Page 51 of All Jacked Up

He had always been oddly close with Saylor Rice though. She’d been Crosby’s, and everyone knew that, but she and Gathe were together as much as she and Crosby were. I was alwaysconfused by that, but never mentioned it to Ransom. It wasn’t my business. Then when Crosby died and there was another girl pregnant with his baby, I was curious about that too. I hadn’t realized he and Saylor had broken up, but then my only tie to Madison was Ransom.

When I reached the arched entrance that led into the room with the television—which wouldn’t have even fit into the door of my trailer, growing up—I did a quick scan for Ransom, only to find he wasn’t in there. Gathe was, along with Forge, and there was an older guy. I’d guess he was Ransom’s age, but he’d not gone to high school with us. Either he was someone not inside their families or he was older.

“If you’re texting Oz, tell him to double my money on this one,” Forge told the older guy, who glanced up from his phone and cut his eyes at him. That one look was so similar to Gathe that I was going to take a guess and say that was the older Bowen brother.

“You sure about that? They’re not known for a strong fourth quarter,” the guy replied.

Forge reached for a glass with amber liquid in it and smirked at him. “I got a feeling.”

The other guy rolled his eyes and went back to texting.

“Hey!” Gathe called out.

My gaze swung to him, only to find him locked in on me. He did a slow take over my body, then chuckled.

“Join us.” Then he motioned for me to come into the room. “Sit, watch the game with us. What do you drink? The bar is stocked.”

I wanted to ask where Ransom was, but didn’t. Instead, I stepped into the room and made my way over to the expansive U-shaped sofa.

“Sorry about earlier,” Forge said. “I wouldn’t have said that if I’d known it was you.”

I started to tell him it was okay, but Gathe spoke up. “Dude,that doesn’t make it better.”

Forge winced, and I genuinely felt bad for him.

“It’s fine. We were kids, and the truth was, I needed to drop some weight, my braces made my already ridiculously big lips stick out like a duck, and I had very little social skills.”

He didn’t appear relieved.

“This is Locke,” he told me, nodding his head at the guy I didn’t recognize. “Gathe’s brother.”

My guess had been correct. But then the more I looked at him, the more I noticed similarities. However, unlike Gathe, he was less of a talker, it seemed. He nodded his head at me in greeting, then went back to his phone.

Gathe stood up, and his focus stayed on me. “What would you like to drink? Name it. We even have the girlie shit.”

I opened my mouth to tell him a water was fine when one of the two glass doors that led outside to the far right of the room opened, and Ransom came walking in. The instant flutter at the sight of him couldn’t be helped, and neither could the smile that began to stretch across my face. However, the topless brunette behind him squelched all other reactions with a massive lead weight that landed in my gut. His eyes met mine, and I tried very hard to hold my smile, but I quickly jerked my gaze off him and the view of bare boobs behind him to Gathe.

He was waiting for me to tell him what I wanted. Water didn’t seem like it would help me get through this. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known Ransom slept around with women. I had. There was little I didn’t know about him. But seeing it? Whew, I hadn’t been ready for that.

My throat was tight, and I had to clear it before responding, “Red wine.”

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly. “Merlot, pinot, zinfandel—”

“Cabernet. The bottle of Anakota,” Ransom replied, startlingme. I wanted to look at him, but right now, I was still recovering. “I put it to the right of the Shiraz.”

I watched as Gathe pulled out a bottle of my favorite red wine. They really did have everything here. My brain slowly registered that Ransom had known not only my choice of wine, but the brand I preferred. It was the only cabernet that I kept in my apartment. Had I told him that at some point? I couldn’t remember, but then it was hard to think about anything with Miss Boobs USA in the room.

Gathe held up the bottle for me to inspect, and I nodded. I was afraid if I saidyesorthank you, my voice would sound funny due to the thickening in my throat.

“Cover your tits, Cass,” Locke said without even looking in their direction. His focus was on the television now.

I could see Ransom grab a shirt off the chair from the corner of my eye and toss it at her. I swallowed hard and stared at the screen as if I knew what was going on.

“You hungry?” Ransom asked, and I wasn’t sure who he was asking. Me or her.

Since I wasn’t looking in his direction, I didn’t respond. I was no longer hungry anyway.

“Noa.”

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