Page 39 of Their Greatest Strength

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ll still be dropping me off on the corner.”

“I should have known.” He blows out a soft laugh.

I cock a brow. “Is that still a yes, or have you changed your mind?”

“For you, I’ll hog every corner in the neighbourhood.”

13

JAMIE

My older brotheris a grumpy shit most of the time, but he has moments when he checks that part of his personality and welcomes a lighter vibe. Usually, that’s only when we’re around Mom, his fiancée, or he’s got his daughter in his arms.

I’ve never seen him as happy as he is with his new family. The one he found when he was certain he’d be spending the rest of his life with only a scowl to keep him company.

It’s wild how fast life can change. One minute, you’re laughing while your teenage brother chases you around your childhood home with an electric fly swatter because you wroteI like boobson his favourite hat, and the next, you’re laughing with every male relative you have in a party bus for his bachelor party ten years later.

“There better not be any strippers, Jamie. Braxton already threatened to have me sleep in Hades’ doghouse if I stepped foot into a club,” my cousin Maddox grunts.

His brother, Noah, doesn’t threaten me with words. Instead, he glowers at me with the strength of a thousand suns, daring me to bring him anywhere close to a woman that isn’t his Tinsley. I toss him a wink and keep a wide berth while moving around him to the seat on Maddox’s other side.

That guy could cut through the trunk of a tree with his glare alone. I’d blame the whole rock star thing if he hadn’t been so ruthless from the moment I met him as an infant.

“Addie suggested strippers. She thought it would be fun,” Cooper chimes in.

The oldest of the group, Cooper, is not blood-related to any of us. His involvement in our group comes from his parents’ friendship with ours. He grew up with us and may as well be blood at this point. He, Maddox, and Braxton, Maddox’s wife, were the closest out of everyone growing up.

Now, he’s married to Maddox’s younger sister, and they have an adorable baby girl.

“Adalyn’s opinion of fun needs to be studied,” Maddox notes. “She’s not one to be trusted with this sort of thing.”

Oliver, the husband-to-be, rests an arm along the back of the opposite leather couch. “Avery had to talk her out of hiring their own strippers for the bachelorette party. We all need to be prepared to find half-naked cops in my living room when we get back in case she didn’t heed the warnings.”

“Not happening,” Noah states coolly.

He reaches up to untie the bandana from where it holds his long black hair back and wraps it around his knuckles instead, rubbing it back and forth.

The collection of face tattoos he’s sporting nowadays is intimidating as fuck, but the one at his temple is my favourite simply because I know the meaning behind it. Tinsley has one to match.

Her younger brother is here too, and that’s an odd change. Easton is the second youngest member of our little family, but he’s finally old enough to be able to go out with us now.

The kid is only two years younger than me, but compared to Cooper’s thirty-three, he’s just a baby. We both are, I guess.

Easton has always preferred Noah’s company, so it wasn’t surprising when he piled on the bus and went right to his side. He shares quite a few of Noah’s personality traits, including thedark shadow that lingers over his bluntly spoken words and lack of funny bone.

“If there were going to be strippers at your house tonight, they would be firefighters, not cops,” Cooper tells Oliver.

Maddox chuffs a laugh while the bus takes a right turn through traffic. “Are you not giving her enough strip shows in your gear, Olliepop?”

“I’m not talking about our sex life with you assholes,” my brother grunts.

I abandon the conversation for now and reach for the cooler sandwiched between me and Cooper. The array of Jell-O shots that the girls made us have been stacked in containers.

“Oh, fuck off, Jamie,” Maddox says, scraping a hand down over his bearded jaw. “I’m too old for Jell-O shots.”

I roll my eyes and start handing them out to everyone. “Nobody is too old for shots. I don’t hear Cooper complaining.”

“Are you hinting that I’m extra old?” he asks, already taking the lid off his plastic shot glass.

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