“Not entirely. I lost two limbs. I was using my dick to prove I was a man. I don’t know to who, probably mostly me.”
Judge, being the guy he was, didn’t reply.
“It might have started about Peri, but it’s not about Peri. And I gotta say, it’s done with Peri. I’ve let it go with her. I did that a long time ago. Everyone else has to too.”
“Because you’re with Alex.”
“She’s a lot more together than you think, Judge.”
“I don’t think she’s not together,” Judge returned.
“I think there are ways you don’t,” Rix shot back. “But if everyone keeps up with the Peri shit, she’s gonna absorb that in ways it just isn’t there, and that can’t happen.”
He saw that penetrate in his friend before Judge replied, “I hear you.”
“I’ve moved on.”
“Good.”
Rix glanced at the windows.
The women were on bar stools.
Chloe had her back to them.
Alex was facing him, but looking at Chloe, a small smile on her face.
He looked back to Judge, and it wasn’t that he thought Alex could hear that he lowered his voice.
“I’m hers and she’s mine, and I have no idea how long that’s going to last. But we both need you at our backs with that.”
A brief nod. “Okay, Rix.”
“She’s had no one in her life, Judge.”
Judge slow blinked. “Come again?”
“Her grandma. Who’s dead. That. Is. It.”
“Fucking hell,” Judge whispered.
“She likes you. She really likes Chloe. I’m gonna take care of her, Judge, and you fuckin’ know that. But you have to too. What we got is ours. This isn’t a dig and it isn’t a fuck you, it’s just the truth. It’s none of your business. And how that plays out is ours too. In the meantime, from now until whenever, I wanna give her you. Chloe. And know, whatever is up for us, we’ll both keep you.”
Judge looked annoyed before he said, “Jesus, man, of course.”
Rix relaxed.
Then he got into the next.
“I was outta line too, landing that shit on you about not being there for me. You were there for me.”
Judge shook his head. “I danced around things, Rix.”
“Alex had a conversation with Mom and Hailey. Pretty much told them to stop dancing too. Now Mom calls and texts and sends me bioengineering articles she’s read, and I thought it was kickass, Alex laid it out for them like that. But Mom expects me to text a term paper to her after I read these articles, and I got a life, a job and a woman. I don’t have time to read all that shit.”
Judge was grinning.
“You know Mags, so you know I’m not lying,” Rix muttered.
“Send the articles to Coco. She’ll read them and do bullet points for you,” Judge offered, and Judge’s woman loved Rix as much as Rix loved her.
He knew that was the truth.
That said…
“Alex reads them. She and Mom discuss them. She gives me highlights.”
Judge watched him closely.
Rix read it.
“I’m happy, brother. For now.”
“Just for now?”
He shrugged. “Bottom line, that’s all we got.”
Judge kept watching him closely.
But Judge had to get to work, and Rix had four days off, his woman with him and a truck full of gear.
So it was time to move on.
“We good?” he asked.
“Always,” Judge answered.
Rix pushed from the railing, they clasped hands, bumped chests, pounded backs, let each other go and moved into the house.
The women watched them.
Of course, Alex did it silently.
And Chloe did it speaking.
“I’m considering moving out of my career in fashion and into studying anthropology, for I find it fascinating how men cannot simply show affection without putting some regressed Neanderthal spin on it. See friend. Drop club. Stop dragging woman by her hair. Bump chests. Pound backs. Grunt about meeting up later to smoke those leaves that make the world spin while scratching parts of our anatomy. Pick up club. Grab hair. Hit the cave.”
“What does anthropology say about you still putting on lipstick?” Rix returned.
Chloe smirked and murmured, “Touché, mon ami.”
“That’s why they like each other so much. He doesn’t take her shit. And she doesn’t take his,” Judge explained to Alex.
Alex just smiled at Judge.
Rix claimed her with an arm around her neck, tugging her from the stool. “You. Woman. Come. We go. Build fire. Camp.”
Alex started laughing.
Right then.
That morning had not been fun and games.
But Alex pressed to his side laughing?
Now, it was all good.
This was all bad.
“Fucking shit.”
“Who is that?” Alex asked, her eyes to his house.
They’d been to hers.
They’d fucked quick on her couch.
They’d packed her gear.
But they were nearly to town when she announced, “Damn. I forgot the lanterns. Did you pack some?”
Since that was on her list to pack because she had newer LED ones, he did not.
They were closer to his house than hers, so they were swinging by.
And their timing sucked.
It was barely nine o’clock and this entire day sucked.
Because it started with Chloe shaking his shit, Alex doing it, and then having to face it…and Judge.
And now there was someone he did not want to see at his door.
“Brian,” he answered.
Alex could be an adorable dork. She had times she could be awkward (which were also adorable).
For the most part, though, she was with it and extremely chill.
On learning who was on his porch, the feel that slapped him from her side of the cab was not chill.
He pulled up in his drive, but not under the overhang, ordering, “Babe, stay in the truck.”
“Not on your fucking life,” she replied.
And she was out before he came to a full stop.
“Goddammit,” he muttered, cutting the ignition, throwing open his door and angling out after her.
She didn’t charge Brian.
No.
She waited for Rix to round the truck and then she came right to his side.
Right to his side.
Something moved in him.
Throat to groin.
That fissure was shifting.
It happened, not ever as strong as the first time back in Cali.
But in moments with Alex, it happened.
This time, though, for whatever reason, the feeling was not welcome.
That sensation was so unexpected, so huge, for a second, he could do nothing but lock down on it.
“Hey…uh, hey, Rix,” Brian called.
He turned to the man. “Hey, Bri.”
Rix using his nickname, Brian’s bearing shifted.
Relief.
Brian walked to them, his gaze darting to Alex.
Rix gave him the body language, so when Rix lifted his hand up to his chest, Brian clasped it. They held. But there was no chest bump or back pounding.
He let the guy go and stepped back.
Brian looked up at Rix.
“I went to that place you work. The new one. A woman there told me you were out of town. I’m only in town for a while, so I thought, what the hell? Stop by. See if you left yet.” He glanced to the truck. “Looks like you’re on your way.”