Page 28 of Montana Falls
“Isn’t that what friends do?”
“I don’t have friends.”
“Guess I’m a ghost then.” She started making woo noises instantly, waggling her arms about for good measure as I finished the second side of her head, and declared her perfect.
Well, not perfect. She couldn’t be perfect. It was impossible. I would never think that about her.
“Friends.” I tasted the word on my tongue, unsure if I enjoyed it or not. “Fine. Okay. We can be friends. But we can also not talk about the other stuff. At least not tonight. Maybe another day.”
“Aw, thanks for strugglin’ to admit we’re friends. It really does make me feel good.” She laughed as she got to her feet and respected my wishes not to talk about feelings just yet. “If you want to be real friends. Then you could come inside and eat pizza and watch whatever terribly cheesy romance movie Henley has probably picked.”
Everything inside me tensed up. But not all of it was with nerves. There were other thoughts and feelings in my brain that I… that I wouldn’t be dealing with yet. Maybe not ever.
“You want me to come and watch a movie with you?” I asked.
“Yes.” She stepped closer and stared up at me through her long, dark lashes, our height difference worse than usual, what with her lack of hooker heels. “I want you to come inside, sit next to me on the couch, and watch a movie. And I also want you to eat pizza and popcorn and drink soda until your mouth feels icky inside, and you’re all sleepy and relaxed. Is that okay,friend?”
No. it wasn’t okay. It was terrifying and sickening and making me wonder about all the things that could go wrong.
My mouth didn’t seem to understand that, though. My mouth didn’t seem to understand a lot.
“Sure. I guess I can do those things. For Aiden. Seeing as it’s his birthday party.” I drawled, as I said goodbye to my night of stars and peace, and waved her inside with one of the words I didn’t think I’d ever called a woman before leaving my tongue. “Let’s go,friend.”
Chapter Eight
The lights in the gym were low enough that the early hour didn’t bother me as much as it should have. I could almost convince myself it was still late, and that I’d had a long night. Rather than the disgusting truth. Not long after we’d all passed out in the lounge from a combination of stress and too much Chinese food, I’d been woken up by Linc at the crack of dawn to come and spar with him because he was a bitch who couldn’t sleep and I was the only one in the hotel who could beat his ass if I wanted to.
And sure, I was happy knowing I was a badass, but seriously? Couldn’t he have fought at like midday or something? Maybe given me enough time to digest my dinner or have a fun dream about firemen. Or more importantly, my boyfriend as a fireman. Yeah, that would have been far nicer than Lincoln forcing me to fight him on four hours of sleep, a belly still fullof food and beer, all whilst leaving behind a half-naked Misha, who’d been cuddled against my chest.
A swift right hook cut off my internal complaints and vivid daydreams of drowning the older Leroux man in the pool on the other side of the double gym doors so I could go back to my boyfriend.
“You’re slacking.” Lincoln stepped back, wrapped hands in front of his face again, ready to strike once more. “You could have blocked that.”
“I’m tired.” The yawn that escaped backed me up as I did my best to concentrate and hold my position. “Go again.”
He swung again, but this time I blocked him as I lunged forward on the blue mat. “Tough shit. We need to stay sharp. Look how easy John found us yesterday, and we weren’t prepared. We need to be better prepared foranything.” He hit out once more. “Plus, I couldn’t fight Logan with his stitches, and Saph was sleeping on Kody, so I didn’t wanna wake her. That leaves you, so stop your whining and hit me.”
He didn’t need to explain why he hadn’t asked Misha, either. It was partly because we both preferred to leave him to sleep, but it was also because it wasn’t a fair fight. Mish may have been training more and doing his best to get stronger, but he was still skinny and soft. I fucking loved him and was more than aware of how hot I thought he was. But the point remained that it wasn’t going to be fun for him, or a decent enough training session, for him to be fighting either me or his brother. He’d get the shit kicked out of him and he would not enjoy that.
“Sorry, dad.” I snorted and swung back, narrowly missing Lincoln’s jaw. “Maybe if we did this at a normal time and not in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t have a problem. But it’s not even seven and you know I have an affliction to being awake before double figures.”
The speakers on the wall that had been playing a random mix of pump-up tunes, switched to something far more up our street.It was just enough of an added bounce to my step that I got into the fight a bit more, and actually tried. Or at least, tried as much as I could without breaking Lincoln’s pretty face and having him whine about it all day long.
“We have stuff to do today that cannot wait around for you to get in your eight hours of beauty sleep.” He snorted and ducked around another couple of punches of mine, only irritating me more.
I was too tired to lose. I wanted to punch him at least once. A great punch that was filled with love and bruises. One that would make him remember why I was the only one of us who’d been paid for violence with my hands. I hadn’t needed a weapon. I was a fucking God. A hot one with a big dick and…
“You listening to me, princess?” Lincoln interrupted my internal pep talk with far too much sass for a man I could flatten, like a pancake.
I kinda want pancakes. I wonder if Kody can somehow magic some into my belly for breakfast?
“Princess? That’s what you call Saph. Should I be worried you’re flirting with me now?” I laughed and jabbed Lincoln, managing a shot to his kidneys that made him grunt in pain and made me spitefully happy when he stumbled back on the mat.
“You fucking wish.” He snorted and hurried hit me back, taking advantage of my laughter and catching my ribs but without enough force to hurt. “You’re not my type, you cocky bastard. I was just pointing out that you’ve got an ego and a princess complex that you ought to work on.”
My brows wiggled. “But if youwereinto guys,” I teased.
The only Leroux boy I wanted into me had already confessed his feelings. Unlike my girl, I had no desire to get aset of them. I was more than happy with just the one. But it was always fun to mess with people.
