The pool hall owner tilted his head toward the fridge, where he kept the supply of bottled beer. “I haven’t been counting. He’s so big and takes so long to drink them, he might as well be drinking water.”
“Two whole sentences in a row. See that, East? Even Rick here is worried about you.”
Easton refused to rise to Graham’s baiting.
“I think it’s time we switch to hard liquor,” a third voice decided. Easton had never been as close with Jackson Shaw as Graham, but they’d spent enough time together socially that he wasn’t surprised by Jax’s presence.
Finally looking up from his beer, Easton frowned at them. “What is this, an intervention?”
“Figured you could do with a reminder you aren’t alone, buddy.” Graham clamped a hand down on Easton’s shoulder as Jake pressed tight to Easton’s leg. “L, the first round is on you.”
“Of course,” a feminine voice said kindly.
When Easton turned in his seat, he saw Lana standing behind him. Lana gave him a sad look, then she hugged him, all but disappearing in his arms when he hugged her back.
“I’m so sorry, Easton.” Lana’s arms tightened around him. “If there’s anything I can do, tell me.”
There was nothing anyone could do to fill the gaping wound in his chest where his heart used to be. But Easton was a pack animal and always had been. He took comfort from having the people who mattered surrounding him.
The only problem was his mate was gone, and…well…wolves mated for life.
“A real drink would be good,” he told her. “Fireball whisky.”
Because even if he was going to drink, he might as well lose himself in River the only way he had left.
The rest of the night passed in a blur of shots and voices. He drank until he was numb, and then he drank more. Finally, when it was determined he’d had enough, Easton and his empty bottle of Fireball parted ways.
“We keep sayin’ goodbye, whisky,” he told her softly, wondering if somewhere she was drinking him away more successfully than he was her.
Well and truly drunk, it took Rick and Graham both to pour him into the passenger seat of Graham’s truck while Ash, Zoey, and Jax hopped in the back seat. Lana pressed a kiss to his cheek before closing the door, standing back with her arm around Rick’s waist. Another day, he’d be embarrassed at being three sheets to the wind in front of them, but…well…he was far too drunk to care.
“You okay up there?” Ash asked him from her seat behind his, idly tugging on the seat belt they’d strapped around him.
“Nope.” He closed his eyes against the spinning of the world. “Wish she coulda been more like Z-Bear. Or the marmot. The marmot was all in. Shoulda been a marmot.”
“Does anyone understand the marmot stuff?” Ash asked.
“River said what happened on the mountain stayed on the mountain, especially the marmot stuff.” When Graham groaned, Zoey asked, “What?”
“You said the ‘R’ word,” Graham reminded her.
“S’okay, Z-Bear.” At some point, Easton had started calling Zoey that, but he couldn’t remember why.
Settling Jake on her lap in the back seat, Zoey corrected him, “I didn’t stay for Graham.”
Graham made a playful, wounded noise as he started the truck. “You’re damaging my masculine pride here, Z-Bear,” he teased.
“Hush, only Easton’s allowed to call me that. And I didn’t. I stayed for me, because this was where my heart was. You have to follow your heart if you want to find happiness. Graham being here was the icing on the cake.”
“Or the icing on the cinnamon roll. I know the way to your heart, Zo.” They shared a smile through the rearview mirror.
“Aww.” Jax almost managed to sound like he meant it. “You two are adorable. Disgusting but adorable.”
“Why are you in here again?” Ash drawled to the third person in the back seat. Having gone shot for shot with Easton most of the night, Jax was almost as drunk as Easton was. He assumed anyway. With all the spinning, it was hard to tell.
Jackson leaned his arms on the front seat between Graham’s shoulder and Easton’s slumping face. “Because he’s too heavy for even you fabulous females to carry back in the house. East deserves better than being dragged through the dirt by the arms.”
“Whisky dragged me. By my arms.” Sighing, he slumped in his seat. “She was so pretty.”
“Sorry, buddy.” Graham gave him a sympathetic pat on the head. “When you fall in love with that kind of woman, she’s going to be a pain in the ass to get over.”
“I get it. Some women are worth the torment.” Jax turned to Ash, giving her a puppy dog look and earning the most brutal of eye rolls.
“The answer will always be no, Jax,” Ash said. “Especially when you’re drunk.”
When they pulled up to Easton’s house, Graham killed the engine. Apparently, the party wasn’t finished yet, because they all followed suit when Easton opened the passenger door.
He stumbled out, with Ash scooting after him. She ducked under his arm. “Oof, you’re not lighter than you look.”
“I can walk.”
“Are you sure about that?”
So many of them, their voices were starting to merge together in one lump of annoyingness.
“What the hell?” he grumped as he tried to get his balance. “You poisoned me.”
“No, we got you roaring drunk.” Graham took him from Ash. “Which helps, trust me. River ripped your guts out, but when you’re throwing them up tomorrow morning, you won’t feel it so bad. And if you do, we’ll do this again.”
“You’re encouraging me to become an alcoholic.”
Even Easton knew he was slurring so badly, they couldn’t understand him. But Ash squeezed him into a hug because she might not be able to understand him, but she always understood him.
Graham helped him into the house, dropping Easton down on a couch River had slept on.
“She liked my towels,” Easton told them woefully. “I don’t know why, but she really liked my towels.”
“I know, buddy. I know.” And because he wasn’t a good responsible friend but a best friend who threw caution to the wind, Graham plopped down on the opposite side of the couch with a fresh six-pack of beers. He handed Easton one.
“I kicked everyone else out, and Zoey’s watching some show in the bedroom with Jake.” Graham twisted the cap off his bottle. “You want to talk about her?”