Page 38 of Close Quarters

“I’m just saying! Maybe you could get Leon to help you. He seemed to have a pretty good hold on it,” I told him with a grin.

Dom rolled his eyes. “It was my first time doing something like that, alright? What the fuck was I supposed to do, create a masterwork?”

“I tried making a truck. You should have seen Max laughing his ass off when I showed him later,” Riley said with a shrug.

At that, I raised a brow. “Max…can laugh? Like, he can…laugh?”

“Everyone can laugh,” Riley told me.

“Well, yeah, I thought so. But I always thought something was…wrong with Max’s body that he couldn’t ever laugh.”

“He’s physically capable of laughing. And mentally at that,” Riley rolled his eyes. “Are you going to tell me Reno isn’t capable of it even though he always seems grumpy?”

Admittedly, Reno had chuckled a few minutes ago, so Riley had me there. The only thing I could do was shrug. “Well, I guess I can’t talk about Max since I’ve…almost never spoken to him. But I can promise you, Reno is almost always grumpy.”

“Yeah, fuck you too,” Reno muttered beside me, but it lacked the normal anger he carried whenever he swore at me.

“Which tells me a lot,” Riley chuckled.

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘almost.’ Which means he’s not always grumpy.”

“I mean, he sleeps. So there’s that.”

The words had no sooner left my mouth than I felt a shove. With a yelp, I slid off my chair and hit the ground. A groan erupted from my throat as the ass I’d been trying to ignore gave a mighty complaint from hitting the unforgiving floor. Looking up, I found Reno smirking, something playful glinting in his eyes as he stared down at me.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, not even trying to sound like he meant it. “Did I hurt your ass?”

The asshole knew damn well I was tender and probably would be for days after what we’d done. I glared up at him. “Yes, as a matter of fact, you did a number on it.”

“Keep it up, and I’ll do it again,” he said, returning to the remnants of his meal with that smirk still on his face.

“Oh baby, you know I like it rough,” I grumbled sarcastically, even as I felt my stomach flip. I wasn’t exactly the person you came to when you wanted to have someone else’s words picked apart and discover their exact meaning, but I was pretty sure the asshole had just flirted with me. And if that was his way of subtly offering another round down the road, I wouldn’t argue.

“Wow, that was almost affectionate,” Riley said, smirking at Dom.

“Trust me, when it comes to E, you have to be a little rough. It’s the only way he learns limits,” Dom told him with a shake of his head.

“Not true,” I protested, trying not to be obvious about my discomfort as I slid into my seat and sat down again. “I accept a gentle approach.”

“No, you don’t,” Dom said with a roll of his eyes.

I knew pushing him further would result in him bringing up stories to prove his point, and I did not need Reno to have ammunition ready in the chamber down the road. For the rest of dinner, I shifted the conversation away from anything that might put me in a bad light. Thankfully, Dom didn’t bring anything up that could further embarrass Reno and me, and while not including himself, he didn’t act as surly as I might have imagined.

By the time we left, the sun was approaching the horizon. There were still people milling about, playing cards, sitting in the shade, talking while nibbling sandwiches, or just relaxing in chairs to whittle away the last few hours. No one paid us much attention as we walked past, though we got a few casual glances as we entered the rows of cabins.

“I actually thought you were going to crack,” Reno said as we walked.

“Huh?”

“When Mona was giving you the stare-down treatment.”

“Oh. Well, I kinda thought I was going to as well. Like, I felt ready to tell her everything.”

“Everything?”

“In detail.”

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