Page 60 of Cosmo

“Thanks. I will.”

Abs kissed him on the cheek but pulled back with his little nose all scrunched. “You need a shower.”

“Yes, I do.”

Daiq was in the bathroom with him while he showered and tried three times to paw the door open to get to Liam. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Meow!”

“You’re getting as bossy as Abs. I think he’s a bad influence.”

More loud meowing and when Liam finished, he got out to Daiq patting his wet leg with his paw. “Damn bossy, you’re getting to be.”

Daiq followed him to the room and they curled up on the bed, Daiq purring loudly as he licked the last of the moisture from Liam’s forearm. “Abs sure likes you.”

Looking at Liam, blinking once, his little face confident in the fact he’d soon have a houseful of men at his beck and call.

“Who’d ever guess you were hiding behind a dumpster not that long ago?”

At rehearsal, he watched the others tossing around empty bottles like they all had wings attached, and when it was his turn to learn some moves, he knew he was about to break all that they handed him.

Hippy told him, “The new guys never get this right away. That’s fine, we all learn, but for this weekend, you’ll toss them, and we’ll spike.”

“Spike them? Like Volleyball?”

“Exactly,” Goldie said. “You set, we spike, only we’re not slapping them out into the crowd. You toss it up, as straight in the air as you can, and one of us will catch it on the way back down and do what we do.”

That sounded easy enough, but Liam could also think of a thousand ways it could go wrong. “If one of you doesn’t catch it, it will land on my head!”

Hippy laughed. “That would be funny.”

“Hippy,” Abs chided. “Stop.”

“It would!”

Of all the people to have not like him in the pub, Hippy was the worst. No, he wasn’t the biggest, but he had a shitload of weapons at his disposal. “I promise I won’t be laughing.”

“Ignore him,” Goldie said in a soothing manner that could make anyone calmer. “I’m the tallest, so you can work with me this time, until you get the hang of it. Try it. I promise you won’t need a ride to the ER.”

Liam took one bottle around the neck and tossed it into the air above his head, his head falling back so he could watch it, and just as it was about to hit his face, and his entire body moved away from it, it was in Goldie’s big hand.

“See? Easy.”

Liam let out the pent-up scream in a whisper, “Yeah. Easy.”

With that practice over, it was his turn to learn to pour into the mouths of those at the bar. They called this “doing the hundred-dollar shots” because that’s how much was charged for them. He figured they’d go upstairs, but Murphy warned him to try it on the floor first. “Get your balance here, where it won’t hurt as much to fall.”

“I probably should ask about our healthcare now.”

Abs giggled and Mims said, “I’ve only used mine once, and it’s great healthcare.”

“He used it for the clap,” Hippy said in a mumble, and Mims smacked him playfully.

“Like I’m the only one who’s ever gotten it!”

“Enough,” Murphy called out, laughing. “Mark the width, Abs, and Goldie grab the pads.”

Abs got the ruler and made a long, thin rectangle on the floor, and Goldie set the yoga mats over it. “Okay,” Goldie instructed, “put the balls of your feet on the mats and balance there for a minute.”

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