16. Jay

CHAPTER 16

JAY

The annoying sound of ringing that just wouldn't stop had me waking in a bad mood. Ash hadn't come over after class last night, saying he was meeting up with some teammates for drinks. Even though it was only one night of not having him in my bed, I missed him all night and hadn't been able to sleep in peace.

Thank god my first class of the day didn't start until eleven, but then I had back-to-back classes until closing time. So I definitely didn't appreciate the early morning call. I was even more pissed when I saw it was from my little brother. It was just like him to find ways to rile me up.

"What?" I bit out. The irritating sound of Howie's laughter came as a reply. "If you called just to laugh at me, I'm hanging up and blocking your number."

"Aww, you'd never do that to your dear little brother," he cooed.

I cursed at how well he knew me. Who the hell knew why, but I'd always had a soft spot for Howie growing up. We were only a few years apart, but sometimes it felt like I had a hand in raising him. Maybe it was all those years of carting him to and from practices and going to all his games.

In any case, I'd been there for all twenty-six years of his life, so there was no way he was getting rid of me that easily, even if I did want to punch his probably smug looking face right now.

"Whaddya want?" I pushed again, hoping to get off the phone and sleep a bit longer.

"Mom gave me the mission of getting you to come to the party tonight, so you're coming, yeah?"

I groaned and rubbed a hand over my head. "And you thought the best time to persuade me was"—I checked the time on my phone and cursed again when I saw it was a few minutes shy of six. Even on the days I taught the first class at the studio, I didn't get up until seven—"ass crack in the morning?"

He chuckled. "Figured I had a better chance if I caught you off-guard."

I flopped myself face down on my pillow and closed my eyes. Maybe if I ignored the huge headache, he'd give up and leave me alone until a decent, more human hour. I was too optimistic.

"Jay, are you listening? Jaaaaaay." Then he started singing my name to the tune of Good Morning Starshine. Howie did not have a musically inclined voice.

"Oh, dear lord. Make it stop. How does your girlfriend deal with your annoying early morning antics?" I moaned. Howie, like the sadist he was, only sang louder. "Okay, I'm up! You can stop making my ears bleed now."

Howie huffed at the jab but went right back to the point. "Mia's even more of an early bird than me, and she says I have a perfectly reasonable singing voice, fuck you very much." Howie's girlfriend was obviously blinded by love if she thought his screeching was reasonable . "So I'll see you tonight, then?" he added.

"Like I already told Mom, I have classes scheduled. Saturdays are one of my busiest days."

"Just come after! You know a Cobb party doesn't stop until someone either throws up on Mom's carpet or we all pass out from exhaustion."

"Yeah, 'cause those two options sound so fun after an already tiring day," I muttered. "And why is she so dead set on me going, anyway? I was just there the other day and I'll be visiting on my day off. Isn't she tired of seeing my face by now?"

"Who knows? I'm just the messenger. Anyway, you better come. I just invited Ash, too. He'll be there. It'll be fun!"

I became wide awake at the mention of his name. Just one night apart, and I was already missing him. If Ash was going to the party, then Howie would definitely keep him until who the hell knew how long, which meant I probably wouldn't get to see him outside of class again tonight. But then something about what Howie said clicked in my head.

"Don't tell me you called Ash today ? "

I could hear the glee in his voice. "Of course! Called him right before calling you. See how much I love you? Gave you a few extra minutes to sleep."

"You really are a jerk, you know that? Just because you're an old man who wakes up early doesn't mean you have a right to impose it on the rest of us," I grumbled again.

He laughed again. "It's not my fault that I can't sleep in even on weekends anymore! If I have to suffer side-effects from school time, then shouldn't the people closest to me have to as well?"

"New number, who dis?"

"Yeah, whatever. So can I tell Mom I completed my mission or not?"

I nibbled on my bottom lip before making my decision. If I went to the party, maybe I could save Ash from my brother's clutches and we could slip out of the party early.

Once I finally got off the phone, I checked my messages and found one from Ash complaining about how evil Howie was. I laughed while sending a quick reply, agreeing with him. Ash sent another message not even a minute later asking if he could come over. There were damn butterflies in my belly at the fact that he'd also missed me, too. Naturally, I told him to get his ass over here and got up to start the day by cooking us some breakfast first.

Ash dropped me off at the studio before heading out to do his own thing until his class. Since we were both heading to the same place tonight, it made sense to just take one car .

Right before the start of my last class, I came out to find Ash and Sam chatting by the front counter. They were laughing about something I didn't catch and joking around like friends. Sam definitely knew we were dating by now, though he hadn't teased me about it as much as I thought he would.

After closing the shop, Ash drove us to my childhood home. Soft music came from the backyard. It wasn't loud enough to disturb the neighbors. Not that it mattered, considering the neighbors were most likely at the party, since they were good friends with my parents.

As expected, when we entered the backyard from the lawn, we found Maria and her husband chatting with my parents while the other neighbor, a single man by the name of Harris, was laughing with one of my cousins. I smirked at how cozy they seemed with each other.

Before we could say hi to anyone, a large arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me against them. I turned to see Ash in a similar position, and of course, my little brother was the one pulling us toward him.

"You guys are finally here!" he greeted in a loud voice. With that and the beer breath, it was clear he already had a few bottles in him.

"I've missed y'all! My two best people!" He pulled us closer to him. My hand went to his arm, which was currently pressing my neck and threatening my airway.

"Geez, I saw you like two days ago," I stated, jabbing his stomach to release me. He stumbled, clearly tipsy if not drunk, and shot me a goofy smile.

"Can't a little brother just miss his big bro?"

I softened a bit and pulled him into a real hug. Howie was an inch shorter than me—yes, we'd measured—but he was built similar to Ash, bulky and twice my size, which meant he gave the best bear hugs. He quickly lifted me off my feet, just because he could, then gave me a quick spin before putting me down and turning to Ash with his arms spread open.

"You better not even think about doing that to me," Ash warned with a pointed stare, but accepted the hug. I could see Howie was tempted, but the hug ended before he could act.

We asked Howie why we didn't see his girlfriend, Mia. They met on a dating app a few years back and had been dating ever since. From what Howie told me, he'd even started looking at rings. He told us Mia was out of town that weekend on a girls' trip.

"Is there any food? I'm starving," I said as we walked into the house through the sliding door. We'd have to greet everyone eventually but preferably with some food in us first.

"Don't let Mom catch you questioning if there's food in the house. You'll never hear the end of it if she knew you said something so offending," he snickered and handed Ash and me paper plates. I grinned back as I loaded up on food from the row of food warmers Mom had set up on the kitchen island. She believed it wasn't a good party unless all the guests went home stuffed to the max.

Howie sat across from us at the dining table as we chowed down on the food. He had his head propped on his hands as he watched us. "So, Ash, how's the yoga treating you? Were you able to unwind ?"

Ash choked on the food he'd just taken a bite of. "Can't you wait until the poor man's fed before tormenting him?" I said as I went to get Ash a drink.

When I'd returned to the table, Howie had a huge grin on his smug face while Ash glared at him. Their staring contest only ended when I handed Ash the drink. He quickly thanked me, his gaze falling to his food as he took small sips from the cup.

The tips of Ash's ears tinted red, which made me very curious to know exactly what Howie said to make him this self-conscious. Questioning him would have to wait until we were alone.

We quickly finished eating, with both Ash and Howie acting like the earlier incident hadn't happened as they chatted about their favorite topic—football. I gave my input every so often but mostly watched as they animatedly discussed a freshman on Howie's high school team, who he thought had real talent.

Ash might have said that he was having doubts about his career, but his love for football had never dwindled. He absolutely lit up during the conversation, taking great interest in the budding rookie, and even making plans with Howie to go over tapes of the teen's plays .

I cleaned up while they were still absorbed in their chat. It didn't look like they would be done anytime soon, so I gestured to Ash that I was heading back into the yard to mingle.

Almost half of my extended family were here, and since I hadn't seen them all since Christmas, I wasn't able to escape the questions of my uncles and aunts.

" How was the move back to Austin? How's the studio going? You should have a Cobb family class! Oh, what fun that would be! Are you seeing anyone yet? You know your cousin Murphy just found himself a nice girl. I think she might be the one!"

One aunt in particular was rather insistent on digging through my dating life, telling me I'd been single for way too long and that all my cousins were settling down already.

I could only smile and nod politely, while hoping someone could save me from the interrogation.

"There you are, sweetie!" I'd never been more happy to see my mom. "Can I steal my boy away for a moment?" she said to her sister, effectively sparing me from more lectures from my aunt about finding a partner.

Mom hooked her arm in mine and pulled me through the crowd to the house's back wall. Ash and Howie came out of the sliding doors just as Mom pulled me onto the patio toward the couch that was pushed against the house and introduced me to the man sitting on there.

He was a handsome man, probably around my age, with dark hair and gentle eyes that might have attracted me if my eyes weren't set on a particular football player.

"Jay, this is Antonio. You know, Maria's son," Mom introduced us, and the stranger stood to hold out a hand.

I smiled and accepted the handshake, biting back the retort that I, in fact, hadn't known Maria had a son. They had moved in right before I had headed off to college, so I'd only met Maria and her husband before. I'd never seen their son at any of the parties I'd attended in the past, either.

"You know, Antonio just moved back to Austin, too. He's a few years older than you, and he owns his own business, like you, and he just loves traveling. A globetrotter, I believe, is what Maria called him."

I stared at Mom, trying to figure out just what she was up to. I could practically see the scheming in her eyes, but I just hadn't figured out the goal yet.

Mom put a hand to her heart, acting all innocent as she said, "You two have so much in common; it's practically fate! Wouldn't it be nice for you boys to get to know each other a little more closely ?"

Motherfucker .

This was a setup. That was why Mom had been so insistent on me attending tonight's party when she'd never really pushed in the past.

My first instinct was to glance at Ash, who was walking toward us with Howie. By the stony look on his face, he'd heard my mom and was aware of the situation .

I glanced at Antonio to see that he hadn't looked surprised at all. That meant he'd been clued in on this setup, and I'd been the only one left in the dark.

So now the problem was, how was I going to get out of this when my mother seemed hell-bent on playing matchmaker?