“Uh… how about I go home and give you guys some one-on-one reunion time,” I suggested, and Lan’s eyes cut to me, which was what I saw.
What I
felt
was Shy’s eyes come to me. I felt them so much, I turned my head to look up at him.
Uh-oh again.
“You’re comin’ with us,” he declared, his eyes intense, his demeanor stating his declaration brooked no argument.
Unfortunately, I needed to argue. I needed to give Shy time with his brother because Shy should have time with his brother. Selfishly, I also needed to give Shy time with his brother to explain how things were now, not however they were when he last spoke to him about me.
“Shy, darlin’, you haven’t seen Lan in a year. Maybe you two can have coffee, I’ll go out, get some stuff, and make you guys lunch,” I suggested.
Shy’s eyes cleared and his lips twitched. “He just survived Afghanistan, sugar, don’t think he needs to come home and have you kill him with your cooking.”
I forgot Lan’s reaction to me and the small fact I was wearing nothing but a sheet and only could think of Shy embarrassing me by announcing to his brother, of all people, the only real family he had outside of the Chaos family we shared, that I couldn’t cook.
“My lunch won’t kill him,” I snapped.
“Baby, I don’t know if garlic poisons anyone but vampires but the way you use it, I figure this is a possibility,” he returned.
“I’ll make sandwiches,” I told him. “You can’t screw up sandwiches.”
“That’s what you said about hamburgers before you screwed them up,” he told me.
“Well—” I started to huff but he kept going.
“And tuna casserole before you screwed that up too.”
“Shy!” I clipped.
“And those steaks, that roast chicken, and that soupy chocolate pie,” he went on.
“Shy—” I rolled up on my toes and got close—“
shut up.
”
He grinned.
I looked to Lan and announced, “You really need to take him for coffee so I have plenty of time to plot his murder. You can’t plot a murder distracted by hot guys, and now I have
two
of you on my hands.”
Lan was looking at me like the Tabby he met just minutes ago evaporated, a new Tabby took her place, and he’d never seen me before.
Then his eyes went to his brother, his face softened, they came back to me, he grinned a gentle, sweet grin and he informed me, “Honey, you do know you’re wearin’ nothin’ but a sheet.”
“I can’t think of that now,” I returned. “My biker boss hot guy just told his brother, the brother I
just met
, that I can’t cook. I have to focus on plotting murder, or at the very least revenge, and not on how I’m embarrassed I’m in a sheet which, might I add—” I turned angry eyes up to Shy “—is not my choice
either
. Just so you know, darlin’, I was headed to the bathroom when you plucked me out of bed, and it would have been nice to get there and put on at least a pair of panties before you hauled me across the room.”
“We went two feet,” he contradicted me.
“Two feet to you because you’re in jeans and you’ve known your brother since he was born. A football field to me because I’m”—I rolled up to my toes again—“
in a sheet
.”
“You’re more covered than most women walkin’ on the street, Tab,” he continued.
“The point right now is, I’d like to be more covered, Shy,” I retorted.
“And I’d like coffee, kids, so if you two can quit your bitchin’ and put some fuckin’ clothes on, we’ll go do that,” Lan cut in, laughter in his deep voice, and both Shy and I looked at him.
Shy grinned.
I snapped, “Fine, but one of you hotties needs to go out and get me a toothbrush. I have morning breath mixed with pizza breath and it’s not a good combination.”
I said this while pulling away from Shy, struggling with my sheet at the same time bending and swiping my stuff from the floor. I bundled it in my arms, pulled the sheet tighter, and stomped toward the bathroom but stopped, turning back to them and flipping the ends of my sheet out behind me like a Hollywood starlet threw back her train on the red carpet. I aimed a glare at Shy.
“Something to know about me, I use electric, always, but if I’m in a situation, say now, where you have to hit Walgreens, I want a pink toothbrush and whitening toothpaste.” I cut my gaze to Lan and stated, “I won’t take long and we’ll get you coffee. Really glad you’re home safe. Shy was superworried.”
Then I glared through Shy and finished stomping out of the room and into the bathroom.
I was dumping my stuff on the vanity when the door opened, Shy stalked in, pulled me in his arms, and whispered against my lips, “I don’t care about morning pizza breath.”
He went ahead and proved this by kissing me, deep, wet, and long.
When he broke his mouth from mine, he grinned down at me and, still whispering, said, “You’re the shit, Tabitha Allen.”
Oh my God, that felt really, freaking good and I wasn’t just referring to the kiss.
“And you’re a great kisser, Shy Cage,” I replied, my words breathy.
He grinned, gave me a squeeze, let me go, and sauntered out the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
I turned to the mirror and saw I had wild sex hair that even I had to admit looked good, flushed cheeks that helped the overall look, and swollen lips that looked sultry as all get out.
And happy eyes.
Very happy eyes.
Shy’s brother was home.
And Shy was mine.
I smiled at myself in the mirror then I turned on the shower.
“VIP! V… I…
fuckin’
… P!”
This was boomed out by the huge, shaggy blond-haired, russet-bearded guy that stood behind the espresso counter at Fortnum’s Used Books.
We had just come through the door, and I noted that he was not only looking our way but pointing a finger in our direction.
I’d only been there once years ago, the time I ran into Shy. But when he told me he was a regular there, I’d never come back for fear of running into him.
So it clearly wasn’t me he was declaring a VIP. The man lumbered from behind the espresso counter, pushed through the people standing in front of it and headed straight to Landon who, while I’d showered, had changed out of his fatigues into jeans and a tee.
When the barista made it to Landon, they did the man-hug-slapping-the-backs thing, and I was close enough to hear the crazy guy mutter in Lan’s ear in what was still a boom but muted, “Safe. Home. Welcome back, son.”
I didn’t know this guy but something about that, probably the deep emotion I heard in his voice, made tears sting my eyes as I watched the crazy guy hold onto Landon like he was something precious for several long beats before he pulled away.
He pulled away but he didn’t go too far. He kept hold of Lan’s hand between them and curled his other beefy mitt around Landon’s shoulder, shaking it slightly, eyes locked to Lan’s and muttering in his low boom, “Welcome home.”
Shy, who was holding my hand, let it go to slide his arm around my shoulders and tuck me close to his side. This was another demonstration of how he could read my mood without even looking in my eyes.
Watching a soldier’s welcome home, that soldier being Shy’s brother, I needed him to hold me.
The crazy blond guy took a step toward the counter and declared, a lot louder, “Coffee is free for you. We do that for heroes.” His blue eyes swung toward Shy. “Sorry, travelin’ man, you and your girl gotta pay. If it was up to me, I’d give free coffee to hero’s families too, but when I do that shit, Indy throws a conniption.”
And with that, he lumbered away.
“Uh… I take it you know that guy,” I noted.
Landon burst out laughing while Shy gave me a sweet, sexy smile, and neither man bothered to answer a question the answer to which was obvious. We just moved to the counter.
All went well with the ordering and paying portion of the normally simple and drama-free task of ordering a coffee drink.
That was, until we were waiting at the other end of the counter for our drinks, and the crazy guy suddenly arched the espresso machine filter through the air, which was luckily mostly (but not completely) free of used coffee grounds. He used it to point toward the couch in front of the window and totally ignored the small splash of coffee grounds that plopped and slid across the ordering counter.
Then he boomed, “VIP seating! Move your asses! We got a soldier just got home and his ass is sittin’ in that couch!”
The people on the couch stared at the big man for about a half a second then they wisely scurried.
It was then the pretty blonde woman with the unbelievably glamorous smile who was also behind the counter aimed that glamorous smile my way. I suspected she did this since I’d been staring at the crazy guy like he was, well… a crazy guy.
“Tex is harmless,” she explained. “It takes a while to believe that, since he’s also totally nutso, but, I promise, he’s harmless.”
What I knew was he was loud and bossy, and he appreciated the sacrifice members of our military made for us, so I could get over the loud, bossy, and crazy bits.
Therefore, I smiled back.
She tipped her head to the couches. “Go, sit before Tex tells you to do it in a way that people at Walgreens a block away will hear. I’ll bring these out.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Don’t mention it,” she mumbled, her eyes sliding back to Tex, who was again banging on the machine that looked like it cost as much as my living room furniture (and more) like it only produced under the most abusive of conditions.
Shy flexed his arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the couch. We hit the seating section in front of the windows, and Shy again put me where he wanted me, settling me into the corner of the couch. He sat on the arm beside me and pulled me up against him.
The nice woman came out with our drinks, and I had a hopefully undetected mini-orgasm when I tasted my drink. Really, the crazy guy was an artist. Shy and Landon were catching up, which, not surprisingly, didn’t give me a lot of opportunities to enter the conversation.
This went on for a while. Long enough for my mind to wander to things I could be doing. Such as, say, ascertaining if I was going to be blacklisted by the traveling nurse’s agency for backing out of a job and calling the HR Department of the hospital to see if I could have my old one back and phoning my landlord to see if I could stay in my apartment although I gave up my lease.
Nothing important.
I didn’t want to get impatient. I wanted the opportunity to get to know Landon, though that kinda wasn’t happening except for me doing that by following their conversation.
Not to mention, I’d never seen Shy like this. Obviously happy his brother was home safe. Obviously happy he and I had moved to another level of our relationship. Obviously happy in a way that made my belly feel warm that he was in the company of two people he cared about.
Not that I didn’t want him to have that. Of course I did.
It was just that yesterday I had let a kiss change the course of my whole life. I had crap to do, and sitting and listening to two badasses shoot the breeze was not a high priority.
Nevertheless, I settled in for the long haul while mentally designing my to-do list when Shy noted our mugs were all empty and he announced he was getting us more drinks.
He kissed the top of my head and headed to the counter.
I watched him go, happy to have something to do that I immensely enjoyed, like watching him move, when I heard Lan call my name and my gaze swung to him.
“So you two are tight,” he remarked and I smiled.
“Yeah, we’re tight,” I confirmed.
He looked over his shoulder toward Shy before he leaned forward in the armchair, settling his elbows to his knees. His expression changed and I braced.
The expression change wasn’t mean or ugly. It wasn’t even blank, like he was hiding something from me.
But it still wasn’t good.
“Park and I are close,” he declared, and I nodded since I knew this. He continued, “We talk. The last year, not often, can’t do that too often when you’re in the thick of shit. But when we do, we lay it out.”
Uh-oh.
I couldn’t know for certain what was coming, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have a feeling.
“Okay,” I said cautiously, sucking it up, wanting it over and inviting him to share what was on his mind.
Lan took me up on my invitation.
“Last thing I heard about you, Tabby, was that you were about to tie the knot and it was a coupla weeks after that went…” he paused and I knew he was trying to find the right words when he finished “… south.”
“Yeah,” I verified, still talking softly. “That went south.”
“Sorry, honey,” he whispered, and the way he said it was almost as sweet as his brother could be. I liked that even though I didn’t like our topic of conversation. Still, I nodded.
“That was a while ago, Landon,” I informed him. “Almost a year.”
“Yeah,” he muttered then he asked, “After the…” another hesitation “… other guy, is Park your first?”
I felt a tingle slide down my back, the kind that didn’t feel great.
This was none of his business. Okay, he was Shy’s brother, they were close so it kinda was.
It also kinda wasn’t.
“I’m not sure—” I started, but stopped when he shook his head and lifted a placating hand.
“Please get this, Tabby. He’s my brother. He’s my best friend. We’ve been through a lot of shit. In an effort to survive that, we had to learn how to unload and we did that by unloading on each other. After we both left that life, that didn’t stop. In other words, I know about you.” His eyes held mine. “All about you, Tabby.”
This wasn’t great news.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he lifted his hand again and kept his eyes locked to mine.
“I know he was a dick to you. When you laid it out for him, he gave that to me and I can see why you thought he was a dick. I also know he talked a lot about his brothers in his Club, and he talked about some of the family attached to that Club, and most of that family he talked about was you and you weren’t even talkin’ to him. He didn’t tell me why that was, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t get a read that he was into you. Seein’ him with you, the way I’ve never seen him with another woman, I get now he’s not into you. He’s
into you
.”