Page 270 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 5
Not happening.She was clearly plastered. And I had enough on my mind with the fist fight I was about to walk into with James. Sex was not a priority tonight. The woman didn’t move to stand on her own, so I politely tilted her upright and stepped away from her before she could say anything else.
“Hey,” I said and slid onto the barstool next to Mason.
Mason looked over at the girl I’d rejected and then back at me. “You feeling okay, man?”
“I’m fine.”
He nodded. “You look tired.”
“You look like shit too.”
He laughed. “Touché. I’m trying to land a new client who has these ridiculous requests. He’s impossible and I’ve been spending way too much time in the office.”
“I was at the office all day today too.” I could feel James staring at me, but I didn’t turn to him.
“A problem with one of your clients?” Mason asked.
“No. Just…catching up on some stuff.”
He nodded. It looked like he wanted to ask me another question, but instead, he took a sip of his drink.
I’d first learned to master my fake smile around my family. Mason had been really concerned about me after Brooklyn died. And I hadn’t wanted to talk about it. So I pretended I was fine. And I was pretty sure that he pretended that he thought I was fine. But it worked for us.
I lifted up the scotch they’d ordered me and tried to ignore how awkward it was that James hadn’t said a word since I’d arrived.
“Did you finish all those papers you had to grade?” I finally asked him, hoping to break the awkward silence.
“Yup,” James said, his eyes trained on me. But he surprisingly didn’t look mad at all. If anything, he looked…happy?
Why did he look so happy? I was pretty sure it was because he was about to try to break my nose.
“How was the game last night?” James asked.
“Good. We won again. Undefeated so far.” I stared at him, waiting for him to punch me in the face or something, but he just smiled.Weird.“It might be fun if you guys came to a game one of these days.”
“The Untouchables back at it again?” Rob said and slung his arm around my neck before hugging James and doing a weird handshake with Mason.
No one called us the Untouchables anymore. Not after we all realized that we weren’t untouchable back in high school. That real life could break through a good last name and an exorbitant amount of money. I’d learned the lesson the hardest.
“Sorry I’m late,” Rob said. “I swear RJ is actually aiming to kill me. Whenever I change his diaper it’s like a freaking golden shower.”
We all laughed, but I was pretty sure Mason and I looked more horrified than anything. We were the only ones without kids. Rob’s hair still looked wet and I had so many questions.
“I have so many questions,” Mason said, reading my mind.
“Right,” I said. “The most important being…did you shower after your kid’s golden shower or…”
“Of course I took a shower. RJ hit me right in the face.” He shook his head but he was smiling. “Straight shot into my left nostril.”
I laughed. “Why do you seem proud of that?”
“I think it means he’s going to be great at whatever sport he chooses. Don’t you think most kids just spray everything all over? My boy zeroes in on a target and hits it. He’s a total baller.”
James laughed. “Smart kid.”
Rob nodded. “I bet Liam just pisses all willy nilly without true purpose.”
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing. My son has never pissed in my face. I consider that a win.”
