Page 36 of Bet On Me, Daddy

That would have to do. For now.

Beckett

The friendsand the food helped, as much as he hated to admit it. Mostly he hated to admit it because that also meant admitting Ice had been right about him dropping.

And because if he’d dropped, then that meant Ruby meant a hell of a lot more to him than he’d initially realized.

What the hell was he supposed to do about that?

“Those noodles are gonna jump off your plate and run for the hills if you keep glaring at them like that.” Ice’s amused voice cut through the noise in Beckett’s brain and he jerked his head up to find all three of his closest friends watching him with amused expressions.

“Shut up, Ice,” Beckett grumbled, stabbing at the noodles.

With an overly dramatic sigh, Ice shook his head. “Still grumpy. Guess he’s not ready for the club yet.”

Beside Ice, Holden chuckled and scooped up another forkful of his drunken noodles. “If that’s the new rule, you and I are never getting into the club again.”

Ice glared at him. “I am not grumpy.”

“You’re both grumpy as fuck,” Braden said with a roll of his eyes. “But if I banned you for being grumpy, I’d have to ban my brothers, too.”

“I amnotgrumpy. I’m a jaded rockstar. There’s a difference.”

“Uh-huh,” Braden and Holden replied in unison, and Beckett couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole argument.

Rising to his feet, Beckett picked up his half-empty bowl to carry it into the kitchen. His stomach was too jittery to eat anything else, so he might as well get to the club so he could talk to Ruby. “If you’re all done arguing over who’s grumpiest, we should get going.”

“Hold up.” Ice’s eyes narrowed. “I was only half joking about you not being ready for the club. Serious question, how are you feeling?”

“Better.” He rolled his eyes when Ice continued to glare at him. “Seriously. The food helped. You guys helped more. I’m still not sure what the fuck I’m supposed to do about Ruby, but I’ll figure it out. Just need a plan.”

“That plan better not include breaking her heart.” There was steel beneath Braden’s words. “If you don’t want something real with her, then be straight with her.”

“I don’t know what I want.” Which, he was man enough to admit, was the real problem. All his life he’d known exactly what he wanted and how to get it. Ruby was an unknown, and he didn’t deal well with unknowns. “But I’m not trying to hurt her, Braden. I just… don’t know if I can give her anything more than what we already have.”

“Why not?” It was Holden who asked, his brows slightly drawn together in that way he had when he was trying to piece together a particularly difficult puzzle. It was an expression he wore often when he was around Frankie, which normally amused Beckett to no end.

Having that expression aimed in his direction, however, was rather unnerving. There were things he’d never told any of them, even Braden, who he’d known for years. Things that were for him, and nobody else.

“Ruby’s a brat,” he said with a shrug, reaching for the easy answer instead. “I’m the kind of man who wants complete control, at all times, and I don’t know that she’d be willing or able to give me that. We aren’t a good fit.”

“You seemed like a damn good fit last night,” Ice argued.

“For a scene here or there, sure. But not for anything long term.”

“Then our deal is off.” Jaw tight, Holden ran a hair through his silver hair. “I’ll call Preston for you in the morning, see if he’d be interested in a meeting. I’m not letting you put that girl through the wringer just to make a point.”

“Even without the deal, I’d still want to scene with her again. I just need to talk to her, make sure we’re both on the same page about just being play partners.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something rather obvious?” Braden’s brow raised. “You said she was pissed at you when you ran into her at your office building. Don’t you think you should get to the bottom of that?”

Braden had a point. They couldn’t indulge the kind of play they both enjoyed if there were a bunch of negative emotions between them. And, more to the point, he needed to know he could trust her to tell him when he’d done something she didn’t like. Honesty and communication were at the heart of their lifestyles, even if they weren’t in a relationship.

A little voice in the back of his head told him he was lying to himself. That his reasons for wanting to know what the fuck he’d done to piss her off ran much deeper than just being her sometimes play partner.

“Don’t worry about that,” Beckett said, ignoring that annoying little voice. “I have every intention of finding out what’s wrong with our Ruby.”

That much, at least, was the truth.

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