shoved him against the door hard enough to make the wood splinter. He tried to push me off, but with his head tilted back and one hand busy trying to stop the bleeding, he couldn’t.
“Make this the last time I tell you to leave her the hell alone or you’re out.”
Forgetting about his busted nose, Loren dropped his hand to stare at me through the slits his eyes made. “You think I need you to win over Brax?”
“I think you know she won’t just choose one of us. She won’t risk what it will do to our friendship.” Or what’s left of it. “It’s all or nothing with Brax.”
“Does she know that?” he quipped.
Probably not. “She will.”
“So you’re willing to screw yourself just to make sure I don’t get her?”
“Doing this means we’re a unit. Every move you make, you make for all of us, so if you don’t deserve her, neither do we.”
I could see Loren mulling over my point before he gave in with a sigh. “Still seems a little dramatic. I practically admitted I’m in love with her.”
Letting him go, I took a step back with my brow raised. “I can always put you in a wheelchair. You won’t need your legs to give her your heart.”
Flipping me off, he yanked open the door and rushed for the half bath we never used instead of the one Braxton still occupied.
While Loren took care of his face, I washed my hands in the kitchen sink. I then sat on the couch where Houston was watching a clip from our show tonight.
“You guys all right?” Houston muttered without taking his eyes off the TV. I knew he’d heard every word.
“I’m not sure this is going to work,” I admitted in defeat.
I could feel Houston’s gaze as I stared at the ground. “It’s only been a day, Jericho. We can’t know for sure.”
Loren was shirtless when he came out of the bathroom and wisely kept Houston between us as he sat on the couch.
The conceited ass kept checking his nose, and I knew it was to make sure it wasn’t crooked. I heard the shower cut off in the bedroom and forced myself to follow my own plan by staying put. Loren began to roll up as we watched TV, and after a few tokes, he passed it to Houston, who surprisingly accepted. I was next, and just like that, a rotation began.
So much for sobriety.
Back then, we indulged here and there to keep moving when life was just too much to handle sober. It wasn’t until Calvin was beyond saving that we realized we couldn’t bear losing each other that way. It wouldn’t be quick. It wouldn’t be sudden. It would be slow and agonizing. It meant being helpless while one or all of us withered away. I hated Everill’s guts, and it had still ripped me apart to see him destroy himself.
So we gave it all up—the weed, the pills, the alcohol, and the coke.
My stomach had been in knots ever since Loren started back drinking. Now that he was smoking as well, I wondered if it was too late. Our lives aren’t nearly as hectic now as it had been when we were building our name, and we’d never developed a dependency like Calvin, but the fear and the possibility were still very real.
“Should we be doing this?” I blurted when I felt my lids begin to lower.
“We’ve been smoking since we were pups. If it were going to ruin our lives, it would have done so by now,” Loren reasoned. “Besides, Calvin’s not around to talk us into the harder shit.”
“We can’t put all the blame on a dead man. He didn’t force us to say yes, Lo.”
“No,” he returned while meeting my eyes. “He just made sure it was always around.”
I didn’t bother trying to argue him down. Loren was determined to be the victim, and it was nearly impossible to change his mind once it was set.
It wasn’t until I was into my high that I realized that it’d been years since we tolerated each other enough to be in the same room for longer than five minutes.
Had to be the weed.
I would have smiled had Braxton not made an appearance.
She didn’t seem bothered by our smoking, but perhaps it was because she was determined to ignore us. I watched from the corner of my eye as she warmed up her portion of the food the chefs had left for us. Sticking to the