Page 25 of Relief Pitcher

Austin held up his phone. “Find My Friends.”

“Oh god. I forgot you set that up.”

“I didn’t want another Forest Park incident,” Austin said.

I looked at Tyler and raised my eyebrow. “Forest Park incident?”

“Don’t worry about it. Shall we? I promised Coop some beer.”

Coop? I caught my smile before it ran away from me.

“He disappeared from a bar and called us, drunk off his ass, to say he was stranded in the woods without his pants,” Ethan supplied cheerfully.

I stared at him, wide-eyed.

“What? I was in my twenties. I did dumb shit back then.”

“Back then?” Dom snorted.

“Find My Friends will come in handy if we need a way to collect your body in case you pull that shit again,” Austin said.

Tyler nodded sagely. “This pretty face deserves an open casket.”

“Sorry about these morbid weirdos. Good to meet you.” Seth held out his hand and shook mine. The rest of the guys followed suit with handshakes and friendly smiles. There wasn’t a huge family resemblance beyond the hair color until Seth smiled. Then I saw it. I wondered if Seth always wore bow ties. My brain attempted to conjure an image of Tyler in nothing but panties and a matching bow tie, but I shut it down. That was over.

“Dom’s the only one who doesn’t have to have that feature turned on because ‘he’s the boss.’” I’d never seen more sarcastic air quotes.

Dom’s lips twitched. “Don’t need you nosy nellies all in my business.”

“Nosy nellies? My goodness, Esther. We wouldn’t dare.” Ethan pretended to clutch his pearls.

“How did you survive a weekend with my brother? I don’t know if I should give you an award or pray for your well-being. Are you okay?”

I laughed as Tyler swatted the back of Seth’s head, but he ducked just in time. Clearly, it was a move that happened often. Their quick banter made my head spin in the best way. I loved it.

Tyler took me into the house and to what he called the War Room. It looked like a repurposed formal living room with four matching armchairs and a fifth mismatched chair forming a circle. And a pink dildo with two heads lying on the floor?

“Do I want to know?”

“It’s our talking dick. If things get heated, we bust it out.”

I stared at him as a dozen possibilities sprang to mind.

“Not sex! Fucking gross. Brother and cousin in the brewery, remember?” Tyler faked retching.

“It’s like summer camp. When people argue and someone gets a talking stick to take turns,” Ethan supplied with a cheerful smile.

“Instead, you chose a dildo.” They all nodded like it was the most normal thing in the world. Their world seemed fun.

The tour ended in the dining room as Austin and Seth bustled around to grab beers from the fridge and a closet. They talked me through the beers from their stock at the brewery and a growler of Austin’s latest home-brew experiment.

“What do you do for a living way out in the middle of nowhere?” Ethan asked.

“He’s a tree doctor. Wears a stethoscope and a white coat, but it gets muddy working outside,” Tyler said.

I looked at him, and we shared a smile. I was pretty sure he was also thinking about last night when he suggested I “wear my stethoscope” while he sucked me off.

“I’m an arborist.”

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