Page 45 of All This Time (Blossom Peak #1)
“Tell me what?” As if we summoned her, the woman I can’t stop thinking about comes up behind us, pushing her way into our circle.
“Yoga with baby goats. I think it could be fun. Baby goats are really fucking cute.”
Laney fights back her laugh. “You want to do yoga again after last time?”
“Apparently it helps with longevity and flexibility,” Elliot quips.
Laney nods, glancing between the four of us. “It does. Well, I’ll tell you what. I will commission goat yoga if you can get Rhonan to participate in a class.”
Rhonan snorts. “Ha, not gonna happen.”
Henley looks over at Laney. “Give me some time.”
Elliot laughs. “Well, this was not the conversation I was expecting to have at my bachelor party.” He slaps me on the back. “Save me a game of blackjack, will ya? I need to go mingle for a bit.”
“Of course, man. Enjoy yourself.”
Elliot heads toward a group of people I sort of recognize from around town, smiling from ear to ear.
Laney clears her throat. “I’m gonna go see if the bartenders need anything.” She gives me a brief look and then saunters off.
“I need a refill,” Henley announces before walking away as well, leaving me and Rhonan alone.
“Where’s that bourbon?” Rhonan asks, shaking his empty bottle around.
“The bartender has it. Just tell him your name, and he knows what to do.”
“Thanks man.” I watch Rhonan head in that direction. The second he gets far enough away, I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
I hate feeling like I’m betraying him, but Laney and I have too much shit to figure out before I potentially jeopardize our friendship.
Henley comes up beside me, leaning in close and lowering his voice. “By the smile on his face, I’m guessing you weren’t just telling Rhonan that you have feelings for his sister.”
My head spins toward him so fast that I nearly fall over. “What are you talking about?”
“Dude, if you’re going to eye-fuck Laney, you need to be more subtle about it.”
Glancing around, I realize that we probably shouldn’t be having this conversation where other people can eavesdrop. Motioning for him to follow me, I lead him down the back hallway.
When we’re alone, I ask, “Was it really that fucking obvious?”
Henley lifts his beer to his lips as he shrugs. “I don’t know if other people noticed, but I sure as hell did.”
“Fuck.” I rake a hand through my hair. “I guess now’s the time to admit that I wasn’t in the bathroom when I disappeared on you at The Charming Bull.”
His brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I stare down at the ground. “Let’s just say Laney and I have a history.”
He blinks a few times and then closes his eyes. “You fucking didn’t, man.”
“Not back then,” I cut him off quickly. “But as of last night…”
Henley covers his face with his hand. “Jesus Christ. Did you forget the pact?”
“No, but it wasn’t just some heat-of-the-moment thing. It was mutual,” I whisper, moving in closer to him. “It meant something, okay?”
“You slept with Rhonan’s sister,” he says, like I haven’t already been haunted by that fact for the past twenty-four hours.
My back straightens as I reply, “I did and I’d do it again because it was always meant to happen.”
If there’s one thing I know now, it’s that my feelings for Laney aren’t wrong, no matter how it may make Rhonan or the other guys feel. No, my feelings for Laney are the only thing that’s felt right in the past twelve years, and it took my coming home for Elliot’s wedding to admit that.
Henley’s phone rings in his pocket. He takes it out, declines the call, and shoves it back in. “Freaking Meghan again.”
“She’s still calling you, huh?”
“Yup.”
“Well, maybe you should finally talk to her and see what she wants?”
“She’ll get the hint eventually.” Shaking off his irritation, he goes back to our previous topic. “So what does this mean? Are you moving back here? How is that going to work with football?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t have all the fucking answers right now, Henley. All I know is that for the first time in years, I feel like a part of me just snapped back into place.” I tap the center of my chest. “I can’t explain it, but Laney and I… It’s real, man.”
Henley crosses his arms over his chest while widening his stance. “Then let me warn you—you need to figure out some answers to those questions fast because Rhonan deserves to know, and Laney doesn’t deserve to be strung along.”
“I’m not stringing her along.”
“So, she’s in this then?” he asks, waving his hand back and forth between us.
“It’s…complicated.” The last thing I want to do right now is explain to Henley what’s transpired over the last few weeks.
He blows out a breath. “I just don’t see this ending well.”
“It has to,” I say, even though in the pit of my stomach I know the risks I’m taking here—not just for me, but for Laney too. The moment we slept together, everything shifted. Nothing will ever be the same between us. “But fuck, man…she’s…”
My words trail off as Dilynne and Laney round the corner and begin walking right toward us.
Mine, my mind finishes for me as I watch Laney saunter toward me, her hips swaying in her dark red dress, her lips painted the same hue, and her long hair down, straight and silky.
“What are you two doing out here?” Dilynne asks. “The party is that way.” She points behind her.
“We were just having a private conversation,” Henley responds.
“You two have conversations about your privates?” Dilynne wrinkles her nose. “Eww, gross. You should be talking to your doctor about those sorts of issues.”
Henley flashes his sister a deadpan look. “Hilarious.”
She shrugs. “I thought so. Now, if you’ll excuse me, you’re standing in my way.” Pointing to the storage closet behind me, she says, “I need to get my cutouts for my game.”
Laney looks at me, shrugging. “I’m just here to help with supplies, apparently.”
“You left my sister in charge of games?” Henley asks. “Jesus, I thought you were smarter than that, Laney.”
“I needed help, and she saved the day for me, all right?”
“Exactly. Coming up with adult-themed bachelorette party games is my superpower, apparently.”
“I’m so happy to know my sister has many talents.” Henley heads back toward the main room. “I’ll see you guys back in there.”
Dilynne walks into the storage closet, retrieving the cutouts, handing two of them to Laney. “Come on, Laney. Let’s get this game set up so I can see everyone’s reactions.”
Dilynne heads back toward the party, but as Laney moves to follow her, I reach out and grab her hand, pulling her back to my chest.
“Fletcher…”
“You look so fucking sexy, Laney.” I drag my nose up the side of her neck, pausing to nibble her earlobe. “Fuck, I want to find out what’s underneath this dress.”
She turns her head to meet my eyes, a mischievous grin on her lips. “Nothing.”
“What?”
“I don’t have anything on underneath this dress, Fletcher,” she says, making me grow even harder than I already was. “That’s what you wanted from me, wasn’t it? No underwear for easier access next time we saw each other?” She rubs her nose against mine.
“Fuck, angel,” I growl out, kissing her neck. “Meet me in this closet in fifteen minutes.”
Her mischievous smile disappears. “But Fletcher… We can’t.” Her eyes bounce around the hallway. “We shouldn’t…”
“I honestly don’t give a fuck right now. I need to taste you, feel you,” I say, desperation lacing my words. “I need to know that this is real.”
She closes her eyes and sighs as my lips move down to her collarbone. “It is real.”
Popping my head up, our eyes meet again. “Then prove it. Meet me here in fifteen minutes.”
“Fine,” she says before I release her hand and she walks away from me, glancing over her shoulder before returning to the party.
And as I reach down to adjust my cock that might just be permanently hard at this point, I accept that I’ll probably burn in hell for wanting my best friend’s little sister. But at this point, I don’t even fucking care.
***
“Oh. My. God,” Laney says as Dilynne stands proudly in front of the cardboard cutouts of me and my three best friends.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Laney shakes her head back and forth slowly. “I’m… I’m literally speechless. You’ve finally done something that I have no words for.”
Chuckling to myself, I cross my arms over my chest and admire Dilynne’s creativity, but only because the picture she chose for my cutout is one of my favorites. It’s from the Carolina Thunder calendar that Glenn had me sign last week, and I was Mr. April.
I wonder if Laney knows why I chose that month.
All the guests have gathered around the left side of the room where Dilynne has set up her game.
“Now, I’m sure most of you have played the classic game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” she starts. “Well, may I present to you, pin the object on the men of the Blackjack Brotherhood.”
Rhonan turns to me. “Who the fuck calls us that?”
Elliot wraps his arm around both of our shoulders, wedging himself between us.
“I don’t know, but I fucking like it. It has pizzaz.
Sounds badass, but also smart. Like we could kill you with our bare hands or know the odds of winning a hand in a card game so we don’t have to get our hands dirty at all. ”
Henley rolls his eyes. “I’m so glad that y’all find this amusing.”
Elliot laughs. “The alcohol is helping.”
“Now, for the objects,” Dilynne continues, Vanna White style. “For Fletcher, you’ll be pinning the football on his junk.”
My smile falls. “What the…”
“For Rhonan, a pair of handcuffs,” she says cheekily, holding up the laminated pieces she made for each of our cutouts. “For Elliot, a gavel.” Elliot beams with pride next to me. “And for my brother, a snowboard.”
“Fuck, she nailed each one of us on the head,” Rhonan mutters beside me.
The women of the party eagerly line up to be the first ones blindfolded, but one woman in particular hangs back.
Good girl.