“Come with me,” Tate instructs, hooking her arm through mine as she starts dragging me away from the group. “I’m buying you a drink.”
“Goddamn it, Tate!” Lincoln yells and she turns back to him with a look that I can only imagine makes him think twice about saying anything. Or maybe not. I’m halfway convinced that the thing my brother loves most is riling his wife up.
“What?”
He sighs. “Y’all promised to stay together.”
“Look,” she shoots back, grabbing my hand with hers and holding it in the air. “I have my buddy, my taser, and my gun. Are we allowed to go to the bar?”
Stepping toward us, he nods. “If I come with you.”
“Fine, but stay the hell back. We need to have girl talk,” she hisses, turning before he has a chance to reply and dragging me through the crowd. Lincoln makes a noise of frustration as he trails after us and I shake my head. I know we promised the boys we would all stay with them but if anyone can protect me from Warren or whoever the hell is after us, it’s Tate. She’d probably grab him by the balls and eviscerate him right in the middle of this club without a second thought.
“What can I get you, ladies?” the bartender asks, a flirty smile on his face before his gaze flicks to the behemoth behind us. Glancing back at my big brother, I roll my eyes and laugh. He has his large arms crossed over his chest and he’s glaring daggers at the bartender, who has taken a step back.
“I’ll just get a water,” Tate says before turning to look at me. “What do you want? It’s my treat tonight.”
I look up at the bartender and smile, hoping to make him feel a little more at ease. “A whiskey, please. Neat.”
Nodding, he walks down the bar to begin making our drinks and Tate turns to look at her husband with a sigh.
“I thought I told you to stay back so we could have girl talk.”
He scowls. “What the hell do you need to talk about that you can’t say in front of me?”
“Lincoln… baby,” she says, patting his arm as she shakes her head and fights back a smile. “There are literally not enough hours in a day to answer that question.”
“What the fuck ever,” he growls, stomping a few feet away from us and slipping onto a bar stool. Tate rolls her eyes and nudges me before pointing to a couple of open stools a few feet in the opposite direction. I nod, fighting back a giggle at how much she likes to antagonize him. Some people might see it as mean but it’s exactly what he needs because Tate forces him out of that provider slash protector mode he fell into when our dad died. Granted, that was exactly what my mom, Nora, and I needed at the time but for so long, I watched my brother live for everyone around him. He never did anything to make himself happy until the day he left Alaska and he was miserable. Not that he would ever admit it but I could see it and now that Tate has come into his life, I can see the weight it has lifted off of his shoulders. And like I said, he gives as good as he gets with her.
“So,” Tate muses as we sit down and the bartender sets our drinks in front of us. “What’s going on with you?”
I shake my head. “Nothing.”
“What about Ash? Has he called again?”
“Yeah, he calls at least once a day still,” I tell her, taking a sip of my drink and enjoying the burn as it blazes a path down my throat. It’s irritating as hell that Ash still hasn’t gotten a clue but I have to believe that he’ll figure out that it really is over soon enough and then the calls will stop.
“That offer to go up to Alaska is still on the table.”
I laugh. “Thanks, but I don’t think anything that drastic is required. He’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“Okay. If you say so,” she muses, turning to me with narrowed eyes and my belly does a little flip. “Anything new to report?”
Her look says it all. She knows something and she’s trying to get me to tell her about it before she has to tell me she knows. I can only think of one secret she could be hinting at but Travis and I swore we would keep our little fling under wraps so I shake my head and look away as I take another sip of my drink.
“Nope.”
“Hmm… so then, when I saw Streak press you up against a wall in the hallway and kiss you like he was about to take his last breath, that was… nothing?”
I shrug, my cheeks burning as I think about the kiss she witnessed. “It’s casual.”
“Right. That didn’t look like a casual kiss. You know what else didn’t look casual? The grin on your face when you stumbled out of his room the other night.”
Fuck.
I thought we were being so careful to sneak around but clearly, we need to be more diligent.
“Look, the truth is, I don’t care what you do with Streak. You’re a grown woman and from what I can see, the boy is fucking smitten but just know,” she says, pointing down the bar to my brother, “he, however, is going to flip his fucking lid if he finds out about this. Especially if he thinks Streak is screwing you around.”
Turning, I meet her gaze. “It really is just casual, Tate. We both needed a distraction from…”
“Yeah. That’s how it always starts, girl, and the next thing you know…” Her voice trails off as she points to her wedding ring and her little baby bump. I shake my head.
“We’re just having fun.”
Sighing, she nods and takes a sip of her water. “If you say so. What do you think he thinks we’re talking about right now?”
“Huh?” I ask and she points down the bar to Lincoln, who is staring at us with a scowl. I imagine everything he just saw and laugh.
“He probably thinks you’re trashing him.”
“You’re probably right. Don’t tell him this but I’m fucking crazy about that man. I know you don’t know me all that well yet, Rowan, and I’m sure you’ve heard some crazy ass shit about me from the other guys but I really want you to know how much I love your brother. That man has saved me more times than I can…” Her voice breaks as her words trail off and she sniffles, dabbing at her eyes. “Fuck. These dumb ass pregnancy hormones. I don’t cry, okay?”
Nodding, I laugh. “I got that.”
“But I do mean everything I just said. Lincoln and these babies mean fucking everything to me and you’re a part of that. You’ve been through so much lately and lost so much but you still have family and people that love you.”
“Jesus,” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes as her words smack me right in the chest. “What in the hell are you trying to do to me? Look at us, crying in a damn club when we’re supposed to be celebrating.”
She shakes her head. “For fuck sake. Let’s go dance before I have to murder all these guys for seeing that I possess the ability to cry.”
“Let’s do it.” I nod as I throw back the rest of my drink, twisting my face as it burns down my throat. We stand up and Lincoln is by our side in an instant, looking intense as he scans the crowd. I nudge him with my elbow and roll my eyes when he turns his glare on me. “Simmer down, big brother. Tonight is supposed to be fun.”
“Maybe for you but for the guys, it’s fucking stressful. Where are y’all planning on going now?”