Page 74 of Filthy Sweet

“He is,” Owen says as we walk in. “And like I said downstairs, sorry about the ambush.”

When I turn to the condo, I startle. Reggie is sitting on the couch, drinking one of my beers. He’s dressed in his usual basketball shorts and hoodie, and he stands up quickly, then crosses his arms.

“Oh, shit.” I swallow. “Reggie.”

“It’s okay,” Owen says quickly. “Reggie, tell Fox it’s okay.”

I see Reggie wrestling with something internally. His face gets scrunched up, like I’m a particularly heavy set of weights he’s about to approach. I tense in response, but then Reggie sighs, looks at his brother, and walks over.

“It’s going to be okay,” Reggie grumbles, then throws his arms around me in a bear hug, knocking the air out of me. “You shouldn’t have done it like that, but I’m not going to try to stop you and Owen from doing your nasty thing.”

“Thank you, Reggie,” I manage, my voice raspy through his tight squeeze.

“Love you, man.”

“You too.”

Reggie drops me, but keeps his hands on my shoulders, gripping me. “Hey,” he says, more serious. “You know I’m never going to ditch you, right? No matter what, you’re my brother, too, man.”

Shit. Now Reggie’s sentimental ass is going to make me cry.

“Yeah,” I say. “I feel the same about you.” We share a teary smile. Then I chuckle, breaking the tension. “I don’t know if you had to break into my condo and give me a heart attack to say that, but it’s true.”

Reggie tightens his grip on my shoulders. “I needed to tell you this way because I need you to know that you can’t hide from me.”

I smile. “Thanks, Reggie.”

“No,” he says, then lifts me off the ground. “I mean if you hurt my brother, you won’t be able to hide from me.”

“Reggie!” Owen yelps. “That’s not why! It’s because you want Fox to know that you’ll always be there for him!”

“Just because I love you doesn’t mean you get off the hook,” Reggie growls, his eyes burning into mine. “You do something stupid like cheat on my brother? I’ll eat you.”

My feet dangle off the ground. “Uh, Reggie?”

“I’ll eat you just for the protein,” Reggie threatens.

“Reggie!” Owen says. “Put my boyfriend down!”

We all freeze and look at each other, then immediately start laughing. Reggie drops me, then chuckles and pushes his hand through his hair. “Sorry,” he grumbles.

I straighten my shirt. “Message received.”

Owen grabs my hand and kisses me. It feels funny to do it in front of Reggie, but when I glance his way, I actually see a dopey smile on his face.

The big goofball.

“While we’re on a happy note,” Owen says, “on to part two?”

I look at Reggie. “Is part two another group activity, or…?”

“Gonna stay here and finish my beer,” Reggie says happily. “You two have fun.”

“Sure,” I deadpan. “Make yourself at home.”

Owen laughs as he guides me out of the condo. I’m dizzy, trying to ground myself in reality again, and his hand helps.

“Holy shit,” I say. “We can be together.”

---