Page 23 of Miles

A nudge to his foot had him glancing up to see Solo standing in front of him with creased brows, brown eyes watching him curiously as he rubbed a hand over his short curly hair.

“What’s got you spacing, brother?”

Kaz huffed. “Nothing. What’s up?”

“My dick,” Wilder yelled from across the room. Jane’s slap to the back of Wilder’s head was well deserved.

“I hope the fuck not,” Jane groused, giving Wilder a disgusted look.

Wilder blew her a kiss, then took off running. He didn’t make it far before Jane jumped on his back. She was tiny compared to Wilder, barely reaching his shoulder. Did that stop her from wrapping her arms around his head and holdingon? Not in the least. She was small but ferocious.

Kaz shook his head, Solo’s sigh making him glance back at his friend.

“What?”

Solo met his gaze, something unreadable in his eyes. “She wants to move in with us when she finishes high school.”

He arched a brow at Solo. “You don’t want her to?”

Solo’s lips pressed into a straight line, and Kaz sat up straighter, pulling his feet off the coffee table.

“It’s not that I don’t want her here,” Solo started, gaze darting toward Jane and Wilder for a second. “I’m not sure it would be good.”

“What’s the worst that can happen? She makes you clean up after yourselves?”

He wasn’t the best at keeping his room clean himself, but those two were downright filthy sometimes. It generally took Jane ordering them around for them to start cleaning up. He couldn’t see how her moving in was a bad thing. She would have both of them there to keep her safe and out of jail, which was their main prerogative in general, because no one was faster to start a fight than their little firecracker. She’d finish it, too, much as she was finishing Wilder right then.

She stood over Wilder who was on the floor, his hands up in surrender. She looked up, eyes twinkling and a mischievous smile spreading on her lips when she met Solo’s gaze across the room. She blew him a kiss, then winked. Solo didn’t react save for a slight tick in his jaw.

“Doesn’t matter,” Solo mumbled.

He wasn’t sure what that was really about, and a part of him didn’t want to know. He knew his friends loved each other, so it couldn’t be anything too bad, but he preferred not getting involved. Jane was bound to get her way. She always did.

“I need a drink,” Solo said and took off toward the kitchen. Wilder had rolled onto his stomach and was pushing up on his hands and knees when Solo passed him. A push of Solo’s foot to his side had him back on the floor with a grunt.

“Bitch,” Wilder huffed and flipped him off.

One second Kaz was laughing at Wilder and the next he had a whole lot of Jane in his lap. He glared at her and put his arms on the back of his armchair. She grinned right back at him and batted her lashes, then flicked his nose. She had no sense of personal space or propriety for that matter.

“Why are you grumpy?” she asked.

“I’m not grumpy.”

Her brows jumped and she gave him a once-over with a look on her face that clearly stated what she thought of that answer.

“Are you not getting enough sex?”

He rolled his eyes and flipped her onto the floor. He made sure she didn’t land too hard, but considering she was laughing, he figured she was fine.

He shook his head and glanced up, frowning when he found Solo standing in the doorway to the kitchen, an open beer bottle in hand as he glared at him. Solo was interrupted by Wilder before Kaz could even try to come up with a reasonfor that glare.

“Stay out of my sex life,” he told Jane, gaze dropping to find her sitting with an arm resting on her bent knee.

She narrowed her eyes. “There’s something going on with you.”

“Nothing’s going on.”

A lot was going on. In his life. In his head. Further down, too.

---