guess. How the hell had we gotten to the point where one of the two calmest males I’d ever met was telling people to meet them outside? Jonah? My shy Jonah who could barely speak to strangers? Whaaaaa?
I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me that I all of a sudden wanted to laugh. That comment alone had put this whole shit into perspective. What the hell was going on? What were we doing?
“You want to meet up outside? Let’s go,” Noah responded like the hotheaded dumbass he was.
I rolled my eyes that time because get the fuck out. I wanted to laugh. Noah would go straight to jail if he got into an unsanctioned fight. He would be suspended. Was he that dumb?
And Jonah had to be fifty pounds heavier than him right then, and maybe he had no official training, but he had amazing reflexes and he was strong in a way that wasn’t just for glamour muscles. His whole body was a machine. An expensive, well-maintained machine.
And I wanted to kiss the shit out of him for being one of the best things ever.
After I dealt with this dipshit.
“Stop being stupid, Noah,” I said, taking him in with what I was sure was disgust. “I don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t know why you’re doing it.” He choked like he knew the answer to those questions and didn’t like it. “But you need to stop. Don’t talk to him like that. Don’t even look at him either. And don’t you dare use that tone of voice on me. You have zero right to be over here being a fucking jackass, and I will call your mom and tell her what the hell you’re doing if you don’t quit making that face right now.”
His eyelid twitched as the words penetrated his brain.
Noah’s mom was no one’s quiet, tender mom. She’d still beat his ass if it came down to it. I’d watched it happen more than a few times myself. Plus, Grandpa Gus had gotten the scoop on how his mom had reacted after she’d found out how Noah had treated me that one day before he’d left. I wished I could have seen it.
I loved that woman. Admired the hell out of her. But that was beside the point.
“You need to go,” I finished, staring straight at him.
It was that sentence that dug in the deepest. I’d shocked him. “You’re telling me to leave?”
“He’s a member. You aren’t anymore.”
Those dark blue eyes focused in, surprise still all over his eyes and features. “I need to talk to you.”
“No, I don’t think you do,” I replied at the same time Jonah said, “Too late for that.”
I glanced over at him and had to fight the urge to smile again.
“I need to talk to you,” Noah repeated himself, frowning, finally ignoring the other man. “It’s important.”
“About what?”
His shoulders rolled backward, and his chin went up in defiance. “It’s private.”
He was full of shit.
If I could go back in time and slap the shit out of myself for all those times I’d clung onto our friendship for the sake of being loyal to someone who had once meant a lot to me, I would. How many times had he been a stubborn dumbass and I’d been left to help him or deal with his shit once Peter and Grandpa were fed up with him and his bullshit? How many times had I been the person who tried to talk some sense into him when he’d forced everyone else to exhaustion?
A hand that wasn’t so familiar anymore reached out and wrapped around my forearm, distracting me so much, I didn’t process quickly enough. “Let’s talk over dinner.”
Was this happening to me? All I could do was stare at him like he’d lost his fucking shit. Because he had. The last time we had been in the same room together he’d called me a slut.
He was lucky he was still alive.
So it wasn’t hard to look at him like he was fucking nuts and give him the only answer possible. “No.”
Noah swallowed as his eyes moved toward Jonah and back, shoulders bunched tightly. “I really need to talk to you.”
I repeated myself, genuinely asking myself how the hell my life had gotten to this point.
“For old time’s sake. You owe me that much,” he tried to insist.
The ‘I don’t owe you shit’ was right on my tongue.
“Please.”
Jonah tensed up beside me, and I couldn’t help but think about how