He licks his lips and waggles his brows. “I never miss an opportunity to watch you squirm, sweet cheeks.”
My face heats at that sexy look in his eye when Calder deadpans, “Okay, I’m not drunk enough for this.” He downs the last of his pink drink and pushes between us to grab another one.
Wyatt and Luke join us at the bar a second later, and I’m greeted by Luke with, “I called it first, just so you know.”
“Called what?” Max asks, narrowing his eyes on his youngest brother.
“You and her…you were so obvious that night I picked up Everly.”
My brows furrow. “Nothing had happened at that point yet.”
Luke shrugs. “Max was like a lost puppy.”
Wyatt grunts his agreement, continuing that brooding, man of few words vibe he puts out as he sips a pink drink through his thick beard. Another stunning sight. Honestly, Rainbow Project should put these brothers on their event fliers. They’d sell tickets like crazy.
“Did you guys bring dates tonight?” I inquire, glancing around for three women who look like they’ve been abandoned.
“Hell no,” Calder answers with a laugh. “We come to this thing every year, dump a bunch of money on the auction stuff, and hit up downtown in our tuxes. Three dudes in tuxes is like a fucking bat signal to the single ladies in Denver. It’s a win-win because we don’t have to buy a ticket for some random chick to the event, and we still get laid because of the tuxes.” Calder snaps his fingers proudly and I laugh.
“Ignore him,” Max huffs, rolling his eyes. “And I regret to inform you they are seated at our table because I can’t trust them alone with anyone else.”
“It’s for a good cause,” I offer helpfully.
Wyatt lifts his glass to mine and clinks it in a silent cheers of agreement.
“Speaking of which, we should probably go find our table,” Max says, looking over the top of my head. “My business partner should be here with his wife by now, and I really should give him some face time.”
An odd shiver shoots up my back at his mention of work stuff, but I do my best to shake it off. This is Max’s world, and if I want any chance of what we have turning into more, I need to get used to mixing business with pleasure.
The live auction begins, and I watch my brothers huddle around the brochure that lists everything up for auction tonight. The sight of them at this event every year makes me prouder than they’ll ever know. None of them have a ton of money, though they aren’t broke by any means. I’ve helped them invest in various homes they’ve flipped throughout the years so they can maintain some passive income and don’t have to rely as heavily on booking new projects all the time. But when they come here and drop a few grand each on weekend getaways to Colorado Springs, or a wine club membership, it’s not because they have money to burn.
They do it for Everly.
As different as my life is from the three of them, they have never, not once, made me feel like an outsider. I love those weird assholes.
The text thread between the four of us when I told them I was bringing Cassandra tonight and would appreciate them not being pains in my ass about it was amusing to say the least.
Wyatt communicated mostly with emojis, which was weirdly more expressive than his actual spoken language. Luke sent a lot of “I called it” GIFs, and Calder accused me of watching too much nanny porn.
He really is the biggest asshole of them all.
But fuck it, after my talk with Dean, I realized that if I didn’t at least try to go all in with Cassandra, I would always wonder what-if. And I would rather try and fail with her than never try at all.
I check my watch, wondering where Jenson Hunsberger and his wife must be. The event is nearly over, and I heard from him earlier this week that he was looking forward to coming. I hope nothing bad happened to them.
Cassandra’s hand finds mine under the table, and I lace my fingers through hers, smiling softly at the oddly natural feeling it is to have her here with me tonight. I haven’t had a real girlfriend since Jess, and what I feel for her is nothing like what I felt for Jess. And I don’t think that has anything to do with Jess’s sexuality. I’m starting to realize she just wasn’t my person. I was forcing her to be because I cared about her and thought we made sense. We were both driven and focused, had big goals in life.
I don’t have those commonalities with Cassandra, but I find that I like the feeling of being challenged by her. And the chemistry that sizzles between our palms right now is fucking addicting.