Page 46 of Last Fall

“Mostly friends of Jack. Which means you should steer clear of them. They’re as dumb asheis.”

“I heard that Erik the Dead.” Jack’s best friend Riley shouted over hisshoulder.

“See? Can’t even come up with good nicknames after tenyears.”

Riley turned and shot me a dirty glare. “Ten years of putting up with your whiney littlebaseballego.”

I waved him off as Zoelaughed.

Again.

This was becoming apattern.

“Come on. Let me introduce you to the tinyterror.”

She snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s what Wes called me before he decided onPixie.”

Speaking of which...“I never got a chance tothankyou.”

“Thank meforwhat?”

Fuck, I loved when she looked up at me like that. “Anyone who knows Wes, myself included, thoroughly enjoyed watching him loose his shit over Carrie. The way you two toyedwithhim—”

“We weren’t playinggames.”

Well that was bullshit. “You were totallyplayinghim.”

She shrugged a little. “Notforfun.”

“Forkeeps?”

“Forsafety,” she corrected. Then she leaned closer—which I really liked—and lowered her voice. “Carrie was really scared. Wes was...is...alot.”

“Don’t I know it,” I muttered. After this week I was ready to drop his ass off at the nearest cliff. “That’s why it was so enjoyable for all of us towatch.”

“Oh...” There it was—thattwinkle.

Ireallywanted to make her eyes light up like that all the time. “Sothankyou.”

“I didn’t realizeeveryoneknew.”

I shrugged it off because I didn’t want anything ruining this moment. “Just his friends.” I winked. “You know, the ones he’s been torturing on a regular basis since the day we met.” The man loved pranks, laughs, and sex. And not in that order. “Which for me is somewhere in the neighborhood of eleven years.” All the way back to my senior year at UF. He was just a gangly pain in the assfreshman.

“Wow. I had no idea you two knew each other for that long. How old are you?” She leaned back and stroked her chin as if she were studying me for thefirsttime.

“Well, I am the Papa Bear of the team. I’m not young anymore.” Butnotold.

“I keep meaning to ask youaboutthat.”

“How old I am? Didn’t realize you caredsomuch.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care that you are clearlymanyyears olderthanme.”

“Many?Many? I can’t be more than five years olderthanyou.”

That brought out a smile and bounce of her eyebrows. “Are you callingmeold?”

But I didn’t get a chance to answer that because Belle came stomping up. “There you are. Youleftme!”

---