Page 9 of Pick Me
“This is true,” Marco said in a voice that made it sound like there was an unspoken “…thank God” at the end of the sentence.
“Mr. Williams says it’s important to help people with a happy heart or not at all.” Aiden sighed. “So I’m happy to help you, Uncle Drew… I guess.”
I pressed my lips together against a smile.
“Wonder if Jack’ll be there,” Webb asked the table at large, but based on the way everyone darted glances at Knox’s face, somehow it felt like he was speaking mostly to his older brother.
Knox must’ve thought so, too, because he swallowed his bite of burger and scowled. “You’d know better than I would. He’syourbest friend. Or ask Hawk. Hawk works for him every day.”
“Oryou boys could head over to the diner tomorrow and ask him yourselves,” Marco suggested.
Webb gasped like he’d never heard such an amazing idea. “Yes. Yes, we should. Hawk is working, so Knox and I can go grab a bite for lunch and visit.”
Knox made the discontented grumbling noise he usually reserved for me. “You’re as transparent as glass, Thomas Webb Sunday.”
Aiden leaned toward me and giggled. “Oooh, Daddy just got middle-named.”
“Don’t know what you mean,” Webb said breezily. As breezily as a man built like a mountain and with a voice like a bass drum could, anyway.
“Imean,” Knox said, setting his burger precisely in the center of his plate, “I won’t be conforming to your fraternal expectation that I, as a single bisexual male, am ripe for a setup with someone simply because he is also a single male. That would be massively unfair to Jack, since I hardly know the man. And furthermore, I have neither the time nor the inclination to date anyone right now, male or female, since I’m busy trying to sort out the orchard’s finances and my time is valuable.” He paused for a beat, and then his lips tipped up slowly. “Truth is, you can’t afford to set me up, Webb.”
The whole table collapsed into laughter, even Aiden, who pretty obviously didn’t get the joke. Webb ran his tongue over his front teeth and dipped his head in silent acknowledgement.
And Knox…
Knox grinnedthatgrin. The happy-go-lucky one. The one that had made me weak-kneed. The one that made me do stupid things. It was twenty times as powerful in person, and I found myself staring at him, even though I tried to make myself look away.
Then Knox’s gaze clipped mine, and his smile died just as suddenly as it had been born.
Ouch.
Toby was seriously theworstat advice. I had no idea why I ever listened to him.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll go out to lunch with you tomorrow, though, Webb,” Knox volunteered. “It’d be good to get to know Jack, since he’s your friend and all.”
Webb grinned conspiratorially. “Excellent.”
“Maybe…” Hawk began suddenly. “You know, maybe Iwillgo to the fundraiser tomorrow night. You sure you’re up for it, Gage?”
Against my stupid will, my consciousness swung toward Knox. He stared at his plate like he had no interest whatsoever in my answer, but I could practically feel the “sayno,Goodman” energy coming off him in waves.
Was I up for a few hours where I wasn’t looking for smiles from a guy who very clearly and stubbornly didn’t like me?
“Yeah,” I said breezily. “Looking forward to it.”
Chapter Two
Knox
I was not looking forward to this.
“Why do I keep letting the man provoke me?” I muttered to the heavens as I stalked down the sidewalk on Stanistead Road. The morning rain had slowed, but groups of elderly tourists still clustered close to the shop windows, where the awnings protected them from the drizzle, meaning my late ass had to practically walk in the street to get around them. “For fuck’s sake, why can’t I just behave like a man who’s about to be forty damn years old?”
My life had been a circus before Gage Goodman had shown up, it was true. But it had been a rational, well-organized circus. Three tidy rings, safety nets all around, and the shit had been shoveled regularly.
Then that… that…kidhad come to the orchard two weeks ago, all sunshine-smiley and messy-haired and smelling like the ocean, taking over every single one of my spaces with his sly smile and his hilariously awful T-shirts and his dark eyes that showed his every emotion, and suddenly my life was a chaotic shitshow run by rabid twin monkeys calledlustandfrustrationthat made me do stupid things like re-download the Grindr app in the dead of night just to check out who might be located twenty feet away from me—seriously, LumberjackLuvr? What kind of a username was that, Goodman?—and blurt out things like, “Sure, I’ll go to lunch at your best friend Jack’s restaurant with you, Webb,” which was tantamount to me agreeing to Webb’s nosy matchmaking bullshit with his friend, and Webb knew it.
I nearly mowed down a lady with a walker in my haste, and I blew out a breath, forcing myself to slow down. To take a deep breath that smelled like wet autumn leaves and maple taffy, and count the beats of my heart, and appreciate the chill in the air that denoted the changing seasons.
