this is how you react?”
Kline’s eyes study me carefully. I avoid them and their freaky power and look back to the now weepy, smiling giant.
“Yes! I fluffing love this shit. We can all read them together and use poker nights to discuss. Who the fluff needs to play cards anyway?” He makes a point to toss his cards back onto the table. “And we’ll call it Thatch’s Book Club!”
“Thatch’s Book Club?” I scoff. “Why the hell do you get top billing?”
He rolls his eyes, leans back into the leather of his chair and rests both of his hands behind his big fucking head. “Because I’m the one who started this fluffing poker night, asshole.”
“Right,” I challenge. “You started poker night. Not book club. I’m the one chasing bookworm tail, and book club is my idea. It should be Cap’s Book Club.”
“Christ,” Milo sighs, rubbing his face like he can somehow scrub away the pain we’re causing him.
“Guys, there’s an easy solution here,” Kline says, ever the diplomat. “Obviously, it shouldn’t have either of your names in the title—”
“And obviously,” Wes Lancaster adds, “we should never mention this shit in public anyway.”
“It’s the Billionaire Book Club,” Theo says casually, rearranging his cards into one hand and taking a puff of his cigar before finishing sagely, “It’s what we all have in common.”
“Except for Harrison,” I say mockingly, and he reels open his middle finger like he’s fishing.
“I’m a multi-fucking-millionaire, motherfucker.”
I shrug. “So, not a billionaire.”
Trent laughs and jerks his head to me. “What do we have in common with this guy other than our money? Anyone? Anyone?”
I lift a finger—a very specific finger—in his direction and roll the title around on my tongue. “The Billionaire Book Club, huh?”
Thatch smiles. “I have to admit, it’s got a nice fluffing ring to it.”
“What’s the first title?” Kline asks, and I reach into the jacket hanging on my chair to pull out my prop.
I set it on the table like a showcase, turning the front of the book around the circle so they can all get a look. “It’s called Can’t Handle This. It’s the book she’s reading right now. And you should all probably pick up a copy tonight.”
“I haven’t even agreed to this, and it is already starting to feel like a pain in the fucking ass,” Wes grumbles.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Whitney,” Thatch says sweetly, and Wes flips him off in a loving response.
I, on the other hand, am getting annoyed because these fucks apparently can’t stay on one very important topic for more than thirty fucking seconds. “Geez, guys, come on. Let’s focus on me here.”
“I bet if I looked in your high school yearbook, that would be your senior quote,” Milo remarks, and Quince and Trent snicker before Trent pipes up.
“Though fitting, it is not. His senior quote is—”
“Don’t you dare!” I say with a point, but he ignores me completely.
“Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s graduation time!”
Fucking hell.
“No!” Kline shouts on a bark, laughing, losing all semblance of his normal decorum. I scowl.
“I love Cool Runnings!” Thatch exclaims. “Such a good underdog story.”
I roll my eyes. “Guys, seriously, let’s focus here.”
Trent laughs. “How’s it feel?”
“How’s what feel?” I ask.
“For once, we’re the snakes, and you’re the wrangler. Usually, it’s the other way around.”
“Shitty,” I admit. “Goddamn motherfucking awful.”
“Just think,” Milo says with a smirk. “This is probably how you always make your sister feel.”
“Lena?” Harrison questions, like a dog with a bone. He’s been chasing my sister since the moment she turned eighteen.
“Don’t!” I yell, with my index finger pointed in his direction. “Don’t you dare start about my sister!”
“What? She’s fucking hot. I’d definitely do—”
“I will end you, motherfucker.”
“Oh, come on, Cap,” Milo says with a laugh. “He’s just trying to get under your skin.”
“Says the little-sister fornicator himself.”
Milo snorts and throws up both of his hands. “Just Evan’s little sister. Christ, it’s not like a blanket thing! I don’t have a problem, for God’s sake.”
“If you’d done that shit with my sister, you would have,” I say. “It’s one of the sacred rules. You don’t do the little sister.”
Milo rolls his eyes. “Says the guy who taunted me mercilessly about Maybe. Pretty sure you went as far as saying you’d fuck her. Which, I swear to God, if I ever hear you say again, I’ll end you.”
“Calm down, honey.” I waggle my finger toward him. “I didn’t actually mean any of that bullshit. I just ran my mouth because I