Page 3 of After All This Time

"Is she okay though? With the move?"

I shrug, leaning back on the couch. "I think so. She hasn't said otherwise. Besides, it's not like we haven't lived together before."

"True, but it's different now. It's not your parents’ place."

I loved living with Amelia under the Sinclair roof, even if it sometimes felt more like a cage than a home. Back then, it wasjust us. Just her and me. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but it was ours.

"Have you two set any ground rules yet?"

"Like what?"

"Like, how are you going to take women back there?" He chuckles, and I take another long sip of my beer.

"Why wouldn't I?"

I hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and when I look up, I see Jen—the brunette with an attitude I love just as much as I hate—making her way over to the couch. She saunters in and sits beside Harry, stretching her legs across his lap.

"Comfortable?" he asks, and she nods as she wiggles her red-painted toes.

"Why wouldn't you what?" Jen cuts in, sliding herself into our conversation.

"Take girls back to his and Amelia's apartment."

I ignore Harry and lean forward, setting the empty beer bottle on the table in front of me.

"Where's Blondie?"

"She's at Zane's."

"Tessa's always at Zane's," Harry adds.

"Damn, and here I was thinking she'd be over him by now."

They know I'm playing. They also know that, despite my previous infatuation with Tessa, the bond we share now is beyond anything I could've imagined. Sure, she's still hot as fuck, but she's my ride-or-die.

Zane, though, was a real surprise. Most guys would've gone full alpha, puffed out their chest, and tried to stake their claim. Not him. He walked into the situation like a guy who understood exactly how close he'd come to losing everything and was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

I'd comforted Tessa, held her together when she was falling apart, and when I called him out for being an asshole, he nevergot defensive, not once. Instead, he thanked me for being there for her when he wasn't and for picking up the pieces he'd shattered. And just like that, something shifted between us.

"What about you, Tobias?"

"What about me, Jennifer?"

"When are you settling down?"

"That'll be never."

She rolls her eyes and flings her arms toward me. "You realize you won't always look like this, right?"

"What? This hot?" My gaze locks with hers, and her jaw tightens, but I swear I catch the flicker of a smile before she masks it with annoyance.

"Shut up." She rolls her eyes, and that flicker turns into a full-blown grin. "But yes."

Harry tosses his head back and laughs loudly, the sound bouncing off the walls.

"Careful, Harry, your girl's hitting on me."

"Nah, she knows she won't ever get better than what I give her. Don't you, baby girl?" Jen blushes—actually blushes—and I shake my head.

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