Page 69 of Enemies with Benefits (Finding the Right Brother #1)

"You say that, but I heard you spent all your time at my bedside, not getting a wink of sleep," he said with a grin.

"I also heard that you didn't tell my girlfriend I was laid up with a gunshot wound, but we'll come back to that after you're done beating yourself up over it.

Just like we'll come back around to you probably beating yourself up over me getting shot. "

"You got shot because I wasn't there," I told him with a scowl. "And I wasn't there because I'm suspended because I can't keep my cool."

"Shot through the heart, and you're to blame," he piped up in his god-awful singing voice. He winced at my glare. “Sorry, that's probably not funny right now."

"It's never going to be funny," I told him. "That's what I keep telling you about all your awful jokes. You just don't listen."

"Yeah, yeah, you have no sense of humor right now."

"According to most people, I don't have one at all."

Kayden shrugged. “Moira says your sense of humor is what she liked about you. Of course, she also has a pretty fucked up sense of humor, so maybe I shouldn't take that too seriously."

I blinked. “Yeah, well, don't remind her. I'm on her shit list right now."

"Well, you did forget to mention I was in the hospital," he said with a shrug, and then winced when it pulled at his injured chest. "Ow."

"Idiot."

"Look, she'll get over it. She's like you, she's going to be pissed because you got on her bad side with a stupid decision, but she's going to turn around and make it about how she probably deserved it."

"Why the hell would she do that?"

"She didn't tell you about Micah...for eight years."

I glared at him. “So? I'm not going to hold off telling her about you for something like that! I was just...well, being stupid. And in my own head."

"She knows that, and I know that. But even if she knows you didn't do it because of her, she's going to say she deserved it. Just like you're going to blame yourself for my getting shot, even though if you had been there, I probably still would have been shot."

"You don't know that."

"And you don't know that you being there would have prevented anything, but here we are, with you kicking yourself over something you can't prove. And neither of you is going to listen to me, considering I might be speaking the truth. Martyrs and masochists, the both of you."

I sighed wearily. “How do you have this much energy? You've got a concussion and a bullet hole in you."

"Drugs, drugs, what a wonderful thing," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows that, while on brand for him, was completely unnecessary.

"Are you even allowed to have drugs when you've got a concussion?" I wondered. "Especially when the patient is already stupid."

"You're so sweet, that's what I love about you, your sweet, gentle nature."

"Fuck you."

"Do you kiss Mason with that mouth?"

My face flushed, and I was really glad Moira and Micah had gone to grab something to eat. "Shut the hell up, I don't need that kind of shit announced everywhere."

"Why?” he wondered, eyes going wide with an innocence I didn't know if I should believe or not. "Because he's a guy or because it's Mason?"

I glared at him, beginning to wonder why I was ever worried about him. I couldn't even say it was the concussion that had turned him into a freaking idiot, because as Julie had pointed out, there were clearly not enough brain cells in his head to worry about.

"Seriously, though," Kayden continued, tilting his head and looking at me.

Only to wince and pull his head upright.

“Ow, that hurts when you've got brain damage.

And don't think making a joke about the brain damage I already have is somehow going to make me forget.

They told me the worst is past, and the only memory problem I have is everything leading up to getting shot.

I definitely haven't forgotten that you've been trying to keep your boyfriend, fuck buddy, or whatever he is, from all of us. "

"We're not…" I began and then stopped because he'd covered both boyfriend and fuck buddy, and we weren't either of those things, but we also weren't nothing.

Well, we weren't, was the best way to put it, because.

..we were something that was hard to describe, but that was before.

It was obvious we weren't ever going to work out in. ..anyway, obvious.

Kayden sighed, shaking his head. "Seriously? Come on , Jace. Look at me, do you really think I'd care about something like that?"

"You didn't say anything, and you apparently knew," I shot back at him.

"Well, of course, I knew. It was pretty obvious."

"Apparently not. You seem to be the only one who figured it out...and Micah. Which is...weird."

"I knew something was up when you first spotted him months ago.

I have never seen you get that pissed about someone who wasn't a piece of shit.

And okay, sure, he comes off as a bit of a dick, definitely back then, but it was obvious he wasn't a total asshole.

As time went on, and I saw him...you know, without you around, I realized he wasn't actually all that much of an asshole, just.. .kind of a little shit."

"That's one way of describing him."

"But he always kept getting under your skin, even when he wasn't doing anything that should have pissed you off.

And it kept bugging me because why should someone just doing their own thing piss you off that bad?

And then you kept acting weird, like you couldn't stand being around him, but you couldn't help spending more and more time with him.

I mean, yeah, there's Micah, but you could have easily found ways to spend time around him without Mason.

But you never did, you didn't even try. That was about the time I realized you two were.

..drifting toward one another, and you were always aware where the other one was and what they were doing.

And by the way, on a far less romantic note, I totally caught you checking his ass out at least half a dozen times. "

I went from feeling uncomfortable to giving a choking gasp at the last one. “You ass!"

"No, it was his ass," he said with a smirk. "I never caught him doing it, if you can believe it. He's a lot better at hiding what's been going on, but you? You I can read like a book, especially when you're fumbling through your first relationship with a dude."

"We're not in a relationship."

"Call it what you want?—"

"No, there's...nothing going on."

"Dude—"

"Now, nothing is going on between us now. There was, and I still don't know what to call it, but it's not...it's done, alright? It's over."

"Why?"

So I told him, well, not everything ; there were some details I was not going to share, but it was enough to cover the past few months.

I tried to keep to the bare essentials, the fact that yes, Kayden was right, Mason and I had spent a lot of time around one another, and.

..things happened, a lot. I skimmed over those to the best of my ability, ignoring the sly look on his face as I continued into recent weeks.

My confusion about what we were, my sureness that everything was going to burst into flames, and then. ..well, the other night.

"So let me get this straight, if you'll excuse the pun," he said with a smirk that I again ignored. "You started a fight with him when the man was just talking to you?—"

"I did not start a?—"

"Shut it, you had your say, now I'm going to have mine."

"I wasn't telling you shit so you could start running your mouth."

"If you didn't want me to have an opinion, you shouldn't have told me anything in the first place. Should have gone right back to locking everything down in your head and pretending like nothing was wrong. But you didn't, now did you?"

I glared at him. “I liked you better unconscious."

"I'm sure," he said with a bright grin. "Look, you always want to act like all that matters is facts, well, the fact is, you started that fight. The guy was talking to you, and you started getting pissy with him."

"He got pissy first!"

"Yeah, man, you pushed and poked about his dad. If I lost my dad at that age, I'd be pretty testy about it too. I mean shit, I've never talked to Moira about it, and I don't plan on it unless it's something that comes up. But you? You just had to push, didn't you?"

"Like he doesn't do that to me."

"Wah, wah, wah, he pushes you, so you push him, and he pushes you, and you push him. Both of you are always pushing each other. But it sounds to me like you were the one who did the real pushing this time. You two always wanna push, but you were the one who finally hit the wall of no return."

I scowled at him, unable to help the feeling of betrayal flaring up in me. “Seriously? You're gonna blame me?"

"Well, he's not here, and since he's not my best friend, I'll let someone else hold him accountable for his shit," Kayden said with a shrug and let out a low groan, almost reaching up to touch his chest and thinking better of it.

"But the two of you were figuring shit out.

Maybe it was the sex, maybe it was having to play nice for everyone else's sake, maybe it was both, and who knows what else, it wasn't my situation.

But from the sounds of it, that night he was pushing and poking, sure, but that's Mason for you, but instead of doing it back or even just shoving him, you brought out the sledgehammer, and now you're sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, all mad because he didn't let you get away with it. "

"I didn't?—"

"Not finished. The worst part is, Mason wasn't even as big an asshole to you as he could have been, and honestly? He would have had a right. Did he ever bring up your parents like that? Or last week, what got you suspended about, did he drag that up and make you talk about it?"

I hesitated, not because I didn't know the answer, but because I did, and I had a feeling I knew where he was going with that. "No."