He raised a brow. “Not a chance. I told her it was fucked up that she kept Micah from you, and she agrees. Trust me, you could tell her off again today and she'd accept it. I don't think anyone in her family would defend her. It was a messed-up choice, but...there's no taking it back either. And I mean, you've been figuring out a way to get over whatever the fuck was going on with you and Mason, so I believe you'll figure out how to get over what she did."
I came to a stop at the intersection. “What do you mean about Mason and me?"
He looked up at me incredulously. “Seriously? For a while there, you two couldn't be around each other without making the tension in any room thicker than molasses. Now you can actually have a conversation without making everyone afraid you're going to start pulling out the knives or punching each other's lights out. Speaking of that second thing, you two meeting up for those weekly boxing sessions?"
"Yes," I answered a little uncomfortably. "They're...helping."
"I mean, I know you two used to beat the shit out of each other all the time. So I'm still trying to figure out how sticking to your boxing matches is somehow blowing off steam better than before," he said with a shrug. "I mean, I know you guys are still pretty rough with each other from the looks of both of you, but maybe it's because you aren't...actually fighting?"
"I don't know, maybe," I said evasively. I was pretty sure it had more to do with the fact that the boxing was just the lead-up to an entirely different way of blowing off steam. "Something like that."
"Your self-awareness and evaluation do you so much credit."
"Fuck off."
I let him laugh as he pulled out his phone and began checking his messages, while I lapsed into thought that wasn't troubled, but wasn't peaceful either. Things between Mason and me had...leveled out, I suppose, was the best way to put it. We still couldn't help but butt heads constantly, and he still lived for getting on my nerves in an insanely childish way. Except now it was balanced by the fact that he also lived for doing far more enjoyable things with me...because seriously, the things that man could do with his mouth could put a professional hooker to shame.
After two months of dealing with him like that, I couldn't exactly claim innocence on my part either. I kept coming back; at first, it was aggressively reluctant, but now...now I didn't know what to call it. I might have privately come to acknowledge that yeah, I enjoyed what we were doing, and yeah, I would probably enjoy doing it with another guy if I ever found the courage to follow through on that. Except that idea was weird as hell to think about for too long, and I'd never expressed it, not even when Mason had casually asked if I'd branched out to really prove to myself that I was...bi I guess.
Not that I was going to give him the answer he wanted, even if I sometimes wondered just what sort of answer he wanted. Plus, it was a stupid thought in the first place. We hadn't gone any further than hands and mouths as it was, so why the hell would I branch out by trying things with someone else?
Not that I hadn't thought about us fucking...a lot. He still pissed me off, but damned if my new understanding of myselfdidn't make me aware of how good the guy looked...when he wasn't talking anyway. And that translated all the way to his ass. Well, his dick too, which was still weird to admit even if it was just in my head, but the idea of him using his dick on me was just....yeah, I couldn't help but pull back from that thought every time. It was still uncomfortable to think about fucking him, a sentiment heclearlydidn't share, but it felt...safer somehow.
And goddamn tempting as well.
When we entered the hotel's lobby, we were met with chaos, which was something I’d come to accept as a fact of life for the Beckett family. I'd always been confused about their reputation in school once I'd started dating Moira and had shown up at the hotel occasionally. Now, though, I knew the peace I'd seen and been so confused about had been because I’d only dealt with Moira or their mom. When more than one sibling was around, chaos inevitably followed, and I sometimes wondered if Moira had engineered it so her brothers weren't around as often when we'd been dating.
If she had, she clearly wasn't doing that now, or maybe it was because it was Milo and Elijah that I was witnessing having a 'fight' on one of the staircases. Really, though, it was just a slap fight with cushions that had been taken from somewhere, and it was just Milo being the aggressor. Elijah seemed content to defend himself, perfectly innocent to all the onlookers who had stopped to watch the ridiculousness. That, of course, was just a facade, because from the few times I'd seen them over the past couple of months, Elijah was just as bad as Milo, but far more patient and cunning.
Sure enough, all it took as they reached the bottom of the stairs was for Elijah to take two steps down, encouraging Milo to follow him. I missed what happened next when I glanced up the staircase and saw Mason jogging down toward the lobby, not oblivious to his brothers, but used to their shenanigans. Hiseyes locked on me, and a ribbon of familiar heat curled in my gut when his lips twisted into a familiar smirk, his stride never breaking.
I was brought back to the 'event' as Milo cried out, jerking my attention back to him as the blond fell the last couple of steps and sprawled at the foot of the stairs. Elijah remained a few steps up with a small smile on his face, walking down the stairs and dropping his cushion over Milo before heading toward the restaurant with a wave at me. Kayden and I met Mason at the bottom of the stairs, who gracefully hopped over his brother and stopped.
"And that," Mason said with a roll of his eyes, "right there, is why I always take one of the rooms in the hotel when I'm staying here, and those two are around. Well, that and Milo loves finding ways into my room when it's locked. Even if I have company. You'd think being scarred once or twice would teach him, but you'd be wrong."
"How many times has this scarring happened?" Kayden asked, glancing down at Milo, who was still sprawled on his stomach, looking around slowly as if waiting for something.
"I have lost count," Mason said with a shrug.
"I feel like after two, maybe three times, it stops being scarring and becomes enjoyable," Kayden said with a shake of his head.
"Dude, gross, that's my brother," Mason protested.
"I thought he was adopted," Kayden said in confusion.
"Milo is his and Moira's half-brother," I explained with a shake of my head. "Same mom. Arlo and Dominic are the adopted ones. Elijah is Marcus' kid, so he's everyone's step-brother."
That was all well and good until I noticed the two of them staring at me, and I felt perfectly justified in glaring back. "What?"
"Even I still get confused once in a while," Mason said slowly. "You rattled that off like it was nothing."
Kayden sighed. “He does that on the clock too. I can forget something you told me thirty seconds ago, whereas this jerk only takes notes in interviews because the captain told him he has to, even though everyone knows it's not necessary."
"I pay attention," I grunted, feeling uncomfortable. "Try it sometime."
Kayden rolled his eyes. “Why are you like this?"
Mason snorted. “Tell the guy he's tough, and he'll practically stroke himself off, tell the guy he's good at remembering things about people, and he suddenly turns modest."
