remember, I’m the DD.”
“I’m fine. I want a clear head.”
Our waiter nodded. “Two club sodas with limes. Any refills?”
“We’re all good on beer, but if you could bring a round of waters? That’d be good.” Marcus looked at everybody as we nodded.
“Sounds great.”
“We’re going to order appetizers and meals soon,” Aaron added at the crestfallen look on the guy’s face that he’d almost hidden. “I promise we won’t take up your table for club soda and water.”
The young twenty-something blushed again. “Sorry, didn’t mean to show the inner workings of my mind.”
“Hey, we’ve all been in customer service before. At least most of us,” Aaron said dryly as he looked over at Liam. That’s when I remembered that Liam had been a model when he was a teenager, so there had been no waiting tables for him.
“We’re not going to screw you over,” Kincaid added.
“That’s good,” the kid said, his voice cracking likely because Kincaid said, “screw.”
The guy left, and we all looked at each other and laughed.
“You know, I am used to being the man that any waiter and waitress fawns over,” Liam said dryly, “but you bring ginger here, and I’m chopped liver.”
I looked over at my redheaded man and snorted. “He does have that effect on people.”