Just Good Friends (Cheap Thrills #5) - Mary B. Moore Page 0,52

they could be quadruplets?”

Sighing, Katy got up from her seat and covered Bond’s mouth, making me smile widely. “From the nose up, he looks like Canon. But if I cover the end of his nose, he looks like Jarrod, too. If you cover the eyes, he looks like Reid. It’s like that with all of them. It’s like there were a few identical pieces, and their creators just mixed them around every time their parents bumped uglies and made one of them.”

“Take it back,” Canon hissed at her, snatching up her plate from the table and holding it over his head. “Our parents have never done anything like that.”

Tapping her foot, Katy crossed her arms and glared at him. “We’ve had this discussion before—immaculate conception isn’t a thing, and you’re not proof of it. Your parents did the dirty and made the four of you. Get over it, and give me my damn cake back.”

As she said this, Tamsin looked over at me and raised her eyebrow, reminding me that she’d said the same thing about my parents.

Putting her plate back on the table with a thud, Canon pointed at Jarrod. “You need to educate her, my guy. Mom’s a saint and would never do that. We also don’t look alike at all.”

Tamsin was just in the process of shoving a piece of the dessert in her mouth, but she paused for long enough to say, “Yeah, she did, and yeah, you do. You’re not identical at all, but I can see what Katy’s saying.”

Glaring at her, Canon reached in to take her plate away from her but snatched his hand back when she stabbed him in the hand with her fork.

“I don’t see what’s wrong with looking like me,” Bond shrugged. “You should be grateful to have some of my awesomeness.”

“Shit for brains,” I coughed into my hand, getting a laugh from everyone at the table, including Canon. The only one who didn’t was Bond, who was rubbing his eyebrow with his middle finger.

“Anyway, we hope you enjoy the cake,” Bond said, then looked at Katy and added, “again. And no, you can’t have the recipe.”

With a wave, the two of them moved away and split up to cover the other customers.

“Your bros are dope,” Katy mumbled around the mouthful of cake she had. “Dopedy dope.” Then, pointing at me, she said, “And your bro’s dope, too. He let me put the lights and siren on in his car today.”

Putting his fork down, Jarrod looked worriedly at her. “Why were you in his vehicle?”

Studying her cake closely, Katy just shrugged.

“Katy, why were you in a police car? What happened? Are you okay?”

Given what she’d been through not that long ago, I could understand his concern, so I decided to go with bro code and tell him what I knew.

“It was her electric scooter,” I told him, getting a glare from her. “She went out on a ride with her dog, and its battery died because she forgot to charge it. Raoul was driving by and gave her a ride back home, then made sure she put it on to charge.”

“Telltale tit,” she snapped, avoiding looking at Jarrod and turning her back to him, so she was facing Tamsin head-on. “I think there’s a flaw with the scooter, you know. I should probably write a strongly worded email to the manuf—”

“Katarianne, I keep telling you to put the damn thing on charge. And why didn’t you call me to say what’d happened? I would have come and got you.”

Wincing, she mumbled, “’Cos my phone was sitting on the box of tools above the charger for the scooter.”

Tipping his head back, Jarrod looked up at the ceiling like he was praying for patience. Once he’d found whatever he was looking for, he leaned in and whispered something in her ear, making her cheeks turn red and earning him a kiss from her.

Leaning in beside me, Tamsin whispered, “That’s some skill he’s got. Take notes.”

Pulling her closer into me, I nuzzled my nose into the side of her head. “I don’t need to take notes. You bring me so much peace that I know you were made for me.”

Tilting her head back, she looked up at me with shiny eyes and a small smile on her face. “Okay, that’s totally a winner.”

Even with the weight of what she was going through hanging over us, I felt lighter than I had in years. I wasn’t lying, with everything I was feeling that I’d