As if sensing his approach, Asher’s head snapped up, and his face split into a wide, boyish grin. “Hey,” he said when Cameron lowered himself onto the loveseat beside him. “Is that everyone?”
“That’s everyone.”
Asher had extended an invite to Talon, which had been politely refused. Cameron got the impression that had more to do with the guest list than a general aversion to social gatherings. He slid his gaze to Luke and bit his bottom lip, curiosity eating away at him.
Since their explosive argument in the foyer after Halloween, Luke hadn’t mentioned Talon again, not even to Asher. Cameron knew because he’d asked repeatedly. Whatever the story was, Luke was remaining tight-lipped about it.
Cameron sighed. As Asher had reminded him, it really wasn’t any of his business, but damn it, he wanted to know what was going on between the two.
Seated on the other loveseat beside Luke, Nico gripped a beer bottle by the neck and lifted it to his lips, his full attention riveted on the other side of the room. He had yet to even acknowledge Cameron’s arrival. Hell, Nico might not have even realized he had returned at all.
Following his friend’s gaze, Cameron smirked when he spotted Riley very determinedlynotreturning Nico’s longing stares. A couple of times, Riley paused in whatever he was doing, his head would start to turn, then he’d catch himself and jerk back to his task.
Though he was nearly four years younger than Cameron and his group of friends, he’d always tagged along with them at school. Granted, they had all treated him more like Tyler’s bratty little brother than a real part of their circle, but Riley had never complained. At the time, Cameron had assumed he’d just been happy to be included in whatever capacity. These days, he had a feeling Riley had put up with their teasing just for the chance to be close to Nico.
Tilting his head, Cameron studied him more closely. At twenty-seven, he still had a boyish face, made more prominent by his big, brown eyes and mess of dark curls that brushed against the tops of his shoulders. His jaw was more angular now, his cheeks more pronounced, and he’d finally grown into his ears.
Cameron had never really paid attention before, but looking at him now, he could definitely see what all thefuss was about. Riley had certainly grown into a handsome man, but truthfully, he was much more Nico’s type than his.
Returning his attention to his best friend, he sighed and shook his head. He had no more idea what was going on between the two than he did Luke and Talon. With Riley back in Mission Grove to open a new animal clinic, though, he had a feeling that things were about to become decidedly tense among his friends.
Moving on, he shifted his gaze back to the kitchen, watching Derek and Tyler laugh as they assembled ridiculously enormous burgers.
Cameron wondered if the pair were ever going to get a clue. They’d been dancing around each other since junior high, and for every step forward, they ended up taking two more back. They’d be magic together if Tyler would just pull his head out of his ass and own up to his feelings. Cameron also thought Derek needed to stop following around after the guy like an obedient puppy, but, again, it wasn’t any of his business.
One the other hand, nothing said he couldn’t give them a friendly nudge in the right direction. That wouldn’t be so bad. It wouldn’t be interfering. After all, there wasn’t anything wrong with wanting his friends to be happy.
“Whatever you’re thinking,” Asher whispered in his ear, “don’t do it.”
“Do what?”
Asher leaned back and looked at him with an arched eyebrow. “You have that look.”
Cameron sniffed indignantly. “I do not have alook.”
“Cam.” The was a thread of warning in Asher’s tone. “Let it go.”
“Fine,” he huffed, reaching up to smooth down the collar of his blue polo. He could let it go. For now. “So, are we bowling or what?”
As it turned out, they were all terrible at bowling, but the more they drank, the less they seemed to care. Everyone laughed when Tyler threw his fourth gutter ball in a row. Luke completely lost control of his ball and ended up slinging it down the entirely wrong lane. Nico kept trying to predict his turn like he was calling shots on a billiard table. Not once did he bowl a seven-ten split.
Natalie didn’t even have the excuse of being intoxicated. She just really sucked.
“This game is stupid,” she declared loudly when her ball didn’t go in the gutter but still managed to miss every pin at the end of the lane. “I quit.”
Since it was the third time she had said it, no one paid her any attention.
Surprisingly, Cameron ended up being the only one having any success at the game. Well, up until he’d bowled his first strike. To celebrate, Asher had kissed him so thoroughly, he might have left his body for a few seconds.After that, it had turned into a competition of who could throw more gutter balls, him or Tyler.
Still, everyone was having fun, something that had been missing from most of their lives for the past several weeks. There were no reporters, no headlines, no drama. The constant storm cloud that had followed them around for weeks had lifted. At least, for a little while.
“No, no. Like this.” Tyler grabbed Derek by the hips to correct his stance, as if touching him that way was the most natural thing in the world. “Okay, and you have to turn your wrist a little when you throw it.”
They were pressed so close together, there wasn’t an inch of space between them, but neither of them seemed inclined to acknowledge it.
“You do realize you are literally the worst bowler here, right?” Sidling up beside them, Nico pushed Tyler out of the way and pressed himself against Derek’s back. “Here, let me show you.”
Cameron held his breath in anticipation when Tyler’s eyes narrowed at the corners, then released it on a sigh when the moron just shrugged and walked off to find another beer. Cameron wanted to throttle him.
