Page 46 of Seasons of Love
"Oh, come on, that's not fair. I had less information to go by," Indy said.
Tate took out a bill from his wallet and gave it to Wren, promising Indy he'd let him win later.
Tristan and Ben followed, with Tristan muttering he should have known better and not trusted horny old men…or something of the kind.
"Can I pay you in blow—" Wren covered up Tom's mouth with his hand and said, "Yes, you can."
"What's going on?" Aiden asked.
Everyone looked around, avoiding eye contact.
"What's going on, if I can take a guess, is that your friends placed a bet on us," I said, finally giving up the pretense and placing my arm over Aiden's chair and around his shoulders.
Tom gave a loud sigh and moved to sit on Wren's lap. "Isn't love wonderful, babe?"
"Wait a minute," Aiden said. "How did you all know? Except for my runs in the morning with Wren, I haven't even seen you."
There was a collective snort, including from me, which got me the side-eye from Aiden.
"Oh, my darling second best friend Aiden," Wren said. Tom was looking at him like a kitten ready to be stroked to sleep.
"First of all, you've really slowed down on our runs, like waaaaay down," he said.
"So what? I've been tired, and it's a forest, not the paved ground of the beach walk in San Diego."
"Plus, Benny said you were there every night last week for dinner, but not this week."
"Traitor," Aiden muttered between his teeth.
"And you're literally wearing Slade's shirt."
Aiden stared down at the shirt with the logo of my shop that I'd given him to wear after his had gotten wet earlier, and then looked at me.
I shrugged and pulled him in for a kiss.
He melted into my touch immediately. I knew he'd be beet red by the time we were done with the kiss, but I also wanted him to relax and stop worrying.
From the loud cheers around us, I took it that his friends approved.
18
AIDEN
Fuck my life. Fuck alcohol and fuck hangovers.
"I hate Wren," I moaned into my pillow.
"That's not what you were saying last night. I would have been jealous if you hadn't gone on a ten-minute speech about how platonic your love is, how Tom should definitely not feel threatened, how you'd totally join them for a threesome, and if I'm not mistaken, you offered me to the whole group, saying everyone should ride my bike. That was not a euphemism. Or at least it's not when you stare at my crotch as you say it."
I groaned, which made my head hurt.
"Why are you here? Let me die of mortification or dehydration or something."
"Come here, sweetheart."
I kept my eyes closed because it hurt too much to open them but scooted closer to Slade.
He ran his magical fingers over my head, massaging my temples and then my scalp. "My poor baby."
