Page 142 of Cheap Shot

Sebastian vaguely remembered a text from Luke about that. He hadn’t gotten around to answering it, too wrapped up in work and the sudden effort Luke was clearly putting into this relationship they were trying to navigate.

“I do have a sweet tooth actually,” Sebastian admitted. He laughed when he inspected a bag of gummy cactus. “Especially when I smoke weed. Nice choice, by the way.”

“I’m not much good at romance, but, uh, I’ll try.”

“I like that you thought of me,” Sebastian admitted. “It makes me feel like you care. But stuff like picking up takeout or bringing me a warm cloth after sex, to me, that’s romantic too. Maybemoremeaningful than some of the traditional things like dinners out and all that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It feels nice to have someone—” Sebastian bit his lip.

Luke raised his eyebrows. “Take care of you?”

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “I mean. I’m a pretty independent guy. I don’t need to be coddled or anything.”

“Course not,” Luke said gruffly. “You’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself.”

Sebastian smiled because he knew that was a huge compliment, coming from Luke. “Yes. But I’ll admit that sometimes, especially after running three shops and looking out for Brie and Harper, nothavingto be the one who takes care of shit all the time is fucking nice.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What can I do for you?” Sebastian asked.

Luke leaned forward and kissed him. “Just keep being you,” he said when he drew back.

Sebastian smiled. “And you say you’re not romantic.”

“So,” Thad said as he slid into the booth across from Luke a couple of days later. “What’s the occasion? I like you, dude, but you don’t usually invite me out for a drink.”

Luke shrugged. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Something to do with the team?” Thad asked.

Luke shook his head. “Something I want to keep as far away from the team as I possibly can.”

“Okay,” Thad said. “So meeting me at the team hangout spotdefinitelyaccomplishes that.”

With a snort, Luke admitted it probably wasn’t his smartest move. But he liked O’Neill’s Pub. Felt at ease here. And, at least at the moment, no one else from the team was around.

Honestly, early on a weekday evening, the place was pretty empty all around.

“Anyway,” Thad said. “What did you want to discuss?”

“So I, uh …” Luke rotated his glass between his palms. “I’ve been wondering about some stuff.”

Thad raised an eyebrow but took a sip of his drink rather than ask him what the fuck he was talking about.

“Like … from the shit you and Gavin have said, it sounds like your family is sort of screwed up. And you’ve talked about prison being fucking awful.”

Over the years, Luke had known plenty of other guys who’d been in prison who’d said the same.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Thad said with a chuckle. “But yeah. To both.”

“But you and Graham seem pretty happy together.”

“Also true.”

“Didn’t the family and prison stuff kinda … fuck you up?”