Chapter Nine
Max
“So, what did you want to tell me?” I asked Wade as I sat up on the flat bench, having just caught my breath after finishing my third set of bench presses with twenty reps.
This morning, when he offered to accompany me to the gym, he said he had something to tell me, and I suspected it had something to do with Lauren. After all, when I left to attend an emergency meeting, Jake was teaching Lauren how to ride a bike, and when I came back, she was in bed in Wade’s jacket with a hangover.
Wade took his arms off the pec deck machine and faced me. “It’s about last night. Jake called me and asked me to come to Billie’s, and when I got there, he told me to bring Lauren home. She was already drunk by then.”
A drunk Lauren? I wish I could have seen that.
“I thought Lauren was with Jake,” I said. “Why couldn’t he bring her home?”
Wade shrugged. “He said he had some personal business to take care of.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
That was unusual. Then again, Jake had already pulled off the biggest surprise when he suggested that Lauren live with us.
“That’s why he asked me to bring Lauren home,” Wade said.
“And?” I could only guess there was something more, something important, or Wade wouldn’t be looking and sounding so solemn.
Wade looked me in the eye and drew a deep breath. “I kissed Lauren.”
My eyebrows arched. Okay.
He scratched the back of his head. “I was trying to get her into Billie’s truck, but she was drunk and acting like a child, so she was getting on my nerves, and I…I just had to shut her up. So I kissed her. I’m sorry.”
So that’s what happened.
I could see how it had. I knew Wade. He hated it when things didn’t go his way, and as cold as he seemed on the outside, he was more easily swept away by his feelings than either Jake or myself. Once, when I had just started living with him and Jake, we had a fight over a roast beef sandwich. Petty really, but we ended up using our fists and exchanging blows. When it was over, we just laughed about it.
“Max, are you…laughing?” Wade looked completely puzzled.
I smiled. “I just remembered something.”
Wade’s eyebrows furrowed even more. “So you’re not angry?”
I probably should have been since I was supposed to be Lauren’s boyfriend, but strangely, I wasn’t. I wasn’t jealous either. Maybe because I had seen this coming. Yesterday, when the three of us were on the patio having breakfast, I already noticed the way Wade looked at Lauren—like a wolf sizing up its prey. And there was a moment when she looked at him, too, her gaze lingering on his chest as if she could see through his clothes. When their gazes met, both of them blushed. It made me think they were attracted to each other, and it made me happy. After all the mess Wade had been through, I thought he had given up on himself, but I was glad to see he still wanted something. Or someone. I had a feeling Lauren would be good for him.
She would be good for Jake, too. They, too, looked a little cozy yesterday, Lauren smiling as she tried to get the handle on riding the motorcycle in the driveway and Jake watching her with a look on his face that I’d never seen before. Happy. Excited. Watching them, I just couldn’t help but feel happy for them, too. I was going to say goodbye, but I just couldn’t bring myself to interrupt their magical moment.
“Well?” Wade asked.
I leaned forward and patted his knee. “Don’t worry. It’s all good.”
His eyes grew wide. “Really?”
“Really.”. I stood up and offered him my hand. “Thanks for telling me, though.”
That alone told me he was still the same Wade I knew and trusted.
He shook his head and gripped my hand. “No problem.”
I grabbed my towel and my water bottle. “Are you going to do more reps?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then I’m leaving first,” I told him. “I have to get Lauren some Thai curry. I’ve read it’s the perfect food for hangovers.”
**
“Mmm.” Lauren licked her lips after gulping down the last spoonful of her curry and rice. “That was amazing.”
I took her bowl from her. “Feel better?”
“Much,” she said before drinking the water I had set down with her food. “Though I don’t think I’ll be drinking anytime soon.”
“Here,” I told her, passing her a banana. “Eat that too, if you can.”
As Lauren opened her mouth wide to take a bite of the banana, I was briefly reminded of how she took my cock inside her mouth. I felt a surge of heat in my crotch, but I calmed myself down, reminding myself that she wasn’t feeling well.
“You sound like you had fun, though,” I told her.
She smiled. “Well, it was fun meeting Billie and the other members of Black Storm. George. Randy. Mike. Gus. Dan…” She counted them on her fingers. “I liked Mike. He was funny.”
I nodded. “He does like to tell jokes.”
“And of course, I liked Billie. She was like my grandma.”
I chuckled. I could just imagine Billie reacting to being called that.
“I mean, she has that same warmth,” Lauren said. “I don’t remember my grandma, of course.”
Of course. It was strange how we both sometimes forgot she was missing her memories.
She finished the banana and leaned back against the pillows. “I don’t even remember how I got home. All I know is that Wade dragged me out of the bar and then…”
“And then?”
Lauren shrugged. “I don’t know. Things were blurry by then.”
So she didn’t remember kissing Wade?
She looked at me with creased eyebrows. “Did Wade bring me home?”
Apparently.
“So he said,” I answered.
Lauren sighed. “I caused him trouble. I should apologize to him.”
I waved a hand in front of my face. “Nah. He’s good.”
If Lauren apologized to him, he might just feel even more guilty about what he did.
“And to you,” Lauren added, holding my hand. “You deserve a girlfriend who behaves better. Sorry.”
I shook my head and squeezed her hand. “You don’t have to apologize. You’re fine just the way you are.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Really?”
I nodded, touching her cheek to further reassure her. “Also, you don’t have to force yourself to be with just me. We don’t have to be exclusive.”
Lauren pulled away, her forehead bunched up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…we only agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend because you insisted on it.”
“I did?”
“I was never into labels,” I told her.
Honestly, they just had a way of complicating things. Weren’t they the reason for this whole mess right now?
Lauren’s eyebrows eased. “Oh.”
“You’ve probably forgotten, so I’ll tell you again. It’s okay for you to see other guys if you’re interested in someone else. Or kiss them. Or more. I’m not going to be jealous or anything. I’m not going to stand in the way of your happiness.”
Again, Lauren’s eyebrows furrowed. “Does this mean you’re going to be seeing other women as well? Have you been sleeping with other women?”
I gazed into her eyes as I touched her cheek again. “I haven’t, nor do I have plans to do so. You still are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I’ve never felt like this for anyone before, and I’ve never wanted anyone or anything as much as I want you.”
I took a box out of my pocket.
“Actually, I got you something yesterday.”
I handed it to her so she could open it. She gasped, her eyes wide.
“A diamond bangle?”
I took it out of the box. “You said whoever gave you that other one must not have been a good friend, so I just thought you deserve better. Actually, you deserve the best.”
I clasped the bangle on Lauren’s wrist. For a moment, she just stared at it, unable to speak. She looked like she was about to cry.
“Do you like it?” I asked her.
“It’s beautiful.” Her emerald eyes shimmered with awe as she held her hand up to the light, then she put her arm down and smiled as the bangle stayed around her wrist. “And it fits perfectly.”
It looked good on her, too, making the corners of my own mouth turn up. “I’m glad.”
Her smile vanished. “But are you sure I can have it? You just told me I can see other guys. What if I end up with someone else?”
I grinned. “You mean someone is going to take you away from me? Let them try.”
Before she could say another word, I leaned forward and kissed her firmly, tenderly on the lips. Then I grasped her chin as I held her gaze.
“I said I was willing to share you, not give you up. You’re still mine, Lauren.”
She was free to explore something romantic, sexual even, with Wade and Jake, but I was confident I wasn’t going to lose her. I could already see how much she’d fallen for me just from one stolen kiss.
Besides, I never lose.
I gave Lauren another kiss, this time on the forehead, then patted her shoulder. “Now, rest. You have a full stomach now, but you still need to give your body time to recover.”