Page 26 of Just Joshing

We both stared at each other for a beat before roaring with laughter. I bent over, clutching at my stomach as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Oh god. The look on her face," I brushed at the tears. "What is he thinking?"

"Did you see your aunt?" Josh asked, attempting to drag in breaths. "She was nodding along."

Aunt Violet had been married and divorced more times than Elizabeth Taylor.

"That does not surprise me." I straightened, struggling to contain the giggles that threatened to restart. "She'll be first in line to trial it."

"Should we return?" He held out his arm. I slid my hand into the crook.

"Yeah, I really want to see what comes next."

"That's what she said."

I groaned, rolling my eyes. Walking back into the room, I realized I'd made a huge mistake.

"Is that-?" I froze.

"Oh yeah." Josh chocked out, snorting.

"I didn't… fuck."

My brother was tickling balls on a screen.

"As you can see, we've moved to 3D modelling in all the simulations. Men can-"

I spun, searching for the exit. There were few things in my life that I wished I could forget. The night Peter and Bess fucked while I lay crying. The day my grandmother died. And now the night my brother tickled fake balls in front of me.

You know, the usual kind of traumas.

I made a beeline for the bar, catching sight of my brothers as they headed in the same direction.

Joe lifted his chin in greeting.

"Dear god," Tom muttered, flagging down the barman as he slumped heavily against the bar. "That was…"

"Horrifying?"

"Satan won today." Joe muttered, pulling out his wallet.

We ordered – hard liquor – all of us ignoring Josh's chuckles.

The barmen slid three whiskey neat's in front of us.

"Here's to gorging our eyes out later tonight." Tom toasted, clinking my glass.

We all sipped.

Josh leaned against the bar, grinning at our collective distress. "You know this is going to make it into a movie, right?"

"No, it won't. Sam will have our back."

"Yeah, buena suerte con eso, hermano." Josh chuckled. "He's going to freak when I tell him about this."

I shot Josh a side eye. "What do we need to do to make this go away?"

He crossed his arms, one arm propped on the other, thumb grazing lazily back and forth across his bottom lip as considered me. I felt my nipples prickle at the lazy heat in his gaze.