Page 94 of More than Need

Right. Multiple. He’d said that the other day.

Half an hour later, while he and Eli were bickering as they wrapped the vines withreal thorns that fucking hurtaround the arch, a third person entered the war zone.

“Manual labour; didn’t know you had it in you,” the newcomer drawled. They wore a pair of dark jeans and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, one hand stuffed in a pocket. The stud in their eyebrow glinted under the sun.

“Fuck off, Seb,” Eli said. “As if you’d know manual labour if it hit you in the dick with its hammer.”

The man—Sebastian, the brother—winced, adjusting himself. “Can we refrain from including my anatomy in your violence?” He leaned toward Dawson, hand outstretched. “You must be Dawson. I’m Sebastian. It’s nice to put a face to the name. Every time I’m around, you seem to be off on a job somewhere. Eli says you do good work.”

Dawson gave Eli a sly look; he rolled his eyes in response.

“He makes it sound nicer than it was,” Eli said dismissively.

“Uh-huh.” Dawson wished he had a recording device for this conversation. He needed proof if he wanted anyone to believe him. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“Yeah, we need you to be a pack mule, and also, if anyone pisses me off, you can bring over one of your cop boyfriends and arrest them.”

“They’re not on your speed dial, and unless you murder someone, Quinn wouldn’t be interested,” Sebastian said, with an expression eerily similar to the one Eli currently wore. Definitely brothers. He’d noticed that Sadie and Riley occasionally had similar expressions as well. Not something he’d mentioned. Something he’d thought a lot about, though.

“He owes me, and I could be persuaded to go that far,” Eli said, shrugging.

“Wouldn’t need much persuading,” Dawson added. Why did the name Quinn sound so familiar? There were over five million people in Sydney; chances were, he’d met a few people with the same names. Inevitable.

“Riley is coming too. I had a meeting I couldn’t postpone again, and it’s been too long since we’ve caught up. So we’ll do it while we’re… being pack mules?”

And now a Riley. A day for familiar names, then. Speaking of Rileys, Dawson needed to send his a message to see if they were meeting up once he’d finished here.

“You have no idea how many things need to be carried in. I hope you had your Weet-Bix. Also, a coffee date with your best friend is not ameeting, you loser.”

“It is when both of us work long hours, and he’s busy with some new sidepiece.”

“Are you jealous, Seb?”

“I have more than enough men to handle, thanks,” Seb replied dryly. “I pity anyone that has to put up with Riley for more than twenty-four hours. Better them than me.”

“He is pretty hot.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Seb warned.

Dawson’s Riley was hot too. Maybe it had something to do with the name? Come to think of it, while he hadn’t met many Rileys in his life, they were all pretty good-looking. Maybe therewassomething to it?

“I need more personality in my partners anyway,” Eli said with a shrug. “No fun to break them down if they were boring to start with.”

“Uh-huh. You’ve literally never had a girlfriend, Eli, but nice try.”

“I’ve never met anyone I like,” he said defensively. “Fuckin’ sue me for being picky. At least I have standards. Your first boyfriend broke your heart, and then you let him come crawling back, like an idiot.”

“You mean you haven’t met anyone that wasn’t Gabe,” Seb said. “And I’m not responding to that comment about Quinn.”

“I wasn’t asking for a response. It’s thetruth.”

“Are you hangry right now? Do you need a muesli bar?”

“Do you have one handy?” Eli asked sarcastically.

“Nice arch, by the way,” Seb said, ignoring his brother. “Does the bride want to be stabbed before she gets herself wed to the poor groom?”

“It does seem that way,” Dawson said. The roses were beautiful, but the father of the bride had insisted on keeping the thorns. Dawson hadn’t heard what his opinion about the groom was, but maybe he was hoping that one of them would get stuck with one and call the whole thing off? People had done weirder things to stop weddings. He’d even witnessed a few.

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