Just Good Friends (Cheap Thrills 5)

Like they were summoned, Jarrod’s fun-loving brothers, Canon, Bond, and Reid, came in behind Aura.

“We absolutely did,” Canon chuckled as he walked toward where I’d just taken a seat. “Mine’s the biggest, by the way,” he added with a wink, leaning in to hug me and then deciding better of it and patting me on the shoulder.

His actions proved my theory that everyone already knew about my mishap, so I shot a glare at Rose, who looked innocently at her baby bump.

Behind him was Bond, who kissed me on the top of my head. “He’s lying. It’s about as big as one of those snack sized carrots. Mine’s bigger.”

At the very back was Reid, who shook his head and held his fingers a quarter of an inch apart and nodded at his brothers. “Great to see you, babe. Sorry about that shithead trying to kill you,” he pointed at Garrett, who glared at him. “If you need anything at all, just call me.”

Smiling sweetly at him, I glanced over and had to hold back the grin that almost broke free when I saw Garrett mouth, “No fucking way, dickhead.”

Here’s the thing, when I’d first met him, sure, I’d thought he was attractive. But with my life as shitty as it was, I needed to find myself, get comfortable in Piersville, and to just learn to live my new life. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, and not being able to speak to my family or see my old friends made it even worse. I was basically a stranger, even to myself, and had no one.

But my relationship with Garrett had been as friends—just friends—and that’d been as disappointing as it had been a relief to finally have one here. And with him came Rose, his brother and all of their friends, too. It felt like I had a circle of protection around me now.

The only one who knew about my issues was Dave, though, and for now, I was happy to keep it that way. In fact, I’d have been happy to keep all of it the way it was, even with my crush on Garrett, but recently things had begun to change between us. He was more tactile, it felt like he was studying me for some reason, and the friendship wall between us felt like it was crumbling.

Then again, it could all be in my head. Maybe I was reading too much into things? That’s not to say the little territorial displays didn’t make me hope for something different now, because they absolutely did. I just didn’t know how he actually meant them. Could friends be territorial over dick sizes?

Finally, after ten minutes of arguing over penises, everyone went back to what they were doing, and my new house was starting to look like it was mine with things now in the right place. Heck, Katy was organizing my books in a way that I’d never have considered, but now I wanted them to always be like that—in color order. Genius.

That was until Garrett picked up a box that I’d meant to hide yesterday. In fact, I’d planned to hide the contents of it in different locations yesterday once he’d left.

“Hey, what’s in this?”

Cursing the pain in my back and arm, I tried not to show the panic I felt at him even holding it. If he opened it, they’d all have questions that I couldn’t answer.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Could you just put it in the closet in my bedroom, please?”

I couldn’t act for shit, though, because all of the men looked up from what they were doing and studied me.

I don’t know what he thought was in there, but eventually, Garrett nodded slowly and moved to do what I’d asked. It was Dave who tackled it a couple of minutes later.

“What’s in the box, Zuri?” he whispered as he made a show of setting out my chess set on a kick-ass tiered table.

I didn’t play the game, and I didn’t understand it, but when I’d seen the four-level wooden game table and the intricate and beautiful chess pieces that came with it, I’d fallen in love. I’d tried teaching myself how to play, but in the end, I’d come to the conclusion it was just going to be a piece of art for me.

Glancing around to make sure no one was near us, I leaned in closer as I carefully unwrapped one of the pieces. “It’s my protection. I meant to unpack it yesterday, but I usually put pieces in the furniture—”

“Protection?” he hissed. “Like safe sex type, or weapons?”

The question was that ludicrous that I forgot to monitor the volume of my response. “Really? Safe sex? What the hell do you think?”

The room went silent, and I felt all eyes on us.

Shooting a carefree smile at everyone, Dave just waved a hand. “She’s like a sister to me, guys. I need to read her the riot act.”