Page 42 of Heat Transfer
My brother’s eyes glued to where my arm was looped through Cor’s, and he looked me in the eye and lifted a brow. I offered a shit-eating grin back.
“Holy shit, you’re here.” Ollie pushed up from his seat and stormed over to his brother. “You fucker. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Felix invited me last minute.” Cor extricated himself from my arm since Ollie was crashing into him for a hug.
Marco hopped up from the table. “Going to introduce me to your guest?” he asked, his voice loaded with intention. “Clearly, Ollie already knows him.”
“Shit, I should’ve mentioned that our brothers are dating.” Ollie wrinkled his nose.
Marco crossed his arms over his chest, drilling me with a look. “And when were you planning on telling me?”
Guilt flickered through me. While I’d kind of tumbled into pretending to be Cor’s boyfriend with the Brannons, this lie felt more deliberate. Except even if Cor and I were in…whatever limbo we floated in, one thing that wasn’t a lie was my newly realized attraction to men.
“I don’t think they make ‘Surprise, I’m Bi’ greeting cards,” I said.
“Well, they fucking should.” Maeve plunked down between Liam and Theo. “I could’ve definitely used those.”
“It was no surprise you were bi, babe,” Liam said, and Theo snorted.
Marco swung his gaze over to Cor, and I resisted the urge to reach out and tug him against me, just to make sure he didn’t get spooked away. “And where did you guys meet?”
“Sword fighting.” I placed a hand on my hip, daring him.
“Fee, sword fighting? Out of all the sports you could do…” Marco shook his head.
Irritation percolated within me. This was why I’d moved farther away and didn’t tell my family shit. Because to them, everything I did came with a big seizure risk sticker. It wasn’t like I was scaling mountains or doing dangerous sports, andwhen I’d started the sword fighting classes, I’d informed our instructor about my condition. But no, I needed to swaddle myself in bubble wrap and forever avoid everything fun.
“He’s really good,” Cor said, and I swallowed hard. Fuck. This man was amazing.
“Forget game night,” Maeve said. “I want to see a sword fight.”
“You always do,” Liam muttered.
“I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to watching a match,” Theo said. “Like jousting style?”
Marco scrubbed his face. “You guys are proposing a match in my living room?”
I shrugged and met Cor’s eyes. “I’m game if you are.”
He shook his head, a world-weary sigh escaping him.
“This needs to happen,” Ollie announced as he plunked into his seat at the table beside Liam. “Payback for keeping your awesome hobby secret from your family for so long.”
“You’re not fighting with anything dangerous,” Marco muttered. My brother already realized the tide had turned against him. “I’ll be right back.”
“Lex is going to be so mad he missed out on this.” Theo leaned back in the seat. The handsome bear wore black slacks and a light blue button-down.
“Where’s he at?” I asked.
“Over at Cole and Rhys’s, watching the Eagles game. I had zero interest in joining.” Theo tapped the copy of Splendor in front of him. “If I’m paying attention to a game, it’s this kind.”
Marco returned with…spatulas. Metal spatulas, but…what?
“We’re sword fighting with those?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’m not taking down our demo swords in the basement for you to play around with. You guys can’t hurt yourselves with these.”
Cor snorted. “It’s not going to be much of a sword demo with a spatula, but I’ll give it a go.”