Page 24 of Final Drive

Eli mutters, “Fuck,” then shifts in his seat and crosses his legs with considerably less subtlety than he thinks.

Beckett notices immediately. “You good there, Stone?”

“Shut up.”

The shower comes on a minute later, loud enough through the pipes that Bo looks toward the ceiling. “That’s their second one. There won’t be any hot water left in this house.”

“Maybe we table the relationship audit,” Eli says, sounding strained, “until they’re finished.”

“Until you’re finished, you mean.”

He flips me off without any heat in it.

Gray sighs. “This conversation isn’t over.”

“What’s left?” I stand and stretch. “We’re all in. That’s been obvious since day one.”

“Has it?”

“To some of us.” I head for the kitchen. “I’ve known since she told you to go fuck yourself on her first day of practice.”

“She never said that.”

“She said it with her whole face. It was beautiful.” I pull another bottle out of the fridge. “Some of us knew she was something before she went into heat. Just putting that out there.”

“Low blow, Hollis.”

“Truth hurts, Lockwood.”

I’m against the counter when I hear the stairs. Jackson comes down first with his hair wet, looking more settled than I’ve seen him in a year. Reese follows a few seconds later, flushed and wearing one of his hoodies that comes down almost to her knees.

She slows when she sees all of us. “Hey.”

There’s something almost shy about it, like she knows damn well we heard them and hasn’t decided whether we’re going to make her regret coming downstairs.

“Hey yourself.” I toss her a water. “You good?”

She catches it. “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Good, because while you two were trying to bring down the ceiling, we discovered that none of us have properly taken you out, Cameron’s been smuggling you off on secret motorcycle dates, Gray is emotionally constipated, and Tyler looked up the average lifespan of a pack bond.”

Reese blinks at me. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Sixty-eight years,” Tyler supplies from the living room.

“Also, according to Eli, he’s planning to make you louder than Jackson did.”

“I did not say that,” Eli calls.

“You absolutely did.”

“I said she’d be louder. That’s not the same thing.”

Reese’s mouth falls open.

Jackson snorts beside her. Behind him, the rest of them are wearing every expression between horror and delight.

Then Reese laughs. Full and real and surprised, the kind that makes everybody else in the room start smiling whether they mean to or not.