Page 114 of Sweet Like Whiskey

“You sure you’re all right?” I check.

He sighs, a tired sound. “I’m fine, Jackson. I’d just like to be alone for a little while.”

I watch him walk off, my chest tight and aching.

“He’ll be okay,” Ash says, shifting around to face me. “I get it, you know? His life threw him a major curveball, and he needs time to process. To wallow a bit. Sometimes the best thing we can do is let ourselves feel. It’s healthy that he’s not shoving it all down.”

“What if it doesn’t get better?” I ask, voicing my worry aloud.

“It will. And if it doesn’t, you guys will be there to help him.”

“I wish Oakley were still here,” Remi says. “He always had a way with Lawson.”

“Who’s Oakley?” Ash asks.

“His best friend,” Colton answers, popping another few marshmallows on his stick. “Two of them were thick as thieves. Until Oak moved away.”

Ash hums.

“Colton,” I say, getting my brother’s attention again. “Remi’s right. You needa fix it.”

He groans. “Fuck. I hate doing the right thing.”

“No you don’t,” I reply, knowing my brother well enough to be certain of it.

Colton just shakes his head. “Noah fucking King. No one has ever poked at my frog like him.”

Ash coughs. “I’m sorry, what?”

Remi tries to hide his amusement, but it comes through in his voice when he says, “It’s part of a horse’s hoof. On the underside.”

“He’s athorn,” Colton says. “Right under my skin.”

Ash gives me alook, his eyebrows raised. I shrug because I truly don’t know what the deal is between Noah and my brother. Colton is easygoing with just about anybody.

Anybody but Noah fucking King.

Ash purses his lips and turns back around, settling against me. “Maybe you two just need to bang it out.”

Remi chokes on a laugh as Colton’s head lifts, slowly. The mallows he was roasting tip down into the fire.

“Bang my archnemesis?” Colton says, face scrunched up in disgust. “I’d rather go brim over boot than touch a hair on Noah King’s gold-plated ball sac.”

“Oh myGod,” Remi says, dropping his face into his hands.

Ash is outright laughing now. “Brim over boot?”

“He means falling off a horse,” I mumble, lips twitching.

“Not what it sounds like,” Ash mutters back.

I can’t disagree.

Colton shivers, a full-bodied thing, before he scrubs his burnt marshmallows off the end of his stick. He loads a couple new ones. “Ugh. Bang Noah King. Can you imagine? It’s not even that the dude has a dick, I just hate the guy.”

Remi gives me a smile, looking so amused I can’t help but smile back.

Maybe this family of mine gets on my nerves from time to time, but I suppose they’re not so bad. I might even call them pretty great.

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