Page 21 of My Ex-Best Men
“Ignore that. We just have to agree to keep our hands to ourselves. Okay?” I looked at each of them and was confused by how amused they all seemed to be. “What?”
“I’m not going to be able to agree to that, baby.” Anthony was the first to deny me.
“I hate to agree with this asshole but I do. I’m not agreeing to stay away from you.” Zane shrugged. “Sorry.”
Will stepped towards me and tapped the end of my nose. “Never going to happen.”
I slowly backed away without saying anything else because I wasn’t sure what was happening. I let myself out of the ballroom and rushed back around the corner to rejoin the luncheon with a racing heart and a raging libido.
20
***Will***
“Well, she’s not going anywhere for a while.” I went straight to the bar in the living room and poured myself a double of whiskey. “I don’t know what she and Soph did today but I’ve never seen either of them that drunk.”
Zane smirked at me from his spot on the massive white couch. Everything in the fucking house was sparkling white. No one else seemed as worried as I was about getting shit dirty. I sat across from the cocky rockstar and frowned. He was still smirking at me and it made me want to open a window and throw him into the ocean.
“What?”
“I’ve seen her that drunk. She went through a wild phase with me. She challenged a biker to a drinking contest at a bar in Miami one night… If she hadn’t been so fucking cute with her glasses sliding down her nose the guy might’ve been tempted to murder us.” His smirk turned into a genuine smile. “By the endof the night, the biker was so charmed by her that he pretended to pass out so Claire could win. She probably still thinks she drank a biker under the table.”
Anthony leaned against the floor to ceiling windows and stared out at the ocean. “She went through a wild phase or shehadto be hammered to be with you?”
I snorted. “Funny.”
“Not funny.” Zane drained the last of his beer and put it on the coffee table between us. When Anthony offered him another, he took it. “I usually stick to just one beer these days but it’s a special occasion.”
“Good for you.” With a deep sigh Anthony sank into the other end of the couch from Zane and then grunted as it tried to inhale him. He struggled to sit upright and swore. “Who the fuck thought these couches were a good idea? It’s like sitting in quicksand.”
“The owner is a local who I’m pretty sure has never sat on a couch a day in her life. She’s a speed walker. Competitively.” I drained my whiskey. “What are we doing?”
“Sitting and talking?” Zane nodded at Anthony. “You think he’s inhaled a little too much smoke? Or is he leaning into the dumb meathead thing a little too hard?”
“When your music career is over, skip the comedy phase of your mid-life crisis, buddy.” I put my glass down and pointed at the ceiling. “I meant what are we doing about Claire.”
Anthony leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “I don’t know what the two of you are doing but I’m planning on ending this week with her at my side.”
I bristled. “You’re going to need to rework your plans because she’s mine.”
“You’re both wrong.” Zane was back to smirking. “Claire is going to be mine.”
“Didn’t you ghost her when you went to LA to make it big?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Why the fuck would she give you another chance?”
That knocked the smirk off of his face. “Things were different back then. I’m not the same person and I’m going to show her that. What we had was intense and…special. That means something.”
“You don’t think what I had with her was?” Anthony stood up and paced to the windows. “I was going to marry her.”
“But you didn’t.” Feeling stressed suddenly, I went to the bar again and poured myself another. “I was her first. We had something-”
“Secretive and taboo. You had something with Claire that she had to hide.” Grabbing his now empty beer bottle, Zane twisted it in his hands. “She’s never going to choose you over Sophia.”
I wanted to hit him because I was afraid he was right. Claire loved Soph like a sister and that love was what stopped us from being together the first time. I wanted to tell everyone that we were together and she didn’t. I’d walked away because my pride hadn’t been able to handle staying her secret, especially when she seemed to think we would never be open about who we were to each other.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, fire boy, but I’m not pulling any punches. I’m going home with Claire.” Zane stood up so the three of us were facing each other. If we swayed a little, I’d blame it on the sea. “She might be attracted to all three of us but it’ll only take one night with me for her to forget about the two of you.”
Anthony laughed and the sound was so strange coming from him that Zane and I both took a step back. “She came twice on my fingers this morning and that was a slow morning compared to what we used to do. It won’t take her long to make her choice.”
“Or maybe she cares a little more about quality over quantity. Claire’s coming to me first and we’ll deal with the shit with Soph later. None of it will matter in the long run. You two may as well pack your bags and head home.”
