Page 111 of Forgive You

“He’s cool with you two?”

I’m not sure if he knows, but if he does, I doubt he’s cool with it. But you know what? He had his time. He had his chances. A shitload of them. He fucked them all up, and I still did my best to be his brother. A courtesy I never got from him.

I’m done trying to be cool with Jacob.

He can go fuck himself.

“I don’t care if he is.”

I groan when Hunter’s eyebrow cocks with unspoken words in the corner of his mouth.

“What?”

“There was a time you did care.”

I roll my eyes as he continues.

“Look, all I’m saying is don’t let him get in your head again.”

“Again?” My little brother sits up, eyes popping with curiosity. “What don’t I know?”

Thanks, Hunt.

I glare at my best friend, whose grin only expands as he flips a burger in the air.

He turns to face Jordan, aiming the spatula in the air like he’s Harry Potter or something. “Let’s just say, if Jason didn’t let Jacob get into his head, this whole Julie situation would have gotten sorted a little in advance. Maybe we’d even have a mini-Spencer chasing Logan around right about now.”

“Shut up, Hunter,” I sing-song through my teeth, flipping him off.

A knot forms in my stomach, pulling on my chest from the inside.

That’s definitely a memory I wanted to keep locked up and never revisit.

Jordan meets my eyes, amusement flicking through them. “You already hooked up with Julie in the past?”

I open my mouth to deny everything and tell him not to listen to my soon-to-be ex-best friend, but quick with his fist and his mouth, Hunter already beats me to it.

“No, but he wanted to. Holding flowers and a boombox, he was ready to go.”

I throw the nearest thing I can find at his head, and he ducks away from Jensen’s Hurricanes cap that lands on the grill.

“Hey, that’s mine!” he whines.

“Are you done talking, asshole?” The smell of fabric burning lingers through the smoke of the grill, before Hunter quickly throws it back on the ground with a laugh barking from his chest.

Smoldering heat surrounds the damaged merchandise, and Jensen is staring at it with a pouting lip.

“That’s the first time the Hurricanes are on fire this season,” Bodi says dryly, before we all erupt in laughter. Jensen punches his best friend, though he can’t hold back his smile either.

And this is exactly what I miss.

“I didn’t know that,” Jordan says when we’ve settled down a bit.

“Oh, yeah, but your older brother.” Hunter continues. “The one who’s a dickhead–”

“So not him?” Jordan points at me with a straight face and my eye crinkle.

“Funny.”

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