Page 92 of The Deals We Make

Switch and I on a fishing trip he insisted I go with him on. Didn’t like the live bait, or the unhooking a fish. Loved the taste of them cooked in butter on a cast iron skillet over an open flame, though. The photo is a selfie Switch took of the two of us in our chairs holding beers. Sparks fly off the campfire. I’d forgotten how carefree Switch could look, compared to now when he has a permanent wrinkle across his brow. His accident aged him.

And there’s a group shot of us all at Spark and Iris’s wedding last year. Spark and Iris are in the middle, but the rest of us around them are a mismatch of couples. Niro has his arm over Rae’s shoulder. King is with his sister. Halo is standing behind Briar with his hands on her shoulders. I’m with Switch, as always. We’re all different, but we fit. It’s wild to think Ari and Sophia weren’t part of the family back then. It seems like every woman was made to fit the club. I sigh. No, they weren’t. I’mjust being dramatic. King kidnapped Rae. Catalina kidnapped Niro. Ari’s sister had to die for her to meet Halo, who had sworn off monogamous relationships. Switch needed a brain injury to meet Sophia.

No one is perfect.

The path hasn’t been smooth for anyone.

“Knock, knock,” Calista says as she walks through the door.

I hold out my hand to her, and she takes it.

“You doing okay?” I ask, locking the door behind her.

“I’m good,” she says, but it’s noncommittal.

“You almost sound like you mean that.”

She smiles, but it doesn’t quite meet her eyes. “I’m fine.”

I tug her to me. “What’s going on?”

“I try not to let the past affect my present on a day-to-day basis, but it’s weird. Being here. Knowing that Clutch is Cue Ball’s son. I want to give him a fair chance. It’s not fair to hold him accountable for his father’s actions. But I can’t stop thinking that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and they’re so alike in looks it’s hard to forget. Then, there’s Gwen, who is Clutch’s partner. And I know the old ladies are trying to be nice, but I’m not sure I have much in common with them. Thankfully, Halo looks nothing like Wrinkle.”

I pull her right up against my chest. “Some days it feels like we’ll never have our chance, doesn’t it?”

“It certainly wasn’t when we were younger.” She wraps her arms tightly around me. “And we both know that this will come to an end. You here. Me there. What kind of life would that be?”

I don’t want to think about it. Or maybe I want to overthink it. Part of me thinks there has to be a way around this. Where the two of us make a go of it. And part of me thinks she’s right.

Meeting in the middle is impossible.

“Then, I guess we have to do what we have to do,” I say. Which means finally falling in love with my best friend, knowingshe was once, and may still be, madly in love with me too. And that we aren’t going to be together.

“What does that mean?” Calista looks up at me with those big eyes of hers, echoing my thoughts.

“I wish I knew.”

I seek comfort in her lips, feeling displaced, all of a sudden. Unaware if I belong here with my brothers or somewhere else with her.

The kiss turns seeking. I don’t know where the answers lie, but I’m hoping to find them in her body.

Because I don’t know where else to look.

I shimmy the hem of the dress up her legs and find she’s wearing some sexy-ass stockings with lace tops. I slip her panties down her legs, then lift her to sit on my desk. I rarely use the one in my bedroom because I have my setup in my office.

Calista looks to the closed door. “Ti. What if?—?”

“No one will come in here, and the door is locked. Just focus on me.” I slide my hands up her thighs, parting them as I go. “Softest fucking skin.”

Calista puts her hands behind her on the desk and leans back. Her tits stand proud beneath her dress and her hair hangs down her back.

I cup her ass and tug her right to the edge of the desk before dropping to my knees so I can kiss her pussy. I lap at her lips and suck her clit into my mouth. Gently, I bite the area around her clit, sucking on it as I do so.

“Ti,” Calista cries out.

I want her to accept this. Me. Who I am. What this clubhouse means to me. “I think you should call me ‘Vex’ when we’re in here.”

Her eyes go wide as she looks down at me. “Keep eating me like that and I’ll call you whatever you want…Vex.”