Page 60 of The Princess

“Okay, okay, I get it. I was one step better than Vlad the Impaler, but only because none of you actually got impaled. Yeah, yeah. The mean man is gone now, and your regularly scheduled drill sergeant is back, so let’s get moving.”

Everyone let out a collective groan, but Nash knew that they were all glad to have Colby back to his old self. He hoped that Taylor would forgive Colby sooner rather than later. He hated to see the brothers at odds with each other, especially when he was partially to blame.

For the next thirty minutes, Nash let all of that go and threw himself into the workout. Colby was a brutal taskmaster, but he was also one of the most encouraging people in the gym that Nash had ever seen. He always had kind words for people and the utmost faith that they could do anything they wanted. By the time class was over, however, all Nash wanted to do was lay in a puddle on the floor and not move for the next day or two.

He settled for sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He drank a bottle of water while he watched Colby chatter with some of the others in the class, giving them tips for next time and kudos for a job well done today.

Nash couldn’t imagine being anything other than what he was. He liked his mostly solitary job. Sure, he had a team of people who he relied on. Invaluable people like his editor and his formatter, his cover designer, his beta team. But most of the hard work was done all by himself. He couldn’t imagine trying to motivate not only himself, but a room full of people, too.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Colby came over and nudged Nash’s foot with his.

“Like what?” Nash pushed himself to his feet, despite the protest from his tired legs.

“All weird and shit.”

“I’m not looking at you weird. You’re weird for thinking I’m looking at you weird.” Nash reached out and flicked the brim of Colby’s hat, knocking it off his head. Colby scowled and picked it up off the floor.

“I was thinking we need a fire night do-over.” Colby put his hat back on his head. “Do you think you three could make it this weekend?”

“I think you’ll have to ask Taylor that question.”

Colby scoffed, but he looked sad. “If he’s talking to me yet.”

“Give it a shot,” Nash told him. He was confident that the rift between the brothers was less of a rift and just a temporary bump in the road. Nash had a feeling that Taylor had already forgiven Colby but was now making him sweat because he wanted to let Colby ruminate about the consequences of his actions.

“If you say so.” Colby clapped Nash on the back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I see a patron in need of some private pointers.” Colby winked and headed over to where Milo was. Nash waved at the pair before heading out, feeling lighter than he’d felt in days.

CHAPTER 27

DAMON

Damon was out with Jonah and Spencer for the first time since Colby went and made an ass of himself. The rift between the brothers wasn’t healed yet, but Damon knew Taylor was close to cracking. He wanted to forgive his brother; he was just being stubborn about it.

“I’m not above locking them in a room until they talk it out,” Damon said, popping a pretzel into his mouth. “Taylor is already over his anger about it. Now he’s just hurt. But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”

“I think everyone but them knows that,” Jonah said. His fingers wrapped around his untouched drink.

“I’m glad I’m best friends with the smartest brother.” Damon nudged Jonah’s foot under the table and shot him a grin, but it faltered when Jonah lifted his gaze and looked at him.

“It sucks that you didn’t tell me about Taylor. I was just left to be blindsided by everything.”

A burst of anger flared deep in Damon’s guts. How dare Jonah have the audacity to be butt hurt about something that he’d also done? But he didn’t want to fight with him. Their relationship was more important to him than that, so he swallowed down the flare of annoyance.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to mention the fact that Jonah was guilty of the same thing.

“I think you know that just because we’re best friends, not everything needs to be shared right away.” He made a point of pausing and looking over at Spencer, who remained quiet, looking like he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole.

Spencer had been good for Jonah. Any fool could see that, and Damon wasn’t mad that they’d kept things between them a secret until they were ready to tell everyone. It was the same thing he and Nash had done. Sort of. At first, they didn’t tell anyone because there wasn’t anything to tell. Best friends or not, Damon wasn’t generally the type to kiss and tell.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about you and Nash?” Spencer asked. “I’ve gone over it in my head a million times, and I can’t figure out why it needed to be a secret for so long.”

Damon sighed. “For the exact thing that ended up happening anyway. Once Nash and I realized that we were into each other in a more than a fling way, we decided to not tell anyone because if things went badly, we didn’t want the Bennett brothers choosing sides.”

“We wouldn’t, though.” Jonah’s protest was kneejerk and weak and he knew it. He let out a sigh. “Yeah, we totally would have. At least a little.”

“But now Taylor is involved with us too, so it kind of takes the pressure off because we know, no matter what, you’ll take Taylor’s side. Problem solved.”

Jonah looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “That’s not how things work.”

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