Page 72 of Seal the Deal
“No,” Eden says, crossing his arms and glaring at Nicholas. His ruffled skirt and glittering eye makeup are at odds with his faded, oversized t-shirt and resting bitch face.
“I think I missed a chapter,” the big guy from the couch says.
“You have a boyfriend, Andrew?” This last question comes from the redhead on the couch, smiling at Andrew in a way that makes Nicholas’s stomach flip with a sharp pang of jealousy. The only person who says nothing is the guy with the glasses, watching everyone with a calm stare, but he smiles at Andrew, too.
“Explain,” Charlie and Freckles both yell, while Eden continues to stare at Nicholas like he’s a piece of gum beneath his sneaker.
“Nicki,” Andrew says calmly, as if the apartment isn’t dissolving into chaos, “meet my family. That’s my twin brother Charlie, obviously. Eden is his boyfriend.” Charlie smiles and Eden narrows his eyes.
“That big guy on the end of the couch there is my younger brother Jason and next to him is his boyfriend Emerson. Next to him is Theo?—”
“He’s mine,” Freckles announces, draping himself across Theo’s lap. “Myfiancé.”
“My best friend,” Jason adds with a mile wide smile. “He was mine first.”
“Well, he’s marrying me,” Freckles says, flipping him off.
Andrew laughs, the sound dragging Nicholas’s attention back to the man beside him. Andrew has such a nice laugh when it’s real.
“And that guy right there is my baby brother Alec, who as you have picked up on, is marrying Theo, who yes, Jason before you interrupt, we know was your best friend first.”
Jason, Alec and Theo all grin like that shitshow of an explanation was perfect. The redhead, Emerson, leans into Jason’s side and smiles as if he too, thinks the entire odd situation is charming.
It occurs to Nicholas that all of them are here for Andrew, because they were worried about him not answering his phone for a few hours. And okay yeah, the fact that he was splashed across the news probably has something to do with it, but the fact that all of them are here without question has Nicholas unsettled.
Nicholas has never been around so many people who actually like each other. Discomfort wars with a surge of possessiveness. Without a second to question what he’s doing, Nicholas reaches out to rest his hand at the back of Andrew’s neck, something in him settling as he curls his fingers possessively around it.
While it makes Nicholas feel better, it has the opposite result for the room at large as the three men on the couch share bewildered looks, Alec jumps up from the couch and shouts something at the same time as Charlie.
The loudest of them all is Eden. “What thefuck?”
12ANDREW
“You don’t like being touchedby strangers, “ Eden says, the look he shoots Nicki sharp enough to kill.
Unease radiates off Eden in waves, and Andrew hates being the cause of it. If he’d known things were going to go public, he could’ve talked to Charlie and Eden beforehand. He could have prepared them—prepared Eden especially. His history with men is fraught enough that Andrew should’ve known he’d react so negatively, especially given Nicki’s size.
“I’m not a fucking stranger,” Nicki says beside him. “I’m his boyfriend.”
Where Charlie’s confusion is loud—his head cocked to the side as he studies Nicki and Andrew—Eden’s confusion is aggressive.
“I wasn’t fucking talking to you,” Eden snaps.
“If you were talking to Andrew, you were talking to me,” Nicholas says like the argumentative asshole he is.
“Nicki.”
Nicki doesn’t listen to him, instead glaring at Eden.
“Fuck you,” Eden snaps.
“Eden.”
Apparently Eden isn’t listening to him either, he and Nicholas engaging in some kind of stare down.
“Eden,” Charlie tries, but when he reaches out for Eden, his hand is slapped away.
“This is bullshit,” Eden yells.
