The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,18
believe I get to be seen next to you.”
“Um . . .”
“You should warn a guy before you walk out in a dress like that.” Then he did a long, slow up and down with his eyes. And then it was over. He shrugged and peeled away from the door. “Flirting is about confidence, man. That’s all it is.”
“I don’t have a lot of that right now.”
“Not your confidence, dipshit. Hers. You want to make her feel like she’s the only woman in the room. It’s about putting a smile on her face, a spring in her step, a little blush in her cheeks. Say things that she’ll replay over and over again when she’s in bed.”
Gavin nearly groaned at the image that conjured. Thea in bed. Wearing one of those short silk things she wore . . . alone. Or worse, with some other guy. Oh God, he was going to puke.
“Put down your coffee,” Del ordered.
Gavin obeyed. Del adopted a weird-ass smile and started walking toward him. His eyes locked with Gavin’s, and goddamn, Gavin couldn’t fucking look away. He didn’t even realize he’d backed up until he collided with the wall. Del flattened his hands on either side of Gavin’s shoulders and smiled as he leaned. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Gavin automatically answered.
“I can’t stop thinking about last night.”
Gavin gulped. “Wh-what happened last night?”
Del winked. “You want me to remind you?”
Jesus. Gavin flattened himself against the wall. “I feel obligated to tell you that I might be mildly aroused right now.”
“You must really be desperate,” Del said, still in character. He twitched his eyebrows and glanced at Gavin’s mouth. “This isn’t even my best effort.”
Mack cleared his throat. “Sorry to break up your special moment, but we have a crisis.” He held up a gray sweater. “This is the one and only decent thing Captain Douchebag has in his entire pathetic closet.”
Gavin knocked Del’s arms away.
Del backed out of his personal space. “Just remember to stare into her eyes a lot. Eye contact is key.”
“And wink,” Mack said, tossing the sweater on the bed. “Women love that shit.”
Del added one last thing. “And look at her lips. You want her to think that you’re imagining them all over your body.”
That part, at least, wouldn’t require any work. Gavin spent the better part of his days imagining Thea’s lips on his body.
But wait . . . Gavin looked back and forth between them. “That’s it? Tell her I like her dress and act like I want her to lick me? That’s your entire plan for me?”
“For now.”
Gavin sank back down on the bed. “This is hopeless.”
“It’d be easier if you’d tell us what really happened between you two.”
“Not going to happen.”
“OK,” Del said with another drawn-out sigh. “Then just tell us something. Anything. Tell us one thing she said on Saturday that might help us come up with a plan for tonight.”
Gavin fell on his back and stared at the ceiling. Every word she’d spoken on Saturday had taken up permanent residence in his brain, but most of it would reveal too much if he shared it with the guys.
“She wants to keep the house,” he said.
Del perked up. “She said that?”
Gavin nodded. “She said it would be easier for the girls if one of us kept the only house they’ve ever known, and she asked if I would pay it off for her.”
Del and Mack looked at each other. “That could work,” Mack said.
“It’s risky,” Del added. “And this isn’t like Regency times. Thea is half-owner of all property by law.”
“But the symbolism of it could go a long way,” Mack said.
“Hey,” Gavin said, sitting up and waving his hands. “You guys want to fucking clue me in here?”
“You’re going to up the ante.”
“Am I supposed to know what that means?”
Del and Mack exchanged a glance that said Gavin wasn’t going to like the answer.
He was right.
Del sucked in a breath and let it out fast. “You’re going to agree to a divorce.”
What. The. Fuck.
“Yeah,” Mack said. “But first we’re going shopping.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Mommy, too hard.”
Thea looked down at the face-paint crayon in her hand pressed against Ava’s face. She’d volunteered to help with stage props and face paint for the school musical, and though the task provided some much-needed distraction, her mind kept wandering as the clock ticked closer to the moment when Gavin would arrive.
She wished for the hundredth time that Liv could be there for moral support, but her sister had to work a late shift tonight.