“Always looking for that escape, huh, Mads?” Iremark acidicly.
His browsfurrow a bit. He presses his palms to the table, leaning forwardto look at me. “Better than wallowing.”
“You sure about that?” I grit out through my teeth, getting pissed that they’re pushing this.
This is definitely going to be a long few weeks if I’m already at people’s throats. Especially Maddox. He’s a good guy whose only crime is caring too much for everyone else and not enough for himself. He’s so damn self-destructive. The mostself-destructive person I know,and he doesn’t need me digging at his wounds. They’re deep enough without my help.
I scrub my hands down my face again. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean that.”
“Look, I don’t care who any of you fuck,” Liam finally chimes in. “Just don’t kill each other. I quit my job for this dysfunctional family, and I’d rather not go back begging for them to take me back.”
With that,we laugh. Ryder slaps him on the back. “Mate, we have beena dysfunctional family for far too long to let the dysfunction break us now.”
“And you became a part of this family the minute you took the job,” Maddox adds. My point proven.Maddox cares too much and feels too hard.
“God help me,” Liam laughs with a huff.
Lyra’slaugh cuts through the entire space. I look toward her,and my throat catches. I have no idea what they are doing, but she and Cara are entirely in their own bubble. Already.
“Why don’t you tell her how you feel?” Maddox asks quietly.
“Iplanned on it once,” I confess. “Or, at least, I planned on asking her out.”
“What stopped you?” Angel asks curiously.
“I’ve wondered the same,” Ryder ponders. “God knows you’ve had a thing for her since you met her.”
My mouthfalls open. “Your face gives it away,” Maddox laughs.“Every time she is around, you never take your eyes off of her. Not to mention the way you looked like you wantedto kill Daniel.” I growl at his name. “That. That right there is what I mean.”
“Well, at least everyone couldn’t tell,” I chuckle. “Best friend for not, Dane would kick my assif he knew I was perving over his sixteen-year-old sister.”
“Brother, I would’ve kicked your ass if you’d made a move on her then,” Maddox smirks.
“You’ve had a thing for her that long,” Liam blinks in surprise.
I shrug. “I don’t know what it isI feel. I don’t know if it’s sexual or what.”
“I hate to tell you this, but it’s more thansexual attraction or an infatuation if it’s gone on for that long,” Liam tells me. “You’d have gotten over her by now. Unless you’re an obsessed stalker.”
“I sometimeswonder,” I grumble. “I feel like an obsessive stalker.”
“You’re not a stalker,” Ryder laughs. “Cara is an amazing girl. She’s funnyand sweet with a huge heart. Hopefully, one day, she’ll be back to that firecracker I watched her grow into, but even if she doesn’t, Cara is beautiful, inside and out.”
“You wouldn’t get so fucking jealous if it were just a crush,” Angelnods toward Josephine. “Something just takes over you. It’s like you need to mark your territorybecause down in your bones, you just know they belong to you, and it eats you alive to think of anyone else touching what’s yours.”
“Fuck me,” I grunt because everything he just said is exactly how I feel. How I have felt for a long damn time. “I’m just totally fucked.”
“So, what stopped you?” Angel asks. I tilt my head a bit, letting my confusion show. “You said you started to tell her once. What stopped you?”
“Peyton,” I say with a sigh.
His brows shoot to his hair. “Fuck, man.” All I know to do is nod. Not much more can be said about that.
“What’s stopping you now?” Ryderquirks a challenging brow at me. I look at him with surprise. My mouth opens to reply, then snaps shut.
“Dane won’t care,” Maddox tells me as he turns up a drink our attendant brought him. I snort my disbelief. “He won’t, Jake. Your nota manwhore likeRyder and I are. You’re not the fuck up I am.”
My jaw tightens at his self-deprecating remark. Maddox hasa lot of demons, but the guy is not a fuck up.He is a fucking musical genius. He and Ryder used what they’ve learned from their families toensure the band is always taken care ofbusiness wise. Not to mention he graduatedSumma Cum Laude from NYU.“You should, at least, try,” Ryder says, ignoring Maddox.
