Chapter 3 #2
“Are you flirting with him?” Gray demanded as he passed a full pint glass to Flynn and started pouring a second one for me. “Dalton is gonna kick your ass when he gets here.”
Axel rolled his eyes. “I’m not flirting. I’m just negotiating our future health care. Dalton will thank me when he gets shot and Aiden saves his ass.”
What?!
“Not sure you want me dealing with a gunshot wound right out of med school.”
“Dalton is the sheriff, and he’s mostly driving a desk these days. He’s not getting shot,” Flynn said. “And Axel is just messing with you.”
Axel smirked. “Am I?”
“He is,” Bailey confirmed, pushing his seat back. “I’m gonna grab a soda at the bar since none of you assholes bothered to order me anything. I cannot wait until I turn twenty-one.”
Holden winced. “Sorry, Bails.”
Flynn pushed his chair back. “I’ll go with—”
“No, let me,” I cut in, hopping up. “I think I might need a few shots to deal with Axel, anyway.”
Axel laughed. “Hot damn, get a round. We’ll drink with you.”
“Nothing good will come of that,” Holden said sternly.
“That’s why it’s fun,” Shiloh said. “Bring Holden two shots.”
Holden sighed and shook his head, but a smile tugged at his lips. I could already see that he was a more rigid personality, but Shiloh did a good job of loosening him up.
“We’re in,” Emory said. “Right, babe?”
“Why the hell not?” Gray said. “We can both sleep in tomorrow.”
“Sleep,” Holden said with a snort. “As if that’s what you do in the morning.”
“You’re one to talk,” Emory shot back. “Shiloh’s had to skip breakfast three times in the last week. The poor guy is gonna faint in his classroom from lack of sustenance.”
“I give him everything he needs,” Holden protested.
“He sure does,” Shiloh drawled with an exaggerated eyebrow bounce.
“I meant the breakfast bars I bought you to keep at work,” Holden said, “not…”
Axel just grinned. “Protein shakes every morning?”
Okay, so it turned out, Bailey and Flynn were the tame ones. Yikes. Imagine living with those guys.
I turned and headed for the bar before more innuendo could fly. Bailey fell into step with me.
“They’re kidding,” he said. “Well, mostly. Gray and Emory really are fuck bunnies. Living with them was awful. I had to sleep with earbuds in or wake up to Gray’s headboard slamming the wall and Emory wailing like a banshee.”
“Kinda like those moans coming from your shower earlier today?” I teased.
Bailey reddened. “Yeah, sorry. That’s why I understand why you want your own place. Flynn misses you, but he’s never had to live with…” He waved his hand back toward his brothers. “All of that.”
I leaned against the bar and caught the bartender’s eye. He was maybe mid-thirties with tousled dark brown hair and thick stubble.
“What can I get ya?” he asked, glancing between us. “And don’t even try me if you’re not twenty-one.”
“I’m twenty-five,” I said, reaching into my back pocket for my wallet and displaying my license. “I’d like seven shots of tequila and a margarita.”
“Put it on Holden’s tab,” Bailey said with a grin. “He’ll want to welcome you properly to the family.”
There was that word again.
“I’m not really family, though.”
Bailey gave me a long look. “Flynn’s family, and you’re his brother. Face it, Aiden, you’re stuck with us.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Flynn seemed at home with these guys, and I was really glad to see he had found a family. It would make it easier when it was time for me to leave. But I wasn’t staying in Riverton for long, and I had hardly earned my place among these guys the way Flynn had.
“And what about you?” the bartender asked Bailey. “You got ID?”
“I’m twenty, and I just want a soda, so relax,” Bailey said.
“Twenty, huh?” The bartender skated his gaze up and down Bailey, then flicked to me. “You two dating?”
I exchanged a look with Bailey.
“No,” I said. “But so what if we were?”
“It’s cool,” the bartender said. “I’m just sussing out my chances here.” He grinned at Bailey. “You might not be old enough to drink, but that doesn’t mean you’re not old enough to have some fun, right?”
“He’s taken,” I said flatly. “By my brother. He’s the big guy over there who could rip you in half.”
The bartender glanced over at Flynn, who was staring our way, obviously picking up on Bailey’s body language.
He winced. “Hey, my bad. I’m new in town. Still feeling things out.”
“Well, word to the wise, be careful about who you hit on,” Bailey said. “Not everyone in Riverton is cool with the gay.”
“I’m not an idiot,” he said. “You’re all sitting with Axel, and everybody knows he’s dating the sheriff.”
“Yeah, he’s my brother,” Bailey said.
“So many brothers,” the bartender said with a grin. “This really is a fucking small town, huh?”
He grabbed seven shot glasses and lined them up on the bar, then snagged a bottle of tequila.
“So, where’s Leo?” Bailey asked. “He knows us all pretty well.”
“My uncle is retiring. Wants to sell the place. I talked him into letting me manage it instead. Name’s Pike.” He held out a hand.
Bailey shook it. “I’m Bailey. This is Aiden.”
“Wait, Bailey? You’re the kid who’s always hustling people at pool and starting fights?”
I smirked. “You’ve got a reputation, huh?”
Bailey waved a hand. “It’s not my fault those guys can’t handle losing.”
The bartender laughed, eyes sparkling. “Shit, what I’d pay to have seen you stomp some of these old bikers. I bet they did not take well to that.”
Pike finished serving the drinks, and Flynn joined us to help pick up the glasses. “Everything good here?” he asked.
“Yep! We were just meeting Leo’s nephew, Pike. He’s running the place now.”
“Good to meet you,” Flynn said, extending a big hand.
Pike eyed it warily before shaking. I was pretty sure he’d never make the mistake of hitting on Bailey again.
“We need one more shot,” Flynn added. “Knight just came in.”
Oh, crap.
I turned so fast I slopped half of my margarita over my arm, but I hardly noticed as my stomach knotted up.
There he was, dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt, tattoos winding around his arms like vines, and a tilt to his lips as his dark eyes bored into me.
Just like that club back in Omaha, our gazes connected and there was an instant surge of electricity.
But everything else had changed.
He wasn’t just an anonymous guy who’d taken me apart in an Omaha nightclub. He was my brother’s best friend. Not a bad man, like he’d implied when we first met, but an ex-con trying to get his life back on track.
He was too close and too complicated for casual, and I had no room in my life for anything else.
It would only make a mess for both of us.