His brow furrows as he glares at me. “Stop it,” he mutters.
A chuckle erupts out of my chest. “Stop what?”
“Being too fucking nice to me. Treating me like a fucking kid. You should want to wring my neck right now. You want to punch me? Fine. Just do it.”
I’m laughing even harder now. “You’re being fucking stupid. I’m not being too nice to you because I’m not fucking mad at you. What? Do you think I’m really worried you tried to grope my wife on stage with me in the room? Jesus, Drake. I’ve known you my whole goddamn life. If I thought for one second you were ever out to take Isabel from me, do you think I would have kept you around as long as I have?”
“If that were my woman up there, being touched by another man…gawked at by a whole room full of people…I’d lose my shit,” he mutters over another glass of tequila. “I never should have let her get up there like that.”
“You’re beating yourself up over nothing.”
His eyes find mine over the rim of the glass and he watches me for a long time before he slips the drink into his mouth. When he speaks again, he does it a little more quietly. “Everything okay with you guys?”
I flinch before glaring back at him. “Of course. Why would you say that?”
“Because you’re strangely calm about all of this.”
“Because it wasn’t a big deal!” I argue. When he doesn’t relax or say anything for a minute, I grab the bottle from his hand and set it on the counter. “Listen, I’m as surprised as you are, but seeing you with Isabel didn’t make me mad. Maybe it’s because the three of us practically grew up together, so I’ve seen you with her so long that it doesn’t have any kind of effect on me. You can’t get all worked up over one little mix-up and an accidental brush of a tit. It’s not like you fucked her.”
“Hunter!” he bellows, his head snapping up to stare at me in horror. “I would never. You know that.”
“I do know that. Hence why I’m not even a little worried. Now will you just chill the fuck out?”
“Fine,” he mutters. “It was just weird. That’s all.”
“Couldn’t have been that weird. I mean…everyone saw how much you were enjoying it,” I reply with a slight chuckle.
“Jesus Christ!” Drake snaps, pulling away from the counter like I punched him. “You saw that?”
Maybe the tequila’s starting to set in, because I probably shouldn’t have admitted that to him since he looks slightly mortified.
“She’s hot,” I reply. “You think I’m going to fault your dick for noticing?”
“You’re so fucking sick,” he replies, this time actually cracking a smile.
And I’m relieved by that. I hate to see my best friend so upset, which might explain why I’m not as upset as I should be.
“I’m going to go check on her,” I say, leaving Drake in the kitchen. He starts browsing through his phone, and I can tell by the softness of his expression and the slight loss of focus in his eyes that the tequila has set in. Which tells me he’s not going to be upset about it anymore.
“Yeah, okay,” he mumbles as I leave the room.
When I enter our bedroom with an attached en suite bathroom, I instantly pick up the smell of lavender, a scent that immediately has my cock stirring because it means she’s near. These lavender baths are almost a daily ritual for her. Each night she escapes into her warm bubble bath, soaking in the calming scent, which she then brings to bed with her so our sex and my dreams are laced with the familiar smell. It’s calmly infiltrated itself into my life, and I’m so not complaining.
“Hello, beautiful,” I whisper, peeking my head into the foggy bathroom to find her with a book in her hands and bubbles up to her chin.
“Hey,” she says sweetly, drunk on the heat of the water.
With a laugh, I sit on the side of her tub and brush a hand over her head. “Red, it’s like a hundred degrees outside. How can you take a hot bath right now?”
“You know I love my nightly soaks. Besides, I wanted to give you a few minutes to talk to him. Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Why are you two making a big deal out of this?” I ask.
She sits up a little taller. “You’re not mad?”
I shake my head. “Not at all. If anything…” I say, letting my hand skate over her cheek and down the moist skin of her neck. She hums in response. “That whole thing got me a little turned on.”
“Seeing me being touched by your best friend turned you on?” she asks in a teasing tone.