Isaac smirked. “I’m pretty sure your cock has gotten all it’s up to tonight.”
“Hey!” Marisa screeched at him, her pale complexion pinking around her cheeks.
“Enough,” Jase clipped. “The last thing I want to do is try to corral my brother and his friends.”
The hint of true anger in Jase’s expression had my stomach cramping. I had always played referee between the brothers, but it was getting out of hand lately, and I worried there would be a break they couldn’t get past. There had been tension between them ever since Jase had taken the fall for a party Jax threw over spring break. But this was more. The idea of the family I’d been lucky enough to be all but adopted into falling apart like mine had anxiety pulsing through me.
I wrapped my arms around Jase’s waist and kissed the underside of his chin. “The last thing I want to do is play hall monitor tonight. But maybe we can wrap it up early and go back to our plans. A drive into the mountains in the Jeep. Some alone time.” I waggled my eyebrows.
Jase’s lips twitched. “I like the second part of that plan.”
“I’ll be your backup and play bad cop. Promise. I’m not afraid to use buckets of ice water if necessary.”
Mitch’s brows rose. “Harsh.”
I shrugged. “Jax has earned a little bad cop.”
“That’s the freaking truth,” Jase said.
I turned into him and pressed my lips to his. “I’m sorry things are so hard right now.”
His jaw worked back and forth. “We used to be on the same team. Now, it feels like I don’t even know him anymore.”
Hearing him utter those words aloud broke my heart. “Maybe you two need some time. Just the two of you. Go on one of your camping trips.”
“Maybe.” Jase shook his head. “I can’t believe Gilly left him alone. She knows he’ll throw a party.”
“She probably wanted to be the cool aunt. Or she got distracted by her latest art project.”
Gillian was flighty and moved to the beat of her own drum, but she loved her nephews and niece. And she was always a safe place to land for me, too. She never cared if I came over to her art studio to work on homework because I didn’t want to go home to an empty house. And she always asked my opinion on what she was working on as if she really cared. To me, that outweighed all the flighty.
Jase ran his fingers through my hair. “Sometimes when my parents are gone, it feels like I’m the babysitter.”
“A couple more months, and we’ll be out of here. You’ll only have to be responsible for yourself.”
He tapped the end of my nose. “And you.”
“I never get into any trouble.”
“Suuuuure.”
Scott lifted a bucket of water and doused the fire. “Can we go or what?”
“Yeah, we can go.” Jase pinned him with a stare. “But no getting wasted and puking in my mom’s planter.”
I scrunched up my nose as I turned to Marisa, who I saw was doing the same. “That was so gross,” she said with a shiver.
I wanted to gag just thinking about it.
Scott grinned. “My tolerance is a million times better than it was at the last party.”
Lisbeth turned to Isaac. “Will you and Mitch be my ride? I don’t want to get stuck in a car with puke-face.”
I couldn’t hold in my laughter as Isaac wrapped his arm around her. “I got you, gorgeous.”
Jase wrapped a towel around me and then picked up our bags. “Let’s go.” He tugged me towards the parking lot. “You can shower and change in my bathroom when we get there.”
I just hoped no one was screwing in Jase’s bed when we arrived because that had happened before.