Page 31 of Craved By You
“I can, and I have.” Chris clearly wasn’t going to let this go. “So has he.” He casually gestured over at Ryder who came back carrying three pizzas.
“Yo Jax, were you expecting us to be throwing a party tonight with a bunch of groupies?” Ryder set them down on the coffee table and proceeded to grab a slice of pepperoni stuffed crust.
Jax laughed for the first time all evening. “No, I was just stoned when I placed the order. Just place the extra in the fridge and I’ll swing by and grab it tomorrow.” He stood up and grabbed a slice of spinach alfredo thin crust. “I’m outta here.”
“Where are you going?” I was surprised he was cutting out so soon after practice, especially before actually eating. Usually, we all hung out and talked about what improvements we need to make and work on for the next practice, so this was out of character for him.
Jax grabbed his bass and looked back at the three of us who were still sitting down shoving pizza in our faces. “I feel more lonely here with you guys talking about your relationships than I do at home.” He waved back to us as he exited The Shack.
“See ya,” Ryder called out. “Damn, we’ve got to get him laid. He’s becoming old and bitter.”
I shook my head. “Something like that.” Things went silent and I looked between Chris and Ryder suspecting that there was something they weren’t telling me.
The two glanced at each other and smiled and I waited patiently while they decided which one of them was going to be the first to crack under the pressure and tell me what was going on. I continued chewing my pizza and slowly sipping on my soda as I waited.
Finally, Chris cracked. I knew he would be the one to do so. He had never done well under pressure.
“Well, Ryder and I have been seeing Haileigh.” He smiled and I could tell that he was probably one of the happiest bastards alive.
“You scored Hailstorm?” I still had to give him shit. “You aren’t scared that Ryder isn’t going to sweep her away from you when you aren’t paying attention?”
Chris started to get defensive. “We have an agreement.”
“An agreement.” I smirked, waiting for him to just admit what he wasn’t saying. “So you two have your time where you loan her to the other?”
“Shut up, man,” Ryder, always the voice of reason, cut in. “You know damn well what this is.”
“So… You’re a throuple?” I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t surprised, but it made sense for both of them. Ryder and Chris had always had a special bond I never could figure out. Now, everything started coming together and made sense.
Ryder glanced over at Chris, “We are all dating and seeing where things could go. Remember, Haileigh is technically still married, she could decide to go back to Braden at the drop of a hat if he said that he was ready to be a husband again.”
“After being with the two of you?” I raised my drink. “She’s not going back to that pathetic loser. From what I’ve seen, he’s not going to want to go back either.”
Chris looked at me quizzically. “What do you mean?”
I raised my brows. “I’ve seen him out. The man she thought she was married to isn’t the same person that is roaming the streets. He’s a piece of shit.”
“Do we need to pull a Dawn on him?” Chris inquired, quickly shutting up after he realized what he said.
Chris and Ryder both knew about the situation with Dawn, or at least as much as I had disclosed to Astrid, but that was it. They didn’t know about my extracurriculars and from the behaviorsI was starting to notice emitting from Braden, it wouldn’t take long before he was also on my radar. They didn’t need to know. I just needed them to deepen their relationship with Haileigh so that if…whenBraden turned up dead she wasn’t completely devastated and remembered that she has the guys to comfort her.
It wouldn’t look great though. It was a situation that would take special care to ensure that she wasn’t a prime suspect. I refused to let Astrid’s best friend go down for that, which is why I was just watching for now. A bit longer than I usually just watch, but it was hard.
Away from Haileigh, Braden had seemingly lost his sense of self. Or maybe he had just done a great job at hiding who he was all those years that they were together. When he wasn’t at work, he was drinking. The more he drank, the more handsy he got with women and he didn’t take no for an answer.So far the women that he’d chosen to mess with were strong and hadn’t let his shit slide, but I felt strongly that it was just a matter of time before he completely broke.
“What about Astrid?” Chris interrupted my thoughts. “How are you two?”
“We’re great.” I came back to the present. “Yeah, she’s great.”
Ryder raised his brow. “That doesn’t seem too convincing.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “She spent the night last nightandwe got a little closer. I even told her about my mom.” ????Ryder and Chris were in shock.
“She’s a keeper then,” Ryder insisted, elbowing Chris in the side to get his attention. “Ope, we’ve gotta go,” he commented, showing Chris something on his phone. Chris and Ryder stood up and grabbed their things as they made their way to the door.
“We’ve got keepers.” Chris raised his soda to motion a cheers to the group. “Let’s do everything we can to protect them, at all costs.”
“Absolutely,” Ryder and I said at the same time, all of us meeting together and clanking the cans together.
