Sixteen

Cade

"D ude. You said you were going to come right at eight. That's the whole reason I showed up so early."

I don't tell him that the reason we agreed to come early is because he needed the extra time—there's no point in lecturing Liam about school. He does okay. He tries just enough to pass everything, but he's also been studying for a degree he has zero interest in, and that definitely shows.

And I definitely don't tell him why I was late. That's none of his business. He has an idea, has asked me how things are with Nic a few too many times to make me paranoid, but he doesn't know . And Nic might actually murder me if I blabbed.

"I still finished before you did." I finished early enough to see the messages from my mom and argue some more. I can't believe her. Nic is her stepson, and I know—I, of all people fucking know—how difficult he can be, but he's grown up some. He's not the same brat he was years ago. And he had his reasons to be mad—I may not know all of them, but I'm sure watching your dad fall out of love with your mom is tough.

Or maybe I'm blinded by all the orgasms. I do understand why my mom wouldn't be excited for him to come along—he doesn't like her, but still. Anton is his dad, and it's been years since he spent Christmas with us. He usually goes to his mom's, but he's already told me he has no plans this year—which our parents know. I didn't ask why, but I know that it's a big deal.

She's probably still blowing up my phone, but I do not care. I meant what I said. She sent me screenshots and links to a hotel in fucking Sedona and told me she and Anton booked three flights. Three! Why would Anton be okay with that?

This impromptu vacation is a big deal. I thought they were saving for a wedding, but apparently, she has the gist of that worked out. They're having the ceremony at a church near the end of winter break and were hoping for this to be their version of a honeymoon since they'll be working after the wedding. Most people would do it on their anniversary, but my mom is very excited. She secured the earliest date at the chapel she wanted.

I told her I would walk her down the aisle and that I was happy she was getting the wedding she wanted, but why do I need to come on their impromptu honeymoon? She can jazz it up as a family vacation as much as she wants—I told her I wasn't going unless Nic goes.

She must think that I'm bluffing, but I'm not. That's why my phone is on silent. I don't care how much money they spent on the tickets, that's their problem. Not Nic's.

"Okay." Liam scoffs. "Fuckin' nerd."

I push the drama aside for the time being, deciding to live in the moment with Liam. I've missed this. It's not always this easy to be around him anymore, so I have to enjoy it when it is. "What are we doing now?"

"Well, I actually got a—ugh. Look at him in his slutty ass pants."

I follow Liam's glare to find Sebastian next to his Jeep—standing there in what we've both always dubbed some slutty ass pants. Well, they're just grey sweatpants, but everyone knows the deal with those. It reminds me of Nic—those are all he wears when he's at home. And I'm a simple bisexual man—I see grey sweats, and my eyes are involuntarily searching for a dick print. Like right now.

"Damn. For your butt's sake, I hope he's more of a shower than a grower."

"Shut up." Liam pushes at my shoulder, but it doesn't keep me from seeing the blush on his cheeks. "Don't look at his dick."

"It's kind of hard not to, Liam."

"Just—don't!" We get close enough for Sebastian to reach an arm out for Liam, and even though he moves in for the touch, eagerly pressing into Sebastian's side, he also turns his head to dodge a kiss. "I really wish you'd changed."

"Liam," he groans quietly, tossing his head back like someone who has for sure already had this argument. "They're just sweats!"

"Exactly! Even Cade said he can see your dick."

"That's—what? No, I was just—" I look around, trying and failing not to sneak another peak at Sebastian's crotch. It really is the pants. It's almost as bad as when Nic wears them. But Liam's bottoms aren't much better. "What about you, huh? You're wearing booty shorts in the middle of December." It doesn't snow here, but it's not exactly short-short weather either.

"Well, yeah, but—" He looks down at the khaki shorts stretched to the max across his thighs and shrugs. "I only wore these because of him. I would have changed if he had."

"We're not getting into this again." Sebastian even removes his arm from around Liam's waist, something I don't think I've ever seen him do. They're a very touchy couple—they don't pull away .

"I just don't think you need to hang out with Jax in pants like this, Bash. We all know he—"

"I don't want your stupid boyfriend!" Jax's head pops out of the passenger window, sneaking up on me in a way I wouldn't expect a yapper of his caliper to be able to. "He's like a brother to me, Liam—I've told you this. I joke and shit, but I do not want your boyfriend's stupid pierced dick!"

"A brother who you've fucked," Liam grumbles, tucking his face into his boyfriend's neck. Sebastian whispers something to him that has his neck flushing pink, and it feels a bit like I'm intruding all of a sudden. I don't know if it's the view or the topic of brothers fucking and pierced penises, but I'm very much uncomfortable. "Okay, well…" He finally comes up for air to speak directly to me. "We got to go. I have work soon, and I should probably change."

"Work?" This is news to me. Liam has never been a spoiled kid, but he does come from the kind of money that's ensured he's never had to work. "Since when? Where?"

"It's a secret." It's Jax who answers, his head still hanging out of the car.

"Why?"

But Jax is right. Liam doesn't want to tell me—even dodging the question has him once again blushing.

"Okay…" I shrug, feigning indifference. "I don't even want to know." I do, though. It bugs me that we're the kind of friends who have secrets. I know I'm not one to talk—having hidden a pretty colossal secret from Liam for years—but still. Why is his pampered ass working, and why would he be too embarrassed to tell me?

"Yeah, me either." Jax gets out of the Jeep so Liam can take his spot in the passenger seat. It's not until Sebastian gets in and starts the car that Jax lets us all know his plans. "And I don't want to go back to your place just so you can leave me with your little rat-dog while you diddle each other's peens. I'm going with Cade."

"Ugh," I whisper, but he doesn't believe in personal space and hears me.

"Oh, come on. You know you love me." He doesn't even ask me if I'm okay with lugging his ass around before he's heading for my car.

"I guess I'm hanging out with Jax."

"Sorry." But Liam's grinning like he's not at all sorry and maybe even happy that Jax isn't his problem for the time being. "He's not so bad. Just… keep him busy."

∞∞∞

"S o, what do you want to do?"

"Take you home," I answer honestly, but he only rolls his eyes in response. I didn't actually think that would work anyway.

"We could hang around Seb's and follow Liam to work. I don't know why he's being so sketchy about that, but I've been meaning to follow him for a while now anyway."

"What—no. That's creepy, Jax."

"Oh, so stalking is only okay when it's your boyfriend?"

"I don't have a boyfriend." I leave it at that, simply not in the mood to elaborate.

"Okay, so your fuck buddy or whatever else you want to call him. Why can we stalk him but not Liam?"

"Jax, we're not following Liam to work. And we did not stalk Nic!" I really wish people would stop saying that.

"Well… do you want to stalk Nic?"

I stare at him for all of two seconds with my jaw agape before I throw my car in drive—the decision to drive to the diner fully formed. It's a bad idea, but it's too tempting, especially since I know where he is. I imagine it'd be hard to stay away from him, having that knowledge locked and loaded in my one-track mind. My thoughts are pretty consumed by Nicolas Aldana these days.

A part of me thought that getting his dick would cure me from this whole Dumb Dick disease I've got going on, but I was wrong. I was way wrong. If anything, my symptoms are worse. I pretty much think in terms of my broody emo boy these days. If I had ended up doing anything else, I still would have obsessively counted the hours until he was off.

"This is fun."

"No, it isn't." Honestly, it is. I feel a little giddy as we pull into the diner's parking lot. I know it's not a good idea, that he's going to be mad as soon as he sees me, but I don't know. I kind of like it when Nic is mad at me. It gets my heart pounding in a way that I can usually feel in my dick.

I don't know if Jax can handle that, though. A pissed-off Nic with Jax in reaching distance—it could be bad if I let Jax be all… himself.

"Hey, maybe don't talk to him. At all."

"Why?" He pouts, acting like he genuinely doesn't understand why I don't want him speaking to Nic.

"Just… don't."

"Don't you work here?"

"Yeah." I park in my usual spot right next to Nic's car. "So does Nic."

"Well… I'll have to talk to him to order my food. We are getting food, right?"

I didn't think about it before I brought us here, but that does seem like the most obvious choice—this being a restaurant and everything. It gives me an excuse to be here.

"Just tell me what you want, and I'll order for you."

"That seems unnecessary, but okay."

It's for sure necessary. I don't see a world where Nic can tolerate Jax.

It's not until we get inside that I start to feel nervous. I do like it when he looks at me like he wants to kill me—especially now that I've come to associate that look with his cock ripping my ass apart—but I don't know for sure how he's going to react to having to wait on me. Our hostess seats us in what I know to be his section, and he sees us as soon as we sit. I can tell because he immediately looks like he just stepped in some dog shit. The squishy kind. While barefoot.

Why do I like him so fucking much?

"He did not look happy to see you."

I glare at Jax, but he's too busy playing with the sugar packets on the table to notice. It's not until Nic walks over that he finally stops his fidgeting just to smile at my stepbrother. And if Nic is unhappy to see me, he sure as fuck isn't all that tickled to see Jax.

"What are you doing here?"

"I—" I shrug, feeling too exposed now that he's got his attention on me. I underestimated how this would play out. Things aren't anywhere near lovey-dovey between us, but they're not quite this icy, either. I don't know how to play it now that I'm out of practice.

"Cade. Why are you here?"

"We wanted…" I don't know why I'm here. Or I do, but I can't tell him that. I just wanted to see you . That sounds like something I'd say post-lobotomy. I can't tell him that.

"Food," Jax cuts in and mouths a silent and very unsubtle sorry when I overreact to his voice. I probably needed the help, but I gave him very specific instructions.

"You could have gone literally anywhere else," Nic states the obvious, refusing to acknowledge Jax.

"But we didn't." I sit up straighter, deciding not to be a coward while he looks daggers at me. "Why does it even matter?" Honestly. Is Nic an asshole? Absolutely, but I don't see why he should be this pissed at me.

He stares at me for a beat before pretending that whole conversation didn't happen. He goes right into treating me like a regular customer—asking me what I want like he doesn't know I get the same thing here every day that I work when I'm on break. He even politely—sort of—asks Jax what he wants, but he didn't get a chance to tell me, so he ends up ordering for himself. The only difference between how he's acting now and how he treats the diners is that he usually fakes some smiles for them.

"Buddy, I don't know how to tell you this," Jax starts as soon as Nic has left the table, and I already know he's going to say some bullshit. "But your boyfriend hates you."

"He's not my boyfriend." I feel those words in my chest, feel them squeeze uncomfortably tight around whatever dumb organ is in there.

"You know what? I believe you. We probably should have gone somewhere else. All the servers here are rude as hell."

The last time he was here, I was the one who waited on him and Sebastian. They were trying to ask me for ideas on where to take Liam for a date, and I was a little shitty to them. But so was he.

I can't get my mind off Nic—because of course I can't—so I get up.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"The bathroom," I lie, walking away quickly with hopes that he isn't someone who likes to join people on bathroom trips. I find Nic by the drink station and don't think before I'm letting a flat hand shove into his shoulder blade—not hard, but enough that he spills some of the drink in his hand. "What's wrong with you?"

He's not in the mood, might even be planning on trying to ignore me, but just as I'm about to really lose my shit, he turns around. "We're done."

"I—" My face falls, everything inside me following suit. I can feel my guts sinking right to the floor, that idiot heart of mine pounding on its way down. "Why? What do you mean? I—"

"I don't want to fuck you anymore, not if you're going to be running around with whoever the fuck that is. We spent this morning in your bed, Cade, and now you're here with some other guy? I don't know who the fuck you—"

"No! I'm not—no. Nic, Jax is just… he's not even a friend. I told you that! He's just…" I stop talking, let myself catch my breath so that I can fix this. "Why would I bring a date or—"

It hits me that he's jealous right then, and the realization has my body short-circuiting. He's still fucking jealous of Jax—it's so ridiculous I almost want to laugh. If I weren't still reeling from him trying to end things, I might. Yeah, I can totally fix this.

"I'm not sleeping with Jax. I wouldn't bring a hookup to the place I work, Nic. Why would I do that?"

"I don't know—because you're a dick? I work here too, and you wanted me to see you with—"

"No." This guy. He's just as clueless as the rest of us. "Nic, I swear. Jax is nothing." I feel a little bad saying that—Jax is okay—but I have to convince Nic that he's not his competition. There is no competing with Nic.

"Why else come here?"

The look on his face isn't like anything I've ever seen, at least not on him. It reminds me of myself—of all the times I've felt vulnerable or insecure, only it's worse. It's so much worse seeing it on him. It makes me want to do something crazy.

Pretty sure it's given me that lobotomy I was dreading.

"I wanted to see you."

His brows raise, surprise wiping that sad look off his face. I'm glad. It's worth the humiliation just to see him no longer looking at me like that.

He doesn't know what to say. I don't either, but I'm glad I was able to clear things up. He's not mad at me anymore and still standing close enough to me that I can feel his body heat.

I don't know which of us goes in first, but I'm so fucking ready to feel his mouth on mine. I hold my breath, don't even take the time to wet my lips, and begin feeling lightheaded just from the anticipation of it.

I'm going to kiss Nic.

There's so much excitement and eagerness bubbling inside me that I don't even realize he's not leaning in anymore .