Page 200 of Pucking Around

“Don’t,” I snap. “The first of you to refer to our relationship as the ‘pussy posse’ will be the first voted off the island. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Jake replies quickly.

Caleb nods.

Ilmari does nothing. But hell will literally freeze over before he says the words ‘pussy’ and ‘posse’ in the same sentence.

“So…you’re the one-night stand in Seattle,” Harrison says, pointing at Jake.

Jake laughs. “Guilty. But I had nothing to do with her leaving your fancy brunch—oh, and hey—happy wedding,” he says, tapping Harrison’s leg with his fist.

“And you’re the dildo at the airport guy,” Harrison adds, pointing at Caleb.

Jake chokes on another laugh as Ilmari glances down at Caleb. “You’re what guy?”

“It’s a long story,” I say at the same time that Caleb looks right back at him and says, “Hurricane has a foot long squid tentacle dildo. Ask nicely, and she’ll put it in your ass.”

Ilmari’s eyes go wide as the other three laugh.

“And we’ve already established you’re the Swede,” Harrison says.

“Finn,” Ilmari, Jake, and I say at once.

“Harrison, stop teasing them, or I’ll call Som right now and tell him to rescue three more cats,” I threaten, giving him my best hard stare.

“Fine,” he mutters.

I hadn’t gotten very far into my story before the guys walked up, so Harrison is still flying a bit blind. He knows the basics, which is that we all sort of stumbled our way into this twisty pretzel of a relationship.

“How long are you in town?” Jake asks him.

“That remains to be seen,” Harrison replies. “The jet is on standby.”

Jake snorts. “The jet? What, like your family has a private jet you keep fueled?”

Harrison and I just look at him.

“Well…fuck,” he mutters. “Your family has a private jet.”

“Kinda,” I reply with a shrug. “H was worried about me. I’ve been flying solo since I moved down here, which is breaking major rules.”

“You haven’t been solo, babe,” Jake replies, sitting forward on the bench to take my hand. “I know you’ve missed your brother, but I hope you haven’t felt alone—”

“Jake,no,” I soothe. “It’s just…Price Family rules, you know? For so long now, we’ve only had each other. They sensed trouble brewing with me and Harrison knew it was time to regroup. The Prices stick together. Always.”

“Are we the trouble brewing?” says Caleb, still glancing warily at my twin.

I know trusting people is tough for him. He’ll do his best because Harrison is my brother, but for as much as H talks a big game about hating cats, he practically is one himself. And so is Caleb. I have a feeling they’ll get along like oil and water…like cats in a bag. At least for the first little while.

But I can just imagine them a few Christmases from now, thick as thieves as they plot out a devious plan to make all the coffee mint flavored. Harrison will tolerate Jake. He’ll be clinically polite to Ilmari. But he’ll love Caleb. They’ll text incessantly, even as they pretend they barely know each other. Harrison will help Caleb put together a grilling cookbook for Jake for Christmas. He’ll pretend like it’s no big deal and Caleb will shrug when Jake thanks him for it. Meanwhile, I’ll be a blubbering mess.

My breath catches as that beautiful vision of our shared future pops like a soap bubble, leaving my heart pounding. God, I want to stay in the vision longer. I want to see the boys up at my family’s ranch in Montana. I want to know that my parents love and accept them, acceptus. I want to see them laughing as we open presents, Somchai and my mom busy in the kitchen making French toast for breakfast. Jake will finally wear daddy down and convince him to give him guitar lessons. He’ll learn four chords and give up. Then the guys will all drag me out ice skating on the frozen lake.

“Rakas?” Ilmari is looking at me, his blue eyes soft.

I blink, swallowing the ball of emotion in my throat, and glance around at all of them. I missed something. They’re all looking to me. “What?”

“Your brother asked what time you finish with work today,” Ilmari replies.

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