Page 124 of Still Bruised
Anton scoffed. “The young ones keep us on our toes.”
“The young ones have been beating our asses. I’m with Jude. I’m tired of losing every week,” Roan said. “An occasional win helps my ego.”
“If you two would’ve concentrated, we’d have done better today,” Anton said. He glared at Roan. “You were on your phone more than the court.”
“Mia’s past due! Ihadto check my phone every so often.” Roan snapped. He eyed Jude. “What’s your excuse?”
Jude’s gaze flashed to Anton’s for a second before he shrugged, focusing on Roan. “I’m tired.”
“Lame,”Roan said. He play-punched Anton’s bicep. “At leastIhad a good excuse. Blame Jude for this mess, not me.”
“You know how the shop gets this time of the year,” Jude said.
Roan’s smile fell. “Hey, ah, Jude… that reminds me. Since Anton’s going out of town again… did you want to come over to Mia’s folks with us? I’m sure Bev would make a spot for you.”
Jude had run into Mia’s mom a few times since high school, and she usually acted like she didn’t see him. No way was she making him a spot. “I’m usually exhausted by Thanksgiving and not great company,” Jude said. “I’ll just order some Chinese and veg out on the couch.”
“It’s not too late to come with us,” Anton said.
“You’re flying out four days before Thanksgiving,” Jude said. “I can’t leave the shop the week before a major holiday.”
“And as I suggested before, you can get a last-minute flight out Wednesday,” Anton said. “I can pick you up in the airport. Might be in a tractor, for all I know, but I’ll be there.”
“And with the weather up that way, I’d rather not end up stuck in an airport when I could be napping on my couch. Let me rest while I can. We’re going to be slammed most of December.”
“What if I bring you a plate from Mia’s mother’s house on our way home?”
“Jesus Christ,can you both please stop?!”
Anton and Roan’s eyes widened. A few heads turned from the other courts, too.
Jude blew out a long, slow breath to calm himself. “It feels like you guys don’t trust me to be alone. If I haven’t proven I’m good by now, will I ever?”
“We trust you,” Anton said, frowning.
“Really? Because it doesn’t feel like it.”
“We don’t want you to be alone on a holiday,” Roan said.“We’reyour family now. We’re supposed to be together for this kind of shit.”
Jude sighed, guilt slamming into him for yelling. “Yeah, and just like family, you two can be pains in my ass.”
Both Anton and Roan snorted.
“In all honesty, I wanted you to come to Wisconsinfor me.It’ll be a house full of women—and me and Jeff. He’s going to talk my ear off the entire time. The guy doesn’t shut up about those cows. It was interesting for the first fifteen minutes—and that’s being generous.” Anton scoffed. “Hell, the cows can’t shut up either. Have you heard the sounda thousandcows make? Day in and day out. Moo-moo here. Moo-moo there. By the third day, I was so tempted to round up his entire herd and send them to you for slaughter.”
“Yeah, but who’s going to keep Jeff warm at night if you do that?” Jude asked, grinning.
Anton chuckled. “Sure as hell isn’t my ice princess sister.”
Jude turned to Roan and found him frowning as he scanned the screen of his phone.
“Hey, sorry, I need to go,” Roan said.
“Is it the baby?” Anton asked, rising.
“Oh no, sorry,” Roan said as he backed away. “Mia’s got a craving for del Fagioli’s and if I don’t get pick her up something withinthe craving window, she’ll be grumpy all afternoon.”
“The craving window?” Jude asked.
