“Last time I tried to teach you, you pierced the wall with your knitting needle because you were frustrated.”
“The yarn was aggravating me. I’m better now, less temperamental.”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
He nods at me. “Scoot over.” I move to the side of the large lounge chair just as Breaker sits next to me and loops his arm around my shoulder. Together, we lie there, staring up at the cloudy sky as everyone around us chats and enjoys some lasting mimosas and JP’s apparently not-so-mediocre Bloody Marys. “What else did you guys talk about?”
How you’re probably a stallion in bed.
How you made a woman come so many times in one night that JP was actually impressed.
“Uh . . . things,” I say.
“Things? That’s so descriptive. Wow, I never would have thought.” I poke his stomach, causing him to laugh. “Seriously, what did you talk about?”
“The wedding and how you seem to care about me.”
“I do care about you.” He pulls me in closer so I can rest my head on his chest. “You’re important to me. Did you tell them how I’ve been your knight in shining armor when it comes to The Beave?”
“In so many words but not quite that eccentric.”
“I think it’s important to know that I’ve been the hero of this journey down the aisle. It’s vastly important.”
“To whom?”
“The world.”
“You’re so ridiculous.”
“Maybe, but you were the one who made me the Pickle of Honor.”
“How could I possibly forget?” I ask as his hand strokes my shoulder. It feels nice to have human contact. Not just groping hands and pecks on the cheek. Does Brian miss me when he’s gone? Miss holding me? Touching me?
“I’d hope that you wouldn’t. Did you talk about anything else?”
“A few things,” I answer. “But nothing I want to talk about in the backyard of your brother’s house.”
“Okay, shall we leave, then?”
“We don’t have to. I mean, it’s nothing important.”
“Yeah, but if we stay any longer, JP will make me drink another Bloody Mary, and I don’t think I can stomach it. I nursed the one he gave me two hours ago and then dumped it in a bush when they weren’t looking.”
“No, you didn’t.”
He points at a shapely bush off to the right near the fence gate. “That one, right there, if it starts to die, we will know why.”
“Aah, just another secret I’ll have to hang over your head.”
“Okay.” Breaker flops onto his couch and puts his hands behind his head. “Give me all the dirt. What did you talk about?”
When we returned to our apartment building, I went to my place and changed because there was no way I was lounging around Breaker’s apartment in a dress. I switched over to a pair of flannel shorts and a regular T-shirt. I also washed off my makeup because it made my eyes feel weird. Breaker changed into his athletic shorts and a shirt that features the art of the inner workings of a computer. He thinks it’s cool, and I tell him it’s one of the nerdiest things he owns.
“It’s really not that big a deal,” I say as I sit cross-legged on his couch and clutch a throw pillow.
“It has to be a big deal if you didn’t want to talk about it in Huxley’s backyard. So spill, Lia, what is it?”
“God, you’re annoying. Fine, but you can’t tease me or make fun of me about it, okay? I’m sort of sensitive about the topic.”
“Okay,” he says as he sits up and turns toward me. “What is it?”
“Well, Myla started the conversation off with how, uh . . . her and Ryot were . . . enjoying themselves.”
“Having sex?” Breaker asks.
“Yes, having sex. And before you say that’s not a big deal, it is a big deal because we normally don’t talk about those things, so I feel weird, okay?”
“Okay,” he says soothingly, and I’m glad he’s sensed my tone and is not going to make fun of me.
“So she was talking about how Ryot is really good at giving . . . oral, and then Kelsey and Lottie chimed in. I just felt weird because Brian really doesn’t do that, and when I try to give him . . . that, he pushes me away and says that . . . well, that I’m not that great at it.”
“He said that to you?” Breaker asks, his brows narrowing in anger.
“Not precisely with those words, but yeah. And I don’t know, listening to them talk about their sex lives, it made me think that maybe I need to step it up, you know? Maybe I need to try harder.”