Page 34 of Ride or Dies

“It’s comfortable.” I offered Levi a shy sort of smile.

We hadn’t seen each other, let alone spoken, since he’d fixed his clothes and left me sitting on the counter, trying to catch my breath. Maybe I should’ve been pissed, but I understood Levi in a way very few people outside the Bradshaw family did. He wasn’t a talker, especially when it came to emotions, and it wasn’t like this thing with me and the guys was simple.

“Want something to eat?” he asked gruffly, his eyes not meeting mine.

My stomach answered for me with an embarrassingly loud rumble, but I was willing to take the embarrassment because I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.

“Can I ask you something about this…arrangement?” I leaned against the counter and tried not to wonder if Levi had ever been with anyone in here like he’d been with me.

That wasn’t what I wanted to ask.

“Sure,” he said as he opened the fridge. “You still like scrambled eggs with cheese?”

The fact that he remembered what I liked for breakfast had warmth coiling in my belly. “I do. Thank you.”

We were both silent for a minute as he started taking things out of the fridge, and then he spoke. “You have a question?”

“Are you guys really not jealous? I mean, you and I…” I cleared my throat as my face burned. “And then last night…”

“You slept with Mason,” he said matter-of-factly. “Didn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

“And you’re okay with it?”

He turned to face me. “My brothers and me, we have an understanding when it comes to certain things. We may fight about some shit, but we don’t do jealous. Our mom taught us to share well.”

I burst out laughing, then slapped my hands over my mouth. “Sorry.” My voice was muffled. “I hope I didn’t wake anyone up, but you said your mom taught you to share and all I could think was that I don’t think this is what she meant.”

That got a snorting sort of laugh as he turned back to making the eggs. “If it makes you feel less weird, I think she’d actually be okay with it. She’s always thought of you like family.”

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach at his words. Like what Mason had said last night, it sounded like this meant more to the guys than just sharing my bed. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high, but that hint of excitement was hard to ignore.

A much more comfortable silence settled over us as the two of us ate, and by the time my plate was almost empty, I started thinking about what I was going to do with the rest of my day…and whether or not any of it included some personal time with Levi.

“There you guys are.”

Levi and I both turned to see Tucker coming into the kitchen, looking more rumpled than usual. His t-shirt was wrinkled, his hair tousled. And it would’ve been both amusing and sexy if I hadn’t spotted something on the side of his neck.

I stood up and took two steps toward him, trying to see what it was. The moment I figured it out, my stomach sank and I immediately regretted having eaten anything.

Lipstick.

It was bright red lipstick.

“How’d things go with Becca James?” Levi asked.

The sinking feeling stopped as everything in me turned to ice.

“Well, as soon as she heard I knew Evie, she literally threw herself at me.” Tucker laughed.

It was the laughter that broke me. Fury melted the ice and burned inside me, hurt and disappointment making my hands curl into fists. I’d never wanted to hit someone as badly as I did right now, but I settled for words.

“I can’t believe I actually trusted you!” My voice was louder than expected, but volume was the last thing I cared about right now. Two sets of wide eyes turned to me. “I actually believed all that shit about how the three of you wanted me so much that you were willing to share me, when what you really meant was with three of you, someone can distract me while the rest of you go out and fuck around with whoever you want.”

“Evie—” Tucker began.

“No!” My eyes began to burn, and I knew I was close to tears. I’d be damned if I let them see me cry, though. “I already had one man cheat on me and treat me like shit. I won’t let the three of you do the same.”

And then I ran.

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