my balls?” Josh asked Griffin.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You made a noise,” Josh countered.
“So? Maybe the noise had nothing to do with you.”
“Simmer down, gentlemen,” Kellan soothed. “You two are different from each other, and that’s okay. Go back to joking and flipping each other off, please.”
From there, the four of them started rambling about other stuff. Knox cleared his throat beside me, and I turned to look at him just as he rubbed a hand over his beard. I could already tell that was his thing.
“How’s it going, Daddy?” I asked, right as he took a drink. Knox spurted and started coughing, having sucked the beer down his throat wrong. “Oh God. Not daddy like that. Daddy because you have a son.” Though he did look a bit daddy. I patted his back as if that really helped.
“I didn’t… I wasn’t…”
“Yeah, okay. You thought I was calling you daddy, but that’s okay. It’s obviously not the first time.”
“Not sexually,” he countered. “Just, these assholes tease me sometimes.”
“And it would have been sexual from me, you’re assuming? You know what they say about that…”
“What? No.” He rubbed a hand over his beard again. “Let’s stop talking about that. I’m doing fine. It’s good to have my son here. I missed being a full-time dad.”
Ugh. He was the sweetest. Gruff, sexy, bearded guys with a heart of gold were my thing. Who knew? “How’s Logan adjusting?”
“He’s…he’s doing okay, I think. He started school. He says it’s going well. It’s late in the year, so it’ll be hard to meet friends. I’m trying to do a lot with him, keep him busy, ya know?”
“Yeah, I do. Being a kid is hard. He’s lucky to have you, though.” I reached over and patted his hand. It was a simple touch. I’d always been an affectionate person like that.
Kellan said, “I feel like I’m left out of something. When did you two get so close?” He smiled. I didn’t even know him, but I could hear the innuendo in his voice.
“What? Him? He’s totally not my type,” I teased.
Kellan was the first to burst out laughing, followed by Chase and Josh.
“Fuck you, guys. You don’t know me like that!” I said it playfully, and thankfully they seemed to get it.
“No, but we do have eyes in our heads,” Josh said. “We saw you the first night you came in here. You looked right past me to him. That’s never happened before. I might have gotten my feelings hurt.” He winked.
“Fine, well, whatever. You’ve all seen him,” I replied.
“This conversation is weird. Can you guys stop talking about me like I’m not here?” Knox added, “And we’re not close.”
“He helped me with some wood.” The second I said it, I realized how it sounded. “Not that kind of wood. I was making flower boxes with my mom, you perverts. Who knew I would find my people so quickly in Havenwood?”
Josh held his hand up, and I gave him a high five.
“I was out to dinner with Logan and saw him and Mary Beth.” Knox was apparently trying to pull us back to the topic at hand. He was no fun.
“Ooh! We should have a Welcome to Havenwood party for Logan!” Kellan said. “I mean, I know he visits, but this is different.”
I frowned because even though I didn’t know Logan at all, he didn’t seem the type of kid who’d want all the attention of a group of adults on him. “That might make him feel…I don’t know, some kind of pressure or something? Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know anything about him.”
I looked at Knox, who had his brows pinched together. I felt the urge to reach out and straighten them. “No, you’re right. I appreciate it, Kell, but I’m not sure how he’d feel about that. I think he’d take it like we pity him.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Kellan said. “He can take art classes with me if he wants. That might help him get more one-on-one time with kids his age.”
“Maybe. I’ll talk to him.”
We got off the topic of Logan after that. I kept feeling Knox’s eyes on me. When I’d turn, he would look away.
A while later, Josh said, “I’m gonna head out. Meeting up with a friend.”
By friend, I was pretty sure he meant fuck buddy. “Are there…many options around here?” If I was going to live here and all, it wasn’t like I was going to be celibate. I liked sex. I missed sex.
“Neighboring towns mostly. I go to