“Interested? I think she’ll be fucking ecstatic. I’m not sure what to say, Nelson. I mean...” His buddy scrubbed his hands over his face and eyed the papers in disbelief.
“Don’t get all emotional on me, bro. This isn’t about you or anything. In fact, I still owe you an ass beating for opening your big fucking mouth to Reed.”
“Yeah, well, clearly that worked out just fine.”
Brody rocked back on his chair and chuckled. “No thanks to you, you dick.”
Sam snorted. “Yeah, I have my moments. But all joking aside, I never saw this coming.”
“Like I said, save the tears. There isn’t one bit of me that questions this decision. I just hope Jenny’s as happy about it as I am.” He’d kept everything tight lipped because he wanted to surprise her, but the closer he got to revealing his big plan, the more the anxiety crept in.
“Only one way to find out.” Sam nodded toward Brody’s suitcase sitting in the foyer. “Get your ass to River Bend.”
***
“Ugh, he must still be at work.” Jenny tossed her phone onto the table and reached for her drink. Seven o’clock on a Friday night and she hadn’t heard a peep from Brody all day.
Carissa smiled, nodding along to the upbeat country song blasting through McCauley’s speakers. “Don’t worry, chica. He’ll turn up eventually.”
“You see my man over there?” Nicole leaned in and pointed across the bar to where Tony and the guys shot pool. “He’s hot, isn’t he?”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “You know what’s really hot? Me on these stupid fertility pills.”
Jenny, Carissa, and Nicole all swiveled around to face their flush-faced friend.
“What? Like you haven’t noticed I’ve been drinking ginger ale for the past six months?” The brunette lifted her glass and took a long, exuberant gulp.
“I caught onto that, but didn’t know you were having problems.” Carissa’s cheery mood turned gloomy in an instant. “I guess I’ve been so busy planning the wedding and worrying about the new house that I didn’t pay close enough attention. God. Some friend I am.”
Maddie waved a dismissed hand. “Eh, it’s probably minor in the big scheme of things. Just a little lacking in the hormone department apparently. Doc doesn’t think it’ll take long.”
Jenny smiled sympathetically. “And I suppose it doesn’t help seeing Ally getting bigger and bigger every day.”
“Yeah, I’m kinda hating on her these days, mostly because she’s so freaking cute.”
“She is, isn’t she?” Nicole sighed as Elena came over with a tray of fresh drinks.
“From Reed,” the petite blonde explained. “He said something about the four of you needing to liven up. I think he’s hoping someone will end up stripping on the bar later.”
“Ha!” Jenny shot a glance across the bar where Reed lifted his beer in the air and winked. “That man will never learn, will he?”
“Probably not. At least not until someone does to him what he’s done to so many of us.” Carissa plucked the cherry out of her new drink and popped it into her mouth.
“I’m going to go talk to him.” Jenny grabbed her amaretto sour and slid off the stool.
“Wait, why?” Nicole frowned.
“I need to lay some things to rest once and for all.” More to point, she wanted to thank him for being the player he’d been, because without him, things with Brody would’ve never worked out like they had. Then she wanted to make sure he knew how wrong he’d been about Brody. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
She set off for the far side of the crowded bar, squeezing her way between the loud, occasionally grabby bar-goers with her drink lifted above her head.
Tony stepped into her path with a goofy grin on his face. “Hey, darlin’. You talked to my boy lately?”
“Like everyday, Ton. It’s kinda our thing.” She winked and Tony laughed. “Not today though. I’m guessing he’s tied up with work.”
Her friend’s smirk widened. “Yeah, work. Uh huh.”
What the heck? She looked up at him, brow pinched, when Reed tapped on her shoulder.
“Hey, princess. You coming to see me?”
Tony shot her a curious look and she poked a finger at his chest. “You hold that thought. I need a minute with Reed.”
He stepped away, hands in the air, and she led Reed to the edge of the bar by the dartboards. “You’ve just called me princess for the last time,” she told him, raising her voice above the music.
“What was that?” One hand on the wall beside her head, he leaned in like he hadn’t heard her. A classic Reed move, trying to breakdown her walls just because he could.
Well, not anymore. “You heard me, you jackass. Now back up.”
He grinned and lifted his beer to his mouth, taking a half step back. “Just playing with you, Jenn. Relax.”
“You don’t get to do that anymore.” She stabbed the center of his chest with her fingernail until he gave her room to breathe. “No more of this silly stuff, okay? Out of respect for my relationship with Brody.”
“Nothing wrong with joking around. If he can’t handle that—”
“I’m asking you to stop. Not him. Me.”
Reed frowned. “Okay...”
“You’ve been my friend since I was old enough to ride a bike. I hope we can be friends until we’re old and gray. But it can’t be like it was. Not even remotely. I love him, Reed. He and I are going to be together and I don’t need you standing off in the corner, watching his every move, and worrying about what kind of man he is. I got that under control, okay?”
“I’m always going to—”
“No.” She lifted a hand and held her ground. “You’ve never been a brother to me, Reed, so don’t start acting like one now.”
“Jenn, come on.”
“You can’t respect him if you don’t trust him and I know you, Reed. You’ll find every reason in the book to hate him on principle alone. That isn’t fair.”
Reed lifted his chin, his jaw hardening.
“He’s good to me and I know it sounds crazy, but...” She tipped her head to the side, emotion gathering in her throat. “I don’t want to hate you anymore. Hell, I can’t hate you. Not when what happened between us is what led me to him.”
Reed’s throat worked as he swallowed. “You really think he’s it for you?”
“I don’t think it—I know it.”
He stared down at her for a couple more beats before a slow smile spread across his face. “He’s a lucky man, Jenn.”
Her heart lifted as she pushed a hand back through her hair and laughed. “So I’ve heard.”
“I mean it. And I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I’ll do my best not to fuck with him too much.”
“That’s definitely in your best interest, man.” A deep, familiar voice sounded behind Reed and butterflies flooded Jenny’s stomach.
“Baby?” She pushed around Reed and, low and behold, there stood Brody in all of his tall, dark, and tattooed glory. She stashed her drink on the ledge and launched herself into his arms without a second’s hesitation, smacking kisses all over his face. He hoisted her up, hands under her ass as she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight. Two weeks. She’d gone two weeks without seeing him and it had been the longest fourteen days of her life.
“Missed me, huh?” He pressed his face into her neck and stole a few kisses of his own. “Fuck, you always smell good enough to eat.”
She giggled and pulled back just enough to cup his face and press her mouth to his. “You can do that later, handsome. Promise.”
He growled and nipped at her bottom lip. “This guy giving you a hard time?”
Ugh. Reed.
“No.” She shook her head and gave Brody one last kiss before wiggling down to her own feet. “I think we finally understand each other.”
“That so?” Brody knuckled his nose and wrapped a proprietary arm around her waist as she turned to face Reed. For the longest five seconds of her life, the two men did nothing but stare at each other. It wasn’t quite the sizing up thing that guys liked to do, but it wasn’t without testosterone and tension either.