Page 34 of Fearless
She bounds up to me and steps happily into my embrace, much to JD annoyance.
“So you’ll barely talk to me, but you’ll hug him,” he mutters.
“Dude, you are so fucked,” Aubrey teases while Reid climbs to his feet and stalks into the kitchen, his eyes firmly on Alana.
I try not to grin smugly, I really fucking do, but it’s too hard to continue.
Thankfully, though, the words ‘I told you so’ manage to stay in.
“Come on. Aubrey made lasagna, it’s amazing,” Alana says, grabbing my hand and towing me toward the table.
She doesn’t retake her seat beside JD, instead goes to the other side so that the two of us can sit together.
‘Asshole,’ JD mouths as I lower myself down opposite him.
With a shrug, I turn my attention back to my wife.
“Did you sleep well?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.
It’s obvious from the darkness of hers that she didn’t get any rest, although I can’t say I’m surprised.
“Yeah. Woke up missing you though.”
JD gags on the other side of the table and I flip him off as I lean in and steal a kiss from Alana.
“Alright, no need to rub it in, man.”
I smile but don’t pull away.
I’ll happily rub it in all I want. Motherfuckers both deserve it.
Griff comes to join us, and so does Reid, after delivering me a plate of Aubrey’s lasagna, and we fall into easy conversation.
If I weren’t feeling the effects of our safe house escape then it would be easy to forget it ever happened.
We might be in a different house, and missing the snake that was Jude, but not much else has changed.
It’s just after midnight when Griff announces that he’s heading to the guest room Reid put him in, and no sooner has he disappeared, does Aubrey look between the four of us and announce that she’s going to head up as well. She claimed to have zero intentions of getting in the middle of the four of us. Her exact words before she slipped out of the room and fled.
I mean, I get it. Things between us can get intense pretty fast. We proved that in the safe house. Although something tells me with Alana mostly blanking JD and Reid, things might not go quite in that direction tonight.
“You’re not going to bed too, are you?” JD asks when Alana pushes back her chair and walks toward the hallway.
“I’m going to pee. Did you want to come watch or something?”
JD’s chair screeches against the wooden floor as he takes Alana’s offer seriously.
“Sit the fuck down,” Reid barks, unamused by his best friend’s neediness.
JD immediately follows orders, making me snort.
“You can shut the fuck up,” JD mutters, shooting me a scathing look. “She’s kissing you.”
“Yeah, because I didn’t try cutting her out.”
“Just stop,” Reid mutters. “She’ll come around. Just give her some time.”
“I don’t want to give her time. I need her.”