Letting Go (Thatch 1)

“No, I’m not afraid she’s going to walk in here, and I’m fine, Graham,” she mumbled as she shook her head slowly back and forth, like we were the ones acting weird.

Leaning over, I brushed back her red hair and put my lips to her ear, and bit back a sigh when she moved away. “Do you want to leave?”

“Why would I? What is the deal with you and Graham right now?”

Before I could respond, Knox and Deacon came walking up to the table, Knox talking loudly. “Don’t go putting the moves on my future wife. I don’t care if you’re engaged, Grey’s mine.”

“My future wife,” Deacon added as he sat down next to Grey.

I looked up and smiled as Knox dodged Graham’s fist. I knew they were just trying to get a rise out of him. If I’d ever thought they actually wanted Grey, I’d try to keep her from them.

“I’m fucking starving. Let’s order some burgers already.”

Graham pointed at Knox, but looked at me. “See? At least someone here is sane.”

“I never said the burgers weren’t good, I just said there’s other food on the menu!” I argued, and Deacon snorted.

“No. There’s only burgers on this menu,” he insisted as he drummed his hands on the table and looked around. “Where’s our waiter, we’ve been here for an hour.”

Grey laughed and tossed her menu at Deacon. “You’ve been here for about two minutes, if that, and it’s a waitress, not a waiter.”

Knox and Deacon both looked up at Grey, smiles crossing their faces. “Is she hot?” Deacon asked, and Grey just raised an eyebrow in confirmation.

“Mine!” Knox and Deacon shouted at the same time, but just before they could get into an argument, Grey cut in.

“You haven’t even seen who it is yet! And if I remember correctly, all three of you have been with her at one point.”

“Fuck,” Knox groaned.

“And I like how you try to claim a girl you want to hook up with like you’re four years old and claiming a toy.”

Knox grinned. “You have to lay claim when you have roommates who are always going after the same girl as you.” His eyes narrowed on someone who was standing behind me, then his face fell. “Damn it, it’s Julia. You can have her.”

“I don’t want her. I had her once already,” Deacon hissed just as she came up to the table.

“This is awkward,” she mumbled with a forced smile. “Obviously I don’t need an introduction, are you all ready to order?”

“Yes,” I said before Knox or Deacon could ask for another waitress—it wouldn’t have been the first time. “We are.”

“Great, what can I get you?”

“I’M SO EXHAUSTED. I feel like a grandma, and it’s barely nine,” Grey groaned almost three hours later when we were back home. “I just want to go lie down in bed.”

I finished arming the security system and looked over my shoulder to see her walking toward the stairs. “Do you think we could talk?”

“Of course, what do you want to talk about?” she asked without stopping.

“Not in the bedroom. I want to talk down here.”

Grey turned to look at me when she heard my tone, her eyebrows rising in surprise. “Is everything okay?”

“With me?” I asked on a disbelieving laugh, and walked over to meet Grey at one of the couches. As soon as we were sitting down, I met her stare and held it. “Everything’s fine with me. I want to know what’s going on with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you really not know what I’m talking about? You’ve been somewhere else all night. Your brother even noticed something was wrong.”

“Jagger, I’m just tired today. Work was overly exhausting, and everything kept going wrong there, so I’m just out of it because all I want to do is sleep. What is so wrong with that?”