Page 112 of Your Soul to Keep

His face creased with happiness, his eyes dancing. “You enjoying your drink?”

I leaned closer and smiled up into his face. “Yes!” My brow furrowed. “There was something—oh! Can I invite Harley and Daire over for dinner to your house?”

His eyebrows rose and he nodded, a soft smile touching his lips. “Sure.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, baby.” He reached around me and pulled the scrunchie out of my hair, slipping it onto his wrist. “What do you say we knock another item off that bucket list of yours?”

I tilted my head to the side. “Which one?”

He grinned. “Drunk sex.”

My eyes lit up. “Yes. Definitely, yes.” I wanted that. Badly. Wanted to see what it was like to have sex with zero inhibitions. I eyed my glass. “You best keep me topped up.”

“Not too much.” He laughed. “Blackout sex is not on the list.”

Our table was situated right beside the bar which made getting refills easy. Max and Wren sat across from Gabe and me, Bridge sat between me and Wren, while Julian took the seat between Gabe and Max. Kian, who came in late, sat on a stool beside us at the bar.

When the band took a break, Julian, Max, and Gabe settled into their usual banter, teasing Wren and making me blush while Bridge egged them on.

Despite Gabe repeatedly attempting to draw Kian into conversation, Kian orbited the perimeter of our group like a solitary electron, belonging, but set apart.

According to Bridge and Wren, he was back to stay even if it wasn’t the most welcoming of circumstances. His obvious discomfort made my heart bleed.

I leaned into Gabe. “Can we invite Kian and Bridge and Julian too?”

He ran the backs of his fingers over my cheek. “Babe, you can invite anyone you want, anytime you want to.”

He said it as if it was my house.

I hadn’t had friends to host or a house to host at for years.

Not that it was my house. I hazarded a glance at Gabe whose eyes were on me, soft and knowing.

My spirit whispered inside me. But it could be, it could be yours.

Soon.

My shoulders hugged my ears, and I grinned. “Thank you.”

His smile warmed me to my toes.

I turned back to my girls with a big, satisfied, sigh and dove back into my spiked punch.

Bridge, her eyes on Kian, seemed to make up her mind about something. With a brief nod toward Kian, she said to me, “I’ll be right back.”

She began to stand, then stopped short, her palms flat on the table, ass half off the chair, her attention swinging to Wren. “Wren—”

Wren held up her palm. “Bridge, you go there any way you want to. I told you I have no claim on that man. Not in any way, shape, or form. And I would like to see him happy. I want him to stay.” She smiled. “More, I want to see you happy.”

Bridge’s eyes widened as she argued, “We’re not even friends. I barely know him.”

Wren smiled. “But you would like to be.”

Bridge stared at Wren, her throat bobbing. “Maybe?”

Wren laughed. “Well, go figure it out then.”

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