Page 25 of Mr Nice Guy

“You had class,” Jackson points out.

“Screw class, you’re more important,” Skyler huffs.

Jackson sends him a hard look. “I’ll remind you of that when you fail the Bar.” He sighs. “Besides, Drew and Tiff were there. We had it covered.”

Skyler still looks put out, the way he always does when he feels like he’s been overlooked—he’s so fucking needy, especially when it comes to Jackson—but after another moment of pouting, he shrugs and lets it go.

I spot Drew moving through the crowd towards our table and pull another stool over from the table next to us so he can join us.

“I guess you told them?” Drew asks Jackson, looking just as wrung out from the day’s events.

“You should have told mehoursago,” Skyler grumbles.

I roll my eyes to the ceiling. So much for letting it go.

In typical Jackson fashion, he shifts closer to Sky and gives him a reassuring pat on the arm. “I promise the next time my business is ruined, you’ll be the first person I call.”

“That’s all I ask,” Skyler says.

I share an exasperated glance with Drew before getting back to the issue at hand. “You’re really out thousands?”

He winces. “We haven’t done a full inventory of the lost stock yet, but it’ll be at least twenty grand.”

“Shiiitt.”From what I understand, Jackson and Drew’s business has been quite successful , but it’s still a relatively new business and with all the operational costs plus their own salaries and those of the people who work for them, I can’t imagine plucking twenty grand out of the budget is going to be easy.

I exchange a glance with Skyler. “You know, if you need money…” I venture, thinking of the multiple billionaires on our rugby team, any one of whom would be more than happy to give these guys the money they need to get the retail part of their business back up and running.

Drew gives a firm shake of his head. “No.”

“Any one of them would be happy to help,” I reason, Skyler nodding along with me.

“I’m not borrowing money from any of your billionaire friends,” Drew says, his voice tight.

I glance at Jackson to see what he thinks about this, but he just shrugs. “We’ll find another way.” Then he fixes Skyler and me with a hard look of warning. “And you two better not tell them about any of this. You know what they’re like—they’ll probably pass around an envelope and fill it with ten grand bills or whatever.”

“I don’t think they make those,” Skyler says, brow furrowed.

“It’s okay, we won’t tell them,” I assure them. “But I still think you’re missing an opportunity.”

“I’m not taking money from billionaires,” Drew repeats stubbornly, and I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he’d be so reluctant. He doesn’t know the guys on our team as well as the rest of us do, having only met them a handful of times. And I have no doubt he’s orchestrated it that way. I love the guy, but when it comes to money and class he’s a fucking snob—in the sense that he instinctively assumes everyone who has money is a total asshole.

Drew definitely wouldn’t be having any trouble staying away from Tanner Grimsay, that’s for sure. If he were into guys, I mean.

Fuck, I really need to stop thinking about Tanner before I zone out of the conversation and begin a mental replay of our encounter at school yesterday.

“Can we just not talk about it for a while,” Drew grumbles, wiping his hands over his face. “Come on…someone distract me.”

“Deacon sucked off his silver fox in his classroom yesterday,” Skyler blurts out. I send him a hard glare and he just shrugs. “What? You didn’t tell me it was a secret.”

So much for not thinking about Tanner.

Drew’s brows are practically in his hairline. “Well, that did the trick.”

“Seriously? In yourclassroom?”Jackson asks, face screwed up in obvious disbelief.

“Oh, and you’ve never hooked up at work before?” Skyler says.

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