The Surprise (Single in Seattle 0.50)

“Are you offering to help?”

“Maybe. If you behave.”

“Me?” I do my best to look insulted. “I’m the epitome of good behavior.”

“Was I the only one who actually listened during our conversation less than five minutes ago?”

I shrug and muster up the energy to stand. “Jesus, every muscle hurts.”

“I told you. And tomorrow will probably be worse,” she says. “But you should start to feel better each day after.”

“I think I need you to help me up the stairs.”

“Okay, come on.” She hops up and takes my hand, being patient with me as we slowly climb to the top of the steps. We walk through my bedroom to the bathroom, and I grin at her.

“I think I need you to help me get undressed.”

“You’re already halfway there without your shirt,” she points out, then narrows her eyes. “And if you think I’m going to fall for that, you don’t know me very well.”

I shrug and then immediately regret the motion.

“Fine.”

Without any hesitation, I let my pants pool at my feet and kick out of them, suddenly standing before her naked.

“I’m not bashful.”

“You have no need to be,” she counters and doesn’t even hide her slow perusal of my body from my tattooed arms, all the way down to my feet.

“You just eye-fucked me.”

She grins and waggles her eyebrows. “Maybe. Is that a new tat?”

She points to my ribs, and I glance down. “Yeah.”

“Is it a—? Wait. What is it?”

I smile and shake my head. “I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

“Then I don’t think I’ll help you.”

“That’s a low blow, Josie Montgomery.”

She snickers and then turns to start the water in the shower. “Whatever. It looks like a bunch of squiggly lines.”

“It’s your name. In Sanskrit.”

She stops and then slowly turns to me. “What?”

“You heard me.”

She walks back to me and leans over to take a closer look at the ink. It’s on the side that isn’t black and blue, right under my heart.

“Putting someone’s name on your body is corny,” she whispers.

“Or, you know, romantic.”

Josie leans in and hugs me, wrapping her arms gently around my middle, just holding on. I plant my lips in her hair, breathing her in.

“I don’t know what to do,” she admits softly. “I don’t know what there is to do.”

“Give me a second chance,” I suggest. “Let’s try again. I will do my best not to be an asshat this time.”

She snorts at that and looks up at me with shining brown eyes.

“Ah, babe, don’t cry.”

“It hurt really bad before,” she says and wipes away a tear. “If it doesn’t work again, I don’t want to have to go through that a second time.”

“Me, neither,” I admit. “But there aren’t a lot of guarantees in life. I know if we don’t try, I’ll miss you forever. Let’s try, Jose.”

“Okay,” she says at last and kisses my shoulder. “Let’s try.”

CHAPTER 5

~JOSIE~

“So, let me get this straight,” my cousin, Olivia, says as she pours herself a lemon drop martini.

All of the cousins are here. The guys are out back by the pool, playing beer pong since it’s not raining for a change. And the girls are in the living room, listening to my ongoing drama with Brax.

“You’re seeing Brax again,” Olivia continues, “after he was a complete idiot to you two years ago?”

“That about sums it up,” I agree with a nod and eat the olive from my regular dirty martini. “But I’m also being smart about it. I’m being careful.”

“Using protection is important,” Stella says with a nod and then laughs when I glare at her. “What? It is.”

“That’s not what I meant. And it doesn’t matter because we’re not having sex yet.”

“Which is a world record for those two,” Maddie interjects. “They used to fuck like rabbits. It was disgusting.”

“He was in a bad accident,” I remind them all. “He’s hurt. Otherwise, he probably would have come with me tonight, but I made him stay home and rest.”

“It could have been interesting if you’d brought him and the guys saw him,” Sophie adds. “It’s good to warn us all first to avoid any accidental beatings.”

“You know,” I say and eat another olive, “we always talk a big game about the cousins and uncles beating the crap out of people, but to my knowledge, none of them has ever done that.”

“But they could,” Liv stresses. “If we needed them to.”

“Good point,” I concede. “Anyway, he’s probably sleeping. He felt worse today than yesterday, which I figured he would.”

“Vaughn and I saw him a few weeks ago,” Olivia says, surprising me.

“You did?”

“Yeah, we went to a party downtown with the Seattle football team, and Brax’s band was playing. I didn’t talk to him. I may not like him a lot, but he sure can sing. We danced our asses off that night.”

“Yeah,” I say with a sigh. “He can sing.”