Page 20 of Melting the Ice

Dean gave him a startled look.

“Hey, you callmepretty boy,” Brody retorted weakly.

“True,” Dean said. Shot him a conspiratorial smile. “Guess we’re both hot, then.”

“Guess so.”

Not that he wanted to acknowledge that fact. It was pretty fucking inconvenient and Brody didn’t have the time—or the inclination—to want to unpack it.

They finally hit the back of the house with its bar, and sure enough, there was Ramsey, flirting with a girl and a guy both, flashing them one of his easylet’s hook upgrins.

Brody rolled his eyes. “Ramsey. See you’re already working it,” he said.

To Brody’s surprise, Ramsey actually turned away from the pair and greeted both him and Dean with hugs.

Dean looked vaguely uncomfortable with it, but he didn’t push Ramsey away.

Probably because he was too surprised.

“Glad you two both made it. I thought you’d be too comfortable growing into your couch to come out,” he teased lightly. “Grab a drink. A girl. Enjoy yourselves.”

“We’re good with the drink,” Dean said. He rooted around in a cooler and pulled out two beers. “You good with this?” he asked, showing Brody the label.

“Yeah,” Brody said.

“But first, before you escape into some dark corner to talk very seriously about your bright futures,” Ramsey said, pointing at the table that they’d set up like a makeshift bar. “Shots.”

“Ah—” Brody was about to argue, to say he didn’t really want to take shots, but Dean said instead, “Sure.”

Surprised the hell out of him, but when he met Dean’s eyes, he just shrugged. Like he’d given in because it was easier than arguing with Ramsey.

Whichwasgenerally true.

Ramsey poured out three shots of tequila from a bottle he grabbed from his own personal stash.

“This isn’t watered down, unlike the rest of this,” he told them with a shit-eating grin as he gestured at the rest of the bottles sitting on the countertop.

Dutifully, Brody licked the salt, downed the tequila, and then sucked on the wedge of lime Ramsey handed him.

Most definitely did not watch as Dean did the same.

“Oh, come on, one more,” Ramsey persuaded.

“You tryin’ to hook up withus?” Dean asked with a straight face, but Ramsey just burst into laughter.

“Oh,” he said, “oh, I’msoglad I found you, Scott. You are an absolute fucking delight.”

“Thanks, I think?”

“It’s a compliment. Take it,” Brody said, patting Dean encouragingly on the shoulder. “He doesn’t give those out very often.”

“And in honor of it, one more,” Ramsey said, a mischievous grin plastered across his face.

“Fine, fine,” Brody said.

The second shot went down even easier than the first.

Dean licked his lips as he tossed his lime wedge into the trash. “Damn, that’s good stuff,” he said.

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