Deal Breakers (Dealing with Love 1)

I take a sip of beer, trying to figure out where he’s going with this. “What about her?”

He shoves a french fry in his mouth. “Fuck, dude. Give me a little credit. I’m not blind.”

I stare at the wall of TV screens. Several college games are showing but I stopped paying attention when he mentioned Devyn’s name. “Blind?”

He flips me off. “Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot, asshole. I’m talking about the fact that Devyn’s kid looks exactly like you. I always thought he looked familiar but I didn’t put it together until I saw the two of you in the same room. And not only do you have a kid that you failed to mention, but Drew’s hot sister is the goddamn magic pussy you’ve bee

n obsessing over the entire time I’ve known you. What are the odds, man?”

“For the record, I didn’t know about Nathan until I came here.”

He raises his eyebrows. “No shit?”

I nod. “No shit. But what makes you think Devyn is the girl I’ve been talking about?”

He rolls his eyes. “Because I have eyes, douchebag.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Care to explain?”

“Hmm…let’s see.” He holds up his index finger. “First of all, you look at her like she’s a walking wet dream. I know she’s hot, dude, like really hot, but your look says that you don’t need to imagine undressing her because you already know what’s underneath the clothes. Which makes sense I suppose since you made a baby, but this is more. It’s like she’s your personal goddess or something.”

Yeah, that’s about right. I didn’t realize I was being so obvious about it. Damn it!

“And second of all?” I ask.

He holds up a second finger. “Secondly, she looks at you like you hung the fucking moon or something.”

“She does?”

His eye roll is even more exaggerated this time. “Yes, dumbfuck, she does. The rest wasn’t too hard to put together. There’s an obvious familiarity between you two. And it’s more than two people who got naked once upon a time. You told me that the M.P. was your best friend throughout your first four years in college. Your comfort level with her matches that. The fact that Drew looked like he was severely constipated the other Sunday helped too. I just did the math and it all added up.”

“Maybe he was constipated?”

He laughs. “Did you miss the part where he disappeared for twenty minutes saying he had to ‘drop the kids off at the pool’?”

“Nope,” I say. “Because that’s when Nathan said, ‘Uncle Drew, don’t you mean you’re going to make a chocolate sundae for the sewer monster?’”

Brody is cracking up at this point. “Man, I love that kid!”

I smile. “He’s pretty great, isn’t he?”

He gives me a serious look. “What are you going to do, man? You know she’s got a boyfriend, right? She’s been with the guy forever.”

I turn my hat around so the bill is facing backwards. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

“Hey guys.” I look to my left and see Devyn’s friend, Rainey.

She motions for Brody to move over. “Mind if I join you?”

He slides over in the booth to make room. “What are you doing here, Rainey?”

She shrugs. “I felt like playing darts and having a couple of beers.”

Brody raises his eyebrows. “By yourself?”

“I never have trouble finding someone to play,” she says. “Or someone to buy me drinks, for that matter.”

Brody glares at her. “Is that so?”