Page 110 of The Price of Forever

JORDAN: Oooh, what’s the news? You know I’m down for one of your feasts. Gaston and I have a weird bat relationship going now and I gotta keep that alive.

AXEL: That is so fucking weird and I love it.

AXEL: Gaston, on the other hand…not sure. Gonna have to learn French to find out what he thinks.

AXEL: Anyway, Cora’s divorce was finalized 2 days ago and we wanna host a Fuck You Feast dedicated to her ex tonight. You in?

I stared at the text for an abnormally long time. The uncomfortable churn from earlier had now turned into a dangerous storm. Cora wanted to celebrate being done with Eli forever, while I’d just given him access to me for ten grand.

Maybe it wouldn’t pan out. But what if he did know something? If I’d driven him away, I’d never find out what it was.

I was just going to give him a little bit of what he wanted. The bare minimum. To see where it led. That was all.

JORDAN: I’d love to! Should I tell Seven to come?

AXEL: Of course. It’s not a family affair without our big, muscled bodyguard.

I smiled at his text. My entire life was feeling more and more like a family affair. I’d never even remotely seen this as a possibility for myself…yet here I was. Living it. Kaylee hadn’t struck me dead yet. And I was…happy.

Holy shit, I was happy.

“You must be reading an article about how rice noodles are made if you’re smiling like that.” Seven’s voice jostled me out of my thoughts. I almost wanted to hide my screen, as if it held something salacious, but no. It was just my own sense of weirdness. It took a while to adjust to normalcy. Warmth. Family.

“Try again. I already know how they’re made, anyway. But thinking about them does make me smile.” I jerked my chin toward what he toyed with in his hands. “What did you make?”

He held up his newest creation, a three-pronged fork. “I’m about out of my starter wood. I’ll have to go find some more soon.”

“Can’t you set up a real woodworking station in here?” I gestured to his vast living room, which was mostly empty, save the couches, TV, and his workout equipment.

“So it’ll become a gym, a strip club, and a woodworking shop.”

“Nothing wrong with that. One-stop hobby shop.”

He grinned at me just as the coffee maker bleated that it was ready. My phone buzzed while I prepped my coffee, signaling an incoming text. As soon as I glanced toward my phone on the island, I saw Seven’s gaze land on my phone screen.

“Probably Axel,” I said, stirring creamer into my coffee. “He said they’re planning a divorce celebration for Cora tonight. A fuck-you feast, he called it.”

Seven said nothing. I blew gently on the top of my coffee as I crossed back to the island. I touched my phone to light up the notifications. Eli’s name sat at the top of the list. My stomach sank.

ELI: Are you ever gonna write back?

My stomach twisted. When I looked up, I found Seven’s studious gaze on me, concern wrought into his features.

“Who was that?” he asked quietly. “Definitely wasn’t Axel, and there aren’t too many people that make your face look like that when they text,” he went on.

My shoulders sagged as I set my coffee gently on the countertop. “Eli.”

The way Seven’s brows shot upward made my stomach twist. “Cora’s ex.” He said it less as a question and more like a statement. Like he couldn’t believe the words. “The one your brother wants to celebrate her divorce from.”

“He asked me for my number. I told him no, because I never give out my number—”

“Then how the fuck is he texting you now?”

I winced—his words came out so sharp they nearly broke skin. “I gave Eli our communal throwaway number, the one we all give out to guys who won’t stop pressing us. But he called me out on it. After he made that comment that sounded like it could be about my brothers, I decided to give him a different number that I access via an app on my phone. It’s not my real number. I can delete it or get rid of it at any time.”

“I told you to stay away from him,” Seven said. His anger showed itself at the edges: the flare of his nostrils, the harsh hiss of his words.

“I am. When he comes into my workplace, we’ll engage. But giving him this number will let me probe a little.”

---