Page 55 of Fire in You

I laughed. “If he is, he’ll be gentle with them.”Kind of, I added silently.

The look on Avery’s face said she knew better. “Maybe we should go find them.”

“Not necessary,” a male voice announced from the door, and I twisted at the waist. Jase was striding through the doors, his gaze fixed on his wife. “I know you guys were bereft without us, but we’re back.”

Teresa snorted. “I don’t think bereft is the right word.”

A second later Cam and Brock entered, and I bet Avery was relieved to see Cam appearing to be in one piece and not limping. He immediately joined the redhead, draping his arms over her narrow shoulders. Speaking too low for me to hear, I guessed by the sudden pink tint to Avery’s cheeks that whatever Cam had said to her was something she was glad I didn’t overhear.

Jase walked up behind his wife, and looped his arms around her, his hands resting on her extended stomach. “Everything good?” he asked, kissing her cheek.

Closing her eyes, she nodded as she leaned back into him. I felt a tug at my chest, and lowered my gaze, feeling like I shouldn’t be gawking at them like a creeper. The love they felt for one another was palpable, the same with Avery and Cam. It was good to be surrounded by such happy couples, but sometimes it was hard not to be a wee bit jealous. I felt crappy for feeling that way, but it was hard to imagine myself where Teresa and Avery were. Well, I mean I could imagine it, but that was all it was. A fantasy at this point.

I peeked over at Brock. He was checking out his phone, his jaw clenched, and I felt my stomach take an Olympic dive. He’d been out of the office most of Thursday and today, in various meetings, so I hadn’t seen much of him since that afternoon in my office, when he made his promise—a promise I didn’t fully understand.

He’d picked me up this morning, using the same excuse he’d said before, and I was a bit nervous about the drive home. Hell, the driveanywhereat this point, because he hadn’t been very talkative this morning or the few times I’d seen him.

“Everything look good?” Brock asked, lowering his phone.

Teresa and Avery practically exploded into a chorus of enthusiastic yeses, and a small grin curved up the corner of Brock’s lips while both husbands smiled more broadly.

“Good.” Brock glanced over at me, his expression unreadable. “Then let’s hit the road.”

* * *

Staring at what I believed was my second shot of Jameson, I tried to figure out how I got to the point where my belly was full, the blood in my veins was warm, and all the muscles in my body were decidedly relaxed.

It had started with wine.

Squirreled away in the small restaurant-bar, we had commandeered a large booth in front of the glass windows, and Teresa who obviously couldn’t drink had somehow weaseled me into drinking for her. Something about living vicariously through me.

Now, I was typically a “one glass of wine and done” type of girl. Very rarely did I drink two . . . or four, and especially not around other people. The thing with getting buzzed, you tend to forget things about yourself, and while that could be awesome, I liked to be spatially aware of my surroundings . . . and my weird mouth.

But before I knew it, and through no fault of my own, I drank a couple of glasses of wine, and Ithinkone shot, and I wasn’t thinking about my mouth or the scars, or the conversation Brock and I had had Wednesday, or the night Brock broke my heart and I ended up with said scars. I wasn’t really thinking about any of that nonsense, and it waswonderful.

I should drink more often.

Now I stared at the second shot, wondering how it had shown up in front of me. Buzzing, my gaze bounced from the amber-colored liquor to Jase. Wait. Was this the second one? Or the third?

I think it was the third.

“It wasn’t me.” He held his hands up.

Avery, who had also indulged a bit, giggled. Her face was so flushed, I could barely make out the freckles. Cam wasn’t drinking, so he was loading her up on drinks. Granted, she deserved to let loose. Raising kids had to . . . My thoughts trailed off, and then I remembered I was trying to figure out how the shot got in front of me.

I turned and looked at Brock.

He was sitting to my left, arms resting on the table. He shrugged a shoulder as he picked up his glass of water. “Thought you looked like you needed another one.”

I studied him for a moment. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”

“Never.” He widened his eyes innocently. “I’m just trying to get you to relax.”

“Iamrelaxed.” I picked up the glass. “Totes relaxed,” I murmured.

“You’re normally as tense as a damn cobra,” he responded, and I had no idea if cobras were tense. I was going to have to take his word for it. “Drink up.”

I drank up.

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