Layla

“Given that they’re all involved with women in the group, I’d hope they had their eyes focused elsewhere. However, Reid, Kingston, Carson, and the new guys Eason and Jeremy, were here, too.”

The thought of a group of good-looking alpha males seeing my ass trying to eat my underwear made me want to die, so I did what any insane person would do.

I rambled.

“Did you know Heidi and Bond called their baby Kingston? Do you think they named him after him?”

“I can say with complete certainty that they did not.”

I already knew that, and it made sense given that the Klein men were proud of their Jamaican heritage, but it’d sounded good in my head.

I also knew that dentist Kingston was a really good guy because he’d apologized not only to Cole but to my whole family for what’d happened. He’d also gotten his team working overtime to put all their patients’ files onto a computer with a red flag system instead of relying on almost illegible paper files.

Cyn limped over and practically collapsed on the ground next to me. “Why do we do this? Why does anyone do this? It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Mark snorted. “Because it gets your heart pumping and is good for your body?”

She weakly held a finger—not the middle one—up in the air.

“I beg to differ. I’ve never felt worse in my life. I have sweat running down areas of my body that are confusing me, my underwear is wet and rubbing against me, I hurt in all of my joints, and—” she stopped talking and put her hand on her chest, then shifted and started rooting around in her sports bra.

Pulling out her watch, she looked at the screen. “Oh, thank God. I thought I was having palpitations, but it’s just my sister calling.” Dropping it on her stomach, she patted around for something on the ground. “Is there any water around?”

“I need to go,” Mark said quietly before backing away and leaving me feeling slightly bereft. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

“Stay safe!”

He smiled warmly at my order and then turned and walked toward the locker room.

“Woman, sitteth thine arse down next to me and tell me what the hell’s going on there. Can I just begin by saying that I love seeing you both together?”

Nabbing two bottles of water from the table near us, I satteth my arse down on the ground next to her and dropped one of them on her stomach.

“Wench!”

I loved spending time with Cyn. Her sister was married to my cousin, Elijah, but they lived in Florida. Sadie was an absolute riot and was so good for Elijah, but Cyn had something about her that just called to my soul, so I’d adopted her and was keeping her.

Rolling her head to the side, she frowned when she saw me staring at her. “I’m not sure I like the expression on your face.”

“I was just wondering if I could utilize that weird saying about licking something or someone so they’re yours and you get to keep them.”

“The ‘I licked it, so it’s mine’ thing?” When I nodded, she raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking of licking?”

“You.”

Instead of calling me weird or crawling away as fast as she could because there was no chance she’d be able to run after the hell we’d just endured, she shrugged.

“We need to work out the logistics of it. Do I need to shower first? Where exactly are you thinking of licking? Do I need to wear a sign after it so people know? I’m not into collars and being led around on a dog lead, so that’s definitely out—just so you know. What about Wick?”

See? It was for reasons just like this that my soul recognized hers. Cyn just went with the flow and took things lightly, and I loved that about her.

“I’ll think it over and let you know.”

She held her thumb up to me, then went back to what she’d said previously. “So, Mark?”

“He’s staying with me while they figure out what went on in the house he bought.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You need to fill in the blanks, missy. How does it feel to be living in a house with him? Are you working through your issues? Are you back together? Oh, are things going bump in the night?” She wiggled her eyebrows on the last one.