Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
ROMAN
It’s just a drink.
It’s just a catch-up with an old friend because that’s what she was first.
Before I went and fell in love with her.
Why the fuck can’t I let it go?
I don’t mean the kind of letting go you do when something’s finished and it makes sense. I mean the kind where every part of you knows it’s over, but your body still tightens when you hear their name. The kind where your chest still fucking aches when you imagine them with someone else.
I know Addison’s married now, and that should’ve been the end of it, but here I am, standing in front of the door, my heart punching against my ribs like it’s trying to break free, while she knocks on the other side.
Maybe this is a step toward moving on.
Maybe tonight I can remember how to be her friend.
Maybe I should stop lying to myself.
I glance to my right at Jasper. He’s so confident, so unapologetically himself. He’s the kind of man you want to lean on forever, the one who doesn’t wait for you to ask before he catches you. You just know he’s already there, holding you up before you even realize you’re falling.
Then to my left, there’s Zeke, who’s soft in a way that makes you literally fucking ache.
He’s all heart, all beauty, and there’s something about how he exists in the world that makes you want to cover him in bubble wrap, but you know he’s protecting you just as fiercely.
One look from him and you understand that this man would burn the world down for the people he loves.
These guys make me a sappy bastard, but I’m more than good with it.
I’m grateful.
Jasper steps forward and pulls open the door, and there she is—Addison Hope, standing in the cold with her blonde hair tied back in a loose ponytail, soft wisps escaping to frame her face.
She’s wearing a black tank under a thick winter coat she hasn’t bothered to button, the edges flaring open like she left in a hurry.
Maybe she wasn’t planning to come and changed her mind at the last second.
“Get in here before you freeze your tiny ass off,” Jasper says, and she steps inside, closing the door behind her.
Jasper reaches out and helps her slide off her coat, ever the gentleman when it suits him, and that’s when I see those jeans. Low-slung and faded in all the right places, hugging her hips and ass like they were custom-made to destroy me.
“Hey.” She smiles at me and Zeke, but it’s clear she’s nervous.
It’s subtle, but the tells are still there—tight smile, fingers twitching at her sides, and blue eyes that won’t hold mine for more than a second.
She might be trying to play it cool, but I’ve known Addison for a long time, and I can read her without even trying.
So can they.
“We bought you some wine,” I force out, trying my hardest to act normal for all of us. “That okay?”
“I’ll always be that wine-drunk girl you used to know,” she says, and fuck if it doesn’t feel like both a promise and a threat. “It’s been decorated so pretty in here.”
Zeke chuckles as he moves to the kitchen counter, already pulling out glasses. “Usually that’s my job back home,” he says, glancing at her over his shoulder. “But this place was already done up when we arrived.”
Zeke’s always the one who makes our home feel like Christmas. He’s the one who decorates the tree, arranges the stockings, and lights the candles that smell like vanilla and pine. Jasper and I help, but mostly, we just drink whiskey and flirt until we become a distraction.
“What’s your place like in Boston?”
“It’s different from here,” Zeke says, glancing at both of us before continuing. “Not homely in the traditional sense, but it is home. We’ve got an entire floor—big windows, city skyline, lights that never go out. It feels… alive.”
“You’re all happy there?”
Zeke nods slowly. “Happier than any of us ever imagined, I think.”
“The only thing we’d change is hiding,” Jasper cuts in. “We don’t hide inside our home. We’re just us there. But outside, when the masks come on, that’s the part I hate.”
“We all do, baby,” I murmur, reaching out and resting my hand on Jasper’s back, my fingers curling just enough to feel him there.
I don’t pull away when Addison’s eyes land on the way I touch him. If she recalls that I used to touch her in that same way, then so be it. Let her remember.
“So, is Addison Hope still the same wine-drunk girl who enjoys watching two guys make out while she’s being kissed?”
She slowly turns her head and places a hand on her hip, and all I can do is stand there and watch because how she answers matters more than it should—especially considering she’s wifed up now.
She doesn’t wear a ring, but I know plenty of people who don’t.
“Are you going to be like this all night?” she asks, raising a brow.
“Probably,” Jasper replies, with zero apology in his voice.
“So, no offense when I ignore you?”
“You can try,” he says with a smirk, “but we both know that never worked out for you before.”
Zeke chuckles as he moves around the island, his hand lingering for half a second on her back before he pulls away, reaching for the wineglasses.
“Sorry about him,” he says, pouring her a large glass. “He’s never changing.”
She accepts the wine, her fingers brushing his like she didn’t once look at him like he hung the fucking moon.
But I see it.
A hint of pink rises beneath her winter-pale skin, while Zeke’s jaw twitches like he’s biting back the urge to step closer. I feel every inch of it as though it’s stitched into my own damn bones.
“Also, for the record, you gave us shots that night. Wine-drunk me isn’t nearly as reckless.”
Jasper pushes off the counter, and I move with him, closing the space like it’s instinct. My chest brushes his back as I settle in behind him, close enough to feel his warmth. His hand reaches behind him, gripping my thigh—not hard, not possessive, just there.
“My dad mentioned you made captain, Roman.”
I’m curled around Jasper, my chin hooked over his shoulder as I breathe him in. The warm, woodsy scent he always wears fills my lungs like a drug—one hit and everything in me goes quiet.
“Like he was ever destined for anything less,” Jasper says, and the pride in his voice makes something hot and possessive twist in my stomach.
I nip at his ear, letting my teeth graze the sensitive skin. When I lift my gaze, Addison’s watching us—her lips are parted, breath caught in her throat like she wasn’t expecting the intimacy. It’s as if she forgot what it was, the way I used to touch her, and how I was always reaching for her too.
What we looked like before everything went to hell.
Because there was a time when it was all she knew.
My touch.
My need.
The way I looked at her like I’d tear the world apart just to keep her under my hands.
“Yeah, I’ve been doing it a while now.” My fingers drift under Jasper’s shirt, tracing slow circles into his hip. “It’s probably about time someone else took over.”
“They won’t find anyone half as good,” Jasper says, leaning his weight back into me.
“One bad hit is all it takes. I could go out next month and snap both legs, and that’s my career over in seconds.”
Zeke groans. “You just want to be taken care of.”
“I mean… I wouldn’t say no.” I smirk. “A few weeks of rest. Someone feeding me, working out all those knots in my thighs… I could definitely use the break.”
Jasper barks out a laugh, cracking open his beer. “What the hell do you think this is?”
“A few days off. Nothing more.”
“So,” Zeke says, turning toward Addison, “what’s going on with you? Everything good?”
She nods as she takes a long pull from her glass.
Lying before she even opens her mouth.
“Yeah, everything’s great.”
Lying again.
“Did you tell your husband you were coming up here tonight?”
“Nope.”
“Why not? Figure he’d want to know we’re back in town and spending the night with his wife.”
“Please stop calling me that, Roman, and since we’re not living together anymore, I don’t think it’s any of his fucking business where I go or who I see.” She quickly turns on her heel and walks into the living room, glass in hand, like she didn’t just nuke the entire conversation.
“Like hell you’re walking away from that, Addison!
” Jasper calls after her, with a half-stunned laugh.
He lets out a low whistle, rubbing his jaw with that wicked smirk he wears when he knows shit’s about to get messy.
“Well,” he drawls, eyes flicking between us and the hallway she disappeared down, “guess this little reunion just got a hell of a lot more interesting.”
Jasper follows her into the living room, and Zeke catches my eye. His look asks if I’m good, and I nod because, honestly, knowing she ditched that asshole makes everything better, even if it’s about to blow our whole dynamic apart.
By the time we reach the living room, Jasper’s already claimed the spot next to her on the couch. Addison sits with her legs folded beneath her. Zeke and I drop into the armchairs across from them, and for a moment, it’s like we’ve slipped right back to that night.
“You better start talking, Addie,” Jasper says, elbows on his knees, his focus pinned entirely on her.
“There’s not much to tell. He tripped and fell inside my friend’s pussy like the manwhore he is.”
“He what?” The words come out like gravel, my grip tightening around the neck of my beer.
“Oh, save the righteous anger, Roman. You always hated him. Don’t act shocked now.”
“Yeah, well.” I lean back, not bothering to hide my satisfaction. What I do hide is how much it guts me, knowing he might’ve hurt her. “When you’re right, you’re right.”
What I don’t say is how my hands are already itching, how the next time I see that piece of shit, I won’t be playing nice. I won’t be shaking his hand and swallowing my disgust. No, next time, I’m rearranging his fucking face.
“How are you holding up?”