Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

Which made me less enthusiastic to attend. I could handle myself in a crowd, but I wasn’t in the mood for one tonight.

And boy was it crowded. We had to park about three blocks away because the place was already so congested by the time we arrived.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Tyla screeched as she hooked her arm through Sasha’s and swept her ahead.

Left behind, I shivered into my coat and rubbed my arms as I trailed them. Feeling lame and wishing I really had talked my way out of attending, I followed them into the yard where the crowd thickened almost instantly. People were freaking everywhere, laughing, dancing, talking, drinking.

I drew in a deep breath, ready to find my own drink when I passed a row of guys sitting on this short concrete wall-divider thing. Whatever it was, it rose just enough above the ground that their feet had to hang down and couldn’t touch as they sat on it. I really didn’t notice them, was more just aware of them there out of the corner of my eye as I began to pass and tried not to lose sight of Tyla and Sasha in front of me. That was, I didn’t pay them much mind until one of the guys stuck out his leg, barring my path.

I jerked to a halt and stared at the jean-clad leg with arched-brow annoyance before slowly swerving my attention to the asshole’s face. The expression I sent him clearly told him he needed to let me pass immediately if he wanted to survive the night with his junk intact. But my ire quickly morphed into shock when I met a set of familiar brown eyes.

He smirked. “I figured I’d get bitched out again if I didn’t at least say hello this time.”

My heart skipped a beat, and my breathing hitched into high gear.

Colton was here.

COLTON’S CHAPTER | 10

Dammit. I couldn’t escape Julianna anywhere, could I?

Sarah had shown up at our place earlier, announcing she was going to help Noel watch the kids tonight, ergo I needed to get out for the evening and go do “college-guy stuff,” as she’d called it.

“It’s the first day of the semester,” she’d told me as she’d shooed me toward the door. “Go. Celebrate.”

So I’d left, though I felt guilty all the way to my truck. Aspen hadn’t come out of her room once today, and Lucy Olivia had been fussy, or at least she had been when I’d been home from school. It didn’t seem like a good time to go out and celebrate anything.

I would’ve gone to Forbidden and bothered Brandt at work. Since I was eighteen now, I was at least allowed through the doors while they were open. But I hadn’t really talked to him since he’d returned from his honeymoon. I was still sore about the whole “you owe me” thing, not to mention the fact that he’d unknowingly cock-blocked me in the worst way possible. Plus, I didn’t want to risk seeing Julianna there in case she was also working. And I really didn’t want to see the two of them together.

They played this cutesy game whenever they worked together. Julianna was determined to create her very own alcoholic mixed drink, and she and Brandt often collaborated on mixing different concoctions and taste testing them. They smiled and laughed a lot when they did it too, and I didn’t want to see that tonight because right now I kind of hated that special thing she shared only with him.

So I called Caroline.

“Ass muncher!” her husband answered the phone, seemingly glad to hear from me by the tone of his voice. An instant later, he demanded, “Why’re you bothering me?”

I snorted. “Like I called to talk to a scroatbag like you. Get my sister on the line.”

“She’s got more important things to do than talk to a shit stain like you. She’s busy wiping my kid’s ass.”

My two-and-a-half-year-old niece Teagan was in the midst of potty training, and she was being a resistant little turd—much like her father—so I asked, “Diaper or toilet?”

Ten sighed. “Still diaper. I swear, that kid’s going to shit her pants until she’s thirty.”

With a laugh, I taunted, “And you’ll have to change every single one of them.”

“Hey, fuck you. Oh wait. Here’s Caroline. Later, goat breath.”

“Possum fucker,” I returned in farewell, only to shake my head as a two-second pause ensued until my sister took control of the phone.

People told me I acted a lot like my brother-in-law, Ten, but I didn’t see it. He was lame; I was awesome. Enough said.

“Bubba!” Caroline greeted. “What’s going on? Everything okay?”

I had no idea how she could sound both happy to hear from me and worried for me all in the same breath, but she managed it nicely.

“Yep, it’s all good. Sarah came over to help with things only to kick me out of the house for a couple hours, so…wanna make a couple Vines?”

“Oh, man, I wish I could, but Oren picked up a new client today, so he and Teagan and I were going to go out for dinner to celebrate. But you can come with us.”