Page 23 of Hitting the Gap

“Not sure I can,” Smitty called back.

“Trust me, you want to be there,” Pete snickered.

“Jesus,” Gonzo muttered as he looked at the shit-eating grin that encompassed Pete’s entire face. “Knock that shit off. You look like the fucking Joker.”

Pete rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be so good.”

“Holy fuck, man. She’s a friend who needed a place to crash. That’s all. Stop acting like a fucking girl.”

“Whatever you say, man.” Pete sat down and slid his foot into his sock, then glanced over his shoulder. “So how’s she look? Is she hot?”

Now there was a loaded question. Was she hot? Yeah, she was definitely hot. Shit, maybe this was a bad idea.

Pete snickered again. “I knew it.”

“She’s just a friend,” Gonzo muttered.

“For now.” Pete smacked him on the shoulder and stood up.

“No, not for now,” Gonzo grumbled. “Forever. She’s just a friend. It’s not like that.”

“Sure man. Whatever you say.” Pete laughed. “Now hurry up and get your shit on so we can warm up.”

Gonzo shoved his foot into his shoe and tied the laces. No matter what Pete thought, having Bailey live with him was going to be fine. Nothing was going to happen between them. Hell, they’d slept in her tree fort together all the time as kids. This wasn’t going to be any different. Except Bailey’s ass hadn’t looked like it did now when she was a teenager. And her skin sure as hell hadn’t looked so soft. Fuck. What had he been thinking?

He slammed his foot into his other shoe.

“What’s the matter?” Pete asked.

“Nothing. I’m getting fucking laid tonight,” Gonzo muttered.

“Geez, I didn’t think you’d move that fast on the new roomie.”

“Fuck you.” Gonzo rolled his eyes.

“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Pete taunted gleefully.

“Just because you all are happily in love doesn’t mean everyone wants that. Some of us still like a little variety and there’s a fucking smorgasbord of women out there.” Gonzo pulled his other shoelace tight.

“True. Until you realize what you’ve been missing and you never want to eat anything else ever again.”

“Yeah, I don’t see that happening.” It sounded nice in theory, but so far he’d never met a woman he wanted to be with long term. After a few weeks, he got bored. That’s probably why he’d been friends with Bailey for so long because they’d never had sex. And they never would.

He stood up from the bench. “Let’s win this fucking game.”

The sound of a woman giggling woke Bailey.

Good lord, the way that woman was screaming was ridiculous.

A screeched, “Yes, Gonzo, yes,” ripped through the walls.

Bailey eyed the direction of Gonzo’s bedroom. Did he bring home a porn star? Holy shit. Who the hell screamed and moaned like that? The woman was going to burst her vocal cords if she kept that up for much longer.

The bed banged against the wall and her throat tightened. God, why did she feel so jealous? She covered her face with her pillow. It was just because she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had good sex. Except when the woman screamed Gonzo’s name again it felt like a whole lot more than that.

Shit.

Bailey threw back the covers. There was no way she was getting any sleep with that racket going on. She padded her way into the kitchen and started digging out ingredients for cookies. If she couldn’t sleep, she may as well do something she enjoyed. No reason Gonzo should be the only one getting some enjoyment tonight. Although he sure as hell sounded like he was having a lot more fun than she was.

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