Zander scoffed. “You know so much about intimacy?”
“Maybe not,” Zeke admitted. “But I do know that with a lifetime of knowin’ each other, he’d better be careful not do or say something that might remind her of the time he couldn’t camp out with us because of the Stephen King book he’d read that freaked him out. How he headed back to town and then asked Jordan if he could sleep on her bedroom floor so he didn’t have to admit to Mom and Dad he got scared.”
“And so he wasn’t sleeping alone,” Zander said with a nod.
“Jesus,” Fletcher said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I was nine.”
“Sure. Just sayin’ that if something reminds her of that, she might be reminded of other not-sexy-at-all shit. And Jordan knows a lot of that about you,” Zeke said.
“Like the time you puked on her,” Zander said.
“Which time?” Zeke asked. “There are two I can think of.”
There were three actually. And now that they were talking about it, it was a damned miracle Jordan was even still his friend.
“The time they ate blue cotton candy, blue snow cones, and blue…” Zander turned to Fletcher. “What was the other blue stuff you guys ate?”
There was absolutely no point in pretending he didn’t know what they were talking about. “Blue gummy bears and blue cupcakes. But we also had blueberries.”
Jordan had seen the blue cupcakes at the fair stand that was promoting some business whose tagline was It blew me away. She’d decided it would be fun to eat only blue food the rest of the day. God knows why. Or why he went along with it.
Actually, it was easy to figure out why he’d gone along with it—because it had made Jordan smile. Still, it had been a bad idea.
Zander nodded. “Right. Then they went on the Octopus ride three times in a row. Jordan’s yellow t-shirt turned a gross green color with the blue puke all down the front of it.”
Fletcher sighed. “We were eleven.”
“Right. But in the middle of getting naked with her, all it takes is the thought of something blue to remind her of the puke and to ruin a mood,” Zeke told him. “Doesn’t matter when it happened. And she knows tons of un-sexy stuff about you.”
“This is really helpful, guys, thanks,” Fletcher said dryly. “Just what I need to hear.”
And fuck, they kind of had a point.
“And not just un-sexy stuff,” Zander said, as if Fletcher was actually thanking them. “She also knows things like how you always wore that one cologne when you were going to try to kiss a girl for the first time.”
Fletcher groaned. His brothers knew stuff too. The assholes.
“Because Jordan told you to wear it because it was delicious,” Zander added with a grin.
“What’s the good of having a girl for a best friend if she can’t give you girl advice?” Mitch, easily the nicest of the Landry grandsons—hell, maybe of all the grandkids—asked.
“Exactly. Thank you,” Fletcher told him.
“Oh, sure, it was helpful, no doubt,” Zander said. “We’re just pointing out that one sniff and Jordan will know what you’re thinking.”
“You don’t think she’ll assume her new husband wants to kiss her on their wedding night?” Mitch asked.
Good point. But Zeke and Zander had made their point too. Very well.
And then Zeke went in for the kill.
“Oh, she’ll probably assume he wants to kiss her,” Zeke agreed. “She’ll probably also assume that he remembers her telling him that she hates giving blowjobs.”
Mitch and Zander had both just made the mistake of taking a drink from their bottles.
Mitch sucked beer into his lungs and started hacking and coughing. Zander actually spit his out.
Fletcher, on the other hand, knew better than to take a drink when Zeke was on a roll like this. Instead he leaned in, one forearm on the table, scowling at his brother. “What did you say?”
Zeke lifted a shoulder. He knew that if Fletcher hauled him out of his chair and hit him, it would be a pretty even match. He couldn’t be sure which side Zander and Mitch would take, of course, but Mitch at least was out of commission for the moment, trying to clear beer from his breathing passages.
“Jordan doesn’t like giving blowjobs. She told you that once. Those are the kinds of things you should really keep in mind.”
“How the fuck do you know she told me that once?” Fletcher asked.
Had she? Yes. Did he remember it? Absolutely.
He and Jordan had been the kinds of friends who talked about everything and nothing had been awkward about even sex talk until they’d kissed in Galveston. After that, he had not wanted to know what she liked and didn’t like about sex, because she was having that sex with someone else and he wanted her to be having it with him.
Until then, though, it had seemed natural to talk about it. In fact, it had been an awesome part about having a best friend of the opposite sex. Seeing inside the female mind had been fascinating. And helpful. And he didn’t just get Jordan’s insights, but he got to hear about how her girlfriends thought about and talked about guys and dating and sex and everything too.
But they’d kept each other’s secrets.
Or so he’d thought.
“We heard her tell you,” Zeke said simply.
“You heard her…” Fletcher flashed back to the conversation. They’d been in the family room at his house. It had been after midnight. They’d been eighteen. Jordan had asked him if blowjobs were really that good. He’d assured her that yes, they absolutely were. She’d been disappointed to hear that because she didn’t like giving them. “You were fucking listening?” Fletcher asked his brother.
“We always eavesdropped on you and Jordan,” Zeke said.
“We were always hoping we’d catch you two kissing. Or more,” Zander added. “But we got some awesome insights into girls by listening to Jordan.”
Fletcher sighed. How could he fault them, really? Maybe Jordan had made them better guys when it came to women with her advice, unknowing as it may have been. He’d say better boyfriends, but neither Zeke or Zander had ever really been a boyfriend to anyone. They’d certainly made sure to spread their…charm…around though.
“So, sorry about your luck with the blowjobs,” Zeke said. “But there’s plenty of other fun stuff to do, right?”
Mitch and Zander both chuckled. Because the answer to that question was of course.
“Then again,” Zander said. “There’s a chance she could learn to like them.”
“You think?” Zeke asked.
“Well, I mean she’s only been with one guy. Her blowjob experience is very limited. And if she started giving them when they were teenagers, it’s very possible the experience was less than ideal,” Zander said.
“Hey, yeah, she’s kind of a blowjobs virgin,” Zeke said, almost perking up as if this directly affected him. “I mean, if she didn’t like it and they stopped doing it, then maybe it’s been a while.” He looked at Fletcher. “You could introduce her to the glory of blowjobs. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”
Fletcher felt his gut tighten. It was, of course, in part because his brothers were discussing his sex life. Or more specifically, Jordan’s sex life. Which always annoyed him. Having them speculate about what Jordan had or had not done in the past with Jason and what she would or would not be willing to do with him, was not helpful in the least.