***Reagan***
Ithrewbackmy head and laughed out loud. Maybe I should’ve been offended, but I was just grateful the awkwardness had been broken. I looked up at August and grinned. “I’ve been okay, August. Thanks for asking. How about you?”
He rested his hand on my lower back as we sidestepped a couple of people talking. “Can’t complain. I saw you nearly break your neck while trying to avoid me earlier. Should I be insulted?”
The warmth of his hand felt too nice, and it just grew worse when we got to the bar and he stepped into me to make space around us for other people. His body pressed into mine from shoulder to knee, with his arm practically wrapped around me. It was the stance of two people who were way more familiar than August and I were.
I cleared my throat and tried to remain calm. “I wasn’t trying to avoid you.”
Somehow, he got even closer. The scent of nature teased the air around us and when I made the mistake of looking up at him, his deep green eyes were all too intensely focused on me. “Liar.”
My brain demanded I be pissed off, but my body melted. August had always been the bad boy of their friend group. Right then, with his unkept, too-long hair, full beard, and tattoo-covered arms, he looked like every bad boy in every book I’d ever read. His black dress shirt had the sleeves pushed up to his elbows and it was open at the neck, revealing tattoos that I’d never seen before but tattoos that my eyes were desperate to study. He fried my brain.
I felt the press of his fingers even firmer on my back as his eyes moved over my face, taking me in the same way I’d done him. When he met my eyes, his were heated.
Just as my entire being was screaming ‘Danger!’, the bartender moved into my peripheral and asked us what we wanted. While August ordered everything, even my water, I took the chance to look around and get my eyes away from him.
Instead of relief, I found myself looking up into the smiling face of Charlie, the third and final one of my brother’s best friends. He looked me over as he closed the distance between us and then, without hesitation, pulled me away from August and into his arms.
I was pretty sure I’d stopped breathing. I hadn’t expected to see any of them, and there I was, sandwiched between two of them. I could feel my face turning red and considered the consequences of kicking off my heels and running all the way back to LA.
“Damn, Reagan! It’s good to see you. I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.” Charlie looked over my head at August. “Did you know?”
August grunted and rested a big hand on my hip. “Nope. It was a pleasant surprise for me, too.”
It was too much. Looking up at Charlie, with his blonde hair and bright blue eyes, I felt like screaming. He had deep dimples on both sides of his mouth when he smiled and blonde stubble. With that and the tan and the muscles, he looked like the perfect all-American hero.
Of freaking course, they were all beautiful. Of freaking course, they’d all just gotten better with age. There were more muscles around me in that moment than I’d had around me in the previous year combined. And I’d been living in LA. And, of course, they were all towering over me. In less than half an hour, the three men I’d crushed on for years had easily shown me that they were still better than any man I’d been with since them.
I stomped my foot and then stared down at it in shock. I hadn’t meant to do that. I looked up at Charlie and then at August and found them staring at me, amusement clear on their faces. I crossed my arms over my chest and then uncrossed them. I felt like throwing a tantrum, clearly, but that wasn’t me. I didn’t do stuff like that.
“Everything good, Reagan?” Charlie rested his hand on my side, his hand just above August’s.
I straightened my dress and stood up straighter. “Everything is absolutely great. I’m going to need more alcohol, but it’s a coincidence. It’s not because this is incredibly strange for me, but not strange at all for any of you, apparently.”
Both of their hands flexed in unison and then August leaned in so he could lower his voice and be heard. “What would make this so strange?”
I jerked around to face him and saw that he was grinning. Sighing, I saw the bartender push our drinks towards us and grabbed my water and a beer. “This one’s mine.”
I left them standing at the bar and rushed back to our table to find Theo in the seat next to my vacant one. I kept a straight face and sat down, doing my best to not explode.
“Where’s the rest of the drinks?” Russ frowned as he saw that I didn’t have anything for him.
I just nodded with the beer bottle in the direction of the bar, where August and Charlie were walking our way. I looked over at Lisa and had a moment of weakness. Maybe I could tell her about what happened and how the guys were acting. I knew that it wasn’t a good idea as soon as it occurred to me, though. I couldn’t put her in a position to have to keep things from her husband.
She was staring back at me with a confused expression on her made-up face. “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”
“Oh, god.” Russ groaned. “I told you that you made a mistake eating that milkshake earlier.”
Just like that, my awkwardness with the guys was forgotten as I focused all of my energy on killing my brother with my mind. “You’re an idiot, Russ.”
August and Charlie sat down with us at the table and Charlie jumped right in. “Why is Russ an idiot? I mean, I don’t disagree. I’m just curious.”
“I was just checking in with Reagan about her irritable bowel syndrome.”
Lisa smacked the back of his head. “Leave your sister alone!”
I narrowed my eyes at him and leaned closer. “Still in that awkward phase of being obsessed with feces, I see.”