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I rub my finger along the filter. “Can’t. I quit.”

“Really? You’ve been smoking for, like, fifteen years, bro.”

“I know, but Loni asked me, too.”

“She did?”

“Well, she told me she stopped thinking that kissing an ashtray was sexy was sixteen so… yeah. Maybe she didn’t ask me, but I sure as hell stopped cold turkey for her.”

Bas slaps the top of his helmet. “God, you’re whipped.”

I am, and I won’t apologize for it.

I change the subject. Because I know that a salad won’t take long to serve, I BS with my buddy, talking random shit so that we’re not in the middle of an important conversation when our waitress comes back.

I’m right. Barely five minutes after we placed our order, she’s back with a large tray.

“Here you go.” Polly places one of the serving plates in front of Bas, the next in front of me. She follows it with a glass of bubbly water each, then says, “Anything else I can get for you?”

“How about another pretty smile, Polly?”

She giggles. “I can do that,” she says, and then she smiles.

Bas nods lazily. “That’s all for now, sweetheart. Thanks.”

As she bobs away with her empty tray, much happier now than she was when she first approached the table, I give him a wry look.

“I tip fifty bucks every time I come here,” is his explanation.

Right. And his pretty face, biker helmet, and sexy way he’s lounging in the wicker chair doesn’t have anything to do about it, huh?

Bas digs in to his salad, spearing a hunk of walnut, chewing it in a way that no one would describe as attractive—which is on purpose, I bet. Me? I set mine to the side, ready to get down to the reason we’re meeting.

“So…”

He swallows. “Right. So, I spent a couple of days hanging out with Connor and Haven, like you asked.”

Guilt slithers down my spine. “How is she? Doing better? What about Loni? Is she ready to talk to her?”

Bas shakes his head. “Sorry, Adrian. I tried. Connor was actually really pissed that I mentioned Loni was back in town because he didn’t tell her. If you ask me, he coddles her too much.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you?”

He thinks about it for a second as he savors a bite of fresh apple. “Yeah. You’re right. It’s just… after what she went though, therapy might help, but Connor won’t let her out of her sight. It’s not healthy.” He nods at me. “At least you’re not up Loni’s ass every second of the day.”

With a small smirk, I tell him, “If you’d ever had her ass, you’d know that there’s no better place to be. Actually, no. Don’t think about Loni’s ass.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, bro. You’re so possessive of that woman, you’re trying to police the fantasies thatyoujust put in my head?”

Huh. I guess I am.

“She’s not just ‘that woman’, Bas. She’s my wife.”

And the reason why I tried to get Sebastien to talk to Connor on my behalf. I thought… I don’t know. I guess I thought that, if Haven knew Loni was in town, maybe they could reconcile. I know that Loni would love to talk to her friend again, and I was hoping that seeing a familiar face that had nothing to do with Johnny Winters or the Owed would be good for her.

Obviously not.

It was a plan. A good one. Bas has a place of his own, but he’s always had a tendency to couchsurf; one of the rooms in my house is solely dedicated to him for when he wants to stay over. Sending him to visit Connor and Haven when he’s the only one that Connor will let past the door, it was a good one.