Nope. No swallow happened. I couldn’t. The look on his face?
I creamed my jeans. No lie.
“Yeah, my bad, man. Hope you’re all enjoyin’ the music. Have a great night everybody.” He waved and headed off toward the front door.
Our booth plus two tables worth of people were all quiet. And then Ella blurted, “Over my dead body.”
She was in the back of the booth and looking pretty wasted. But she was glaring at her cousin. Him, though? He didn’t even look at her.
“I know you just said that to get him outta here and off Jojo’s scent, but just so you know…over my dead body, Christoff.”
“That can be arranged,” I said.
Ella’s eyes went shocked and she stared at me, mouth dropping open.
Spencer sat up straighter and shot me a look of alarm.
“She’s joking.” Pippa waved a hand. “I, personally, think it was rude, Chris. That singer was a cutie. What if Jojo wanted to go outside with him?”
“She said no,” Brady put in. “I’m sure that’s why Fork went along.”
“Oh,” Pippa said. “I stand corrected. I must have missed that.”
My eyes met Christian’s. I didn’t know what his expression said. He was leaned back, casually peeling the label off his beer bottle, eyes on me.
I took another healthy sip of my Jack and Coke.
“A cutie?” Spence muttered, giving Pippa a dark look.
“I think we should dance some more,” Lulu said.
But the jukebox was starting a new song, a slow song.
“I’ll dance with you,” Bronto was leaned toward Lulu, a hopeful look on his face.
“Oh. Sure,” she said with a shrug and downed her drink and then followed him to the dance floor.
“Dance with me, Trouble,” Pippa said to Spencer.
He looked hassled for half a second and then eyed her like he wanted to take her somewhere and ravish her. They moved away from our group. I smiled. I was so, so happy for them.
And good. Fewer eyes were better right now, though I had a suspicion that if need be, Pippa would totally take my back. Tonight, she was my second favorite future sister-in-law. Too bad Deacon wasn’t here, or he’d have Ella on the dance floor, too. I loved Ella like a sister, too, but where Christian Forker was concerned, she would be a problem. Loved Ella as a person and loved her for my brother, but that girl was public enemy number one tonight.
My dad’s woman, Laura, wasn’t here but I saw no sign of Dad slow dancing with her like pretty much every other couple in the place so guessed he was outside smoking.
“Is it just me or has Bronto gotten…” Andie started.
“Svelter? Yep,” Ella said. “He works out with Brady, Chris, and Deacon regularly. He’s dropped sixty pounds since he moved to Aberdeen, he said.”
“Yep, it shows,” Andie stared after Bronto who had Lulu against him, dancing with her. Lulu was super short, just five feet tall and not even wearing heels to give her a bit of a height advantage and Bronto was probably six-four or six-five, still husky, but definitely showing his weight loss despite still wearing the same sized clothes he wore when he was bigger. They looked like an absolute odd couple out there.
“Dance, Jojo,” Brady ordered, standing.
What? No. Damn it, Brady.
“I don’t wanna dance with you,” I said through tight teeth.
What on earth was he thinking?
“Too bad, darlin’ cuz you got no choice.” He pulled me to my feet.
Oh God, I wanted to kill him.
Instead of the dance floor, Brady took me back to the kitchen.
“This ain’t the dance floor.”
“Nope. It ain’t,” he snapped.
“Not to mention, this totally defeats the purpose of getting my crush to the table when you then pull me away from said table. Getting a little tired of bein’ in this kitchen tonight, Bray.”
He looked pissed.
“You’re askin’ for trouble, Joelle.”
“Why is that?”
“I think you should abort this Forker mission. I don’t think he’s right for you, and…”
“I think I’m probably qualified to make that determination myself.”
“And you’re gonna get hurt.”
“Why?”
“Why?” he repeated, his voice injected with enough snark to make it clear he thought I was a dumbass.
“Yeah, why will I get hurt? How do you know this? You know things I don’t about his character or something?”
“First, he’s a brother. New brother, but brother. I got his back. Second, you’re family to me so I got loyalty to you, too. I don’t sense good things about this. He’s new. He’s already got blood in the club with Ella and her pop. And if you try this and it fails, it’ll be ugly. Besides, the man’s battlin’ some shit.”
“What if it doesn’t fail?”
“You,” he pointed harshly, “Shouldn’t be doin’ the chasin’ Jojo.”
I saw red. “Bray… I am sick and fucking tired of waiting for someone to be man enough to ask me out because my dad is Prez and I’ve got three big brothers in the club.”
“Four.” Brady jerked his thumb at himself.
“Yeah. My point exactly. I had a wicked crush on you first, but you made it real clear that you’re my big brother too. But, I got too many big brothers, Brady.”
“Date a regular guy, Jojo. That’ll solve this easy for you. Nice guy who wears a suit to work, goes to church on Sundays, and won’t pass second base until your wedding night.”
“I don’t want an outsider. I want a biker and I want the biker I told you to bring here for me tonight. And newsflash, Bray? I’m horny. I wanna get laid.”
He growled at me.
“It’s true!”
“Pretty girl like you with the beauty you got inside, too? Saw it with Lick and I’m seein’ it again and I don’t fuckin’ like it.”
“You don’t like it?”
“Nope. Didn’t like it then, said as much to you, and look how it turned out.”
My body went cold.
“Lick dicked you around and kept shit secret and you wound up danglin’ while he fuckin’ kept playin’ and I couldn’t say shit.”
I reared back. Brady’s face was red.
“I fuckin’ hated bein’ in the middle and I liked the fuckin’ guy. I don’t know this one well enough to know if he’s good enough for you. I suspect he isn’t. I’ll repeat myself here – you shouldn’t be doin’ the chasin’.”
“Bray…”
“I don’t want you hurt anymore, Joelle. And I love you like you’re my sister, but I won’t fuckin’ hide shit this time. Don’t put me in that position again.”
“Brady, I don’t want to hurt either, but I’d rather hurt if it means I get to live first. I’d rather take risks and live life and then have pain than just… loneliness and pain.”
“Leave me out of it. All right?”
I felt my lower lip tremble. I looked away.
“I can’t watch in case it goes bad. I can’t lie for you and I won’t scheme for you to help you get his attention like I did with Lick Hanson.”