one of the reasons I enjoyed living in Austin. And because these places were so convenient, there were many nights when I would meet one or more of my friends to hang out.
Tonight, I’d called Blaze, but she’d said she was busy. Since Charlie was also at the shop, that left me with Gavin. He worked nights, but he was an artist like me, so I knew he could make his own hours. When we’d talked at ten, he’d said things were slow, so we’d agreed to meet at midnight. It was nearly twelve thirty when he finally walked in the door, but that didn’t surprise me. Punctuality and Gavin didn’t go hand in hand.
When he spotted me from the bar, I waved him over to a table I’d procured in the back corner, farthest from the small stage. It was dark and relatively quiet, considering. Since it was Saturday night, the place was packed with people, plus there was live music—a regular who I happened to like had taken the stage—so finding a spot hadn’t been easy, but I’d managed.
“Hey, sweets.” Gavin greeted me with a kiss on the cheek, then a heavy sigh as he dropped into the chair beside me. “Why aren’t you home sleeping?” he asked, taking a sip of the beer he’d brought over with him.
“Slept all day,” I told him.
“Which means you aren’t sleeping at night. Why?” The look he shot me was full of concern.
I narrowed my eyes at him, letting him know that was the dumbest question I’d heard all day. He knew exactly why I wasn’t sleeping. Or part of it anyway. But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t mention last night’s debauchery in my living room.
What I really wanted to talk about was the man bun he was sporting. It was … different, but it seemed to be working for him. Gavin’s blond hair had gotten long, and he’d taken to pinning it up beneath the beanie he wore. Tonight, he didn’t have the beanie, only the bun.
Pulling my attention away from his hair, I found ocean-blue eyes regarding me.
“Gil still keepin’ you up?”
“Gil? Don’t you mean both of you?”
Gavin grinned. “Sweets, I’m quiet when I make love.”
I snorted. “Make love? Like you even know what that is.”
“Fine. You got me there.” His smile was luminous, and definitely mischievous.
“But, yes, the noises coming from Gil’s room certainly aren’t helping,” I told him, pretending that was the reason I hadn’t been sleeping for the past couple of months. A roommate with a penchant for loud sexual encounters was a good excuse, so I went with it. “It’s like he checks these women’s decibel level before he brings them home. They keep getting louder and louder.”
“At least someone’s getting laid,” he told me with a wry grin.
“You took three chicks last night, asshole,” I told him. I knew he’d gotten laid. And if by some strange reason he hadn’t, it wasn’t because it hadn’t been available to him.
“Did you see what that one chick was doing to the other one? It was so fucking—”
I held my hand up to his face. I did not want to hear about it. Ever.
It was bad enough that I was going through a drought. In fact, I hadn’t been with a man since I’d broken up with Adrian a year ago. Not that I had any intention of mentioning that. Especially not in front of Gavin.
“So, you’re saying you didn’t sleep with them?” I asked incredulously, keeping the topic on him.
I knew Gavin better than he knew himself. We’d been friends since elementary school, and he’d always been popular with the opposite sex. Maybe not quite the man whore that Gil was (though he ran a close second), but I knew Gavin had been with several women as of late.
“I didn’t say that,” he stated, that devilish smirk out in full force.
“I guess I don’t have to wonder whether you’ve stopped doing them in pairs.”
The guilty look he shot my way said that he hadn’t stopped. I certainly did not envy the women who ended up in Gavin’s crosshairs. Sure, he was a good-looking guy—blond hair, blue eyes, chiseled jaw, leanly muscled, covered in tats—and he had a good heart, but I knew Gavin would likely never settle down. He enjoyed being single, picking up chicks, taking them back to his room and… Well, I didn’t want to think past that.
I had lived with Gavin for six months before Gil had moved in with us. So, for