It's About Time (Blossom Peak #4)(17)
The rose-colored silk clinging to her body is highlighting every curve I shouldn’t appreciate but find myself noticing more and more.
Hell, my dick hasn’t stopped taking notice either, and that’s a big fucking problem.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. Sue me for wanting to make sure you weren’t going to lock yourself in a coat closet and sulk tonight.” With a flash of her middle finger, she saunters off, swaying her hips i n a way that makes me wonder if when Tori left me for her boss, she stole my sanity as well.
Henley comes up behind me and slaps me on the shoulder. “You all right?”
“I’m fine. I just told your sister the same thing. All of you can stop fucking checking on me, okay?”
Rhonan chuckles as he approaches us, glass of bourbon in his hand. Fletcher made sure there was a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle for our friend, since he’d probably need his favorite liquor to get through the evening. “We didn’t send Dilynne over here.”
My eyes meet his as his brow lifts. The fucker thinks he knows something, but I’m hell-bent on keeping my developing problem to myself. “I didn’t say that you did. I just know our friend group and for the past year, everyone has been acting like I might snap and have a mental breakdown at any moment. I’m fucking fine, all right?”
“Spoken like someone who isn’t fine at all,” Henley quips from my side.
I glare in his direction. “Fuck you.”
Rhonan clinks his glass with mine. “Just remember, if Tori hadn’t left with her boss, you’d probably be going through one hell of a divorce right now. You dodged a bullet, my friend.”
“The first ninety-nine times that you’ve reminded me of that were plenty, but thank you for making it an even one hundred. I’ve moved past it pretty well, I think.”
Henley shakes his head. “Look, you can’t be mad at us for checking on you. It’s part of the pact, right?”
Ah, the new pact we agreed to after Fletcher destroyed our first one. During the weeks that followed my dismantled nuptials, the boys and I were forced to face the shortcomings in our friendships. Truth be told, it’s the one thing I’m most grateful for that came out of that turmoil.
It ’s rare for people to remain friends for as long as Henley, Rhonan, Fletcher, and I have. We’ve seen each other through almost two decades of life now—college, deployments, dream careers, marriages, births, loss, abuse, and accidents that could have killed us. And yet, we’ve remained in each other’s lives nonetheless.
But that doesn’t mean our friendships have been perfect, which was clearly evident after Fletcher admitted the secrets he’d been keeping from us all.
Since then I’ve witnessed Fletcher be a man I can only aspire to in his career and in his relationship, along with trying to repair the relationship with his father. Henley has also faced his past with the abandonment by his parents, his true feelings for his foster parents, and becoming a father unexpectedly while also falling for his nanny.
Rhonan is quickly on his way to joining them, as evidenced in the way he’s staring at his new neighbor who just so happens to be his daughter’s substitute teacher for a few more days. But Vienna has a few loose ends from her previous life that she needs to deal with first—details that only I am privy to at the moment.
That reminder means I need to keep drinking.
Lifting my glass to my lips, I take another sip of my whiskey. “Yeah, yeah. The pact. Trust me, you’re all doing a stellar job of being annoying as shit.” Dilynne’s laugh from the other side of the room pulls my attention toward her, providing yet another thing to add to my list of annoyances tonight. There’s a twitch in my body below the belt, but I desperately try to ignore it as I turn back to my friends. “But I’m okay. Seriously. Fletcher and Laney are family, and I’m happy for them. They have what it takes to make their marriage last.” Lifting my glass toward Rhonan, I add, “And that’s why tonight isn’t bothering me as much as you two might think, so just leave it be and let’s enjoy the party, okay?”
Hen ley and Rhonan share a look before Rhonan nods. “Sounds like a plan. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some important business to attend to.”
Henley and I watch him cross the courtyard over to Vienna. Henley laughs. “Yeah, business, my ass. A hundred bucks says he’s about to take her to some place in this winery that you and I don’t even know exists and have his way with her.”
I shake my head and drain my glass. “At least someone is getting lucky.”
Henley drops his eyes down to my crotch and then back up. “How’s the dick piercing healing?”
“I’m gonna pretend like your question is normal right now, but if anyone else overhears this conversation, you know that’s not going to come off very well.”
Henley shoves at my shoulder. “You’re the one who’s been overly concerned about your dick. I’m just trying to be a supportive friend.”
A while back, as the concern for my lack of desire for the female population began to freak me out, I had a crazy idea to get my dick pierced to see if it would encourage me to put myself back out there. You know, having a new piece of hardware to show off might spike some urgency and push me to finally sleep with someone new.
Honestly, the healing has been the worst part, besides wondering if I’ll ever get the courage to show it to someone of the opposite sex.