by Max Monroe
Forever unchanged. Just like your growing feelings for this beautiful, charming, perfect-for-you man…well, five minutes ago you would have thought perfect-for-you asshole.
“All right,” Thatch announced as he moved back toward the path and held my thighs tightly to his shoulders. “Let’s hit it.”
With pep in his step and occasional grinning glances in mine and Phil’s direction, Thatch finished the last two miles of the race just like that—me on his shoulders and our teacup pig in my T-shirt. And beyond that, he did it with ease. The second he crossed the finish line, he pulled me off his shoulders and put his lips to mine. His breathing wasn’t even labored.
Fuck, that man had some serious stamina.
An hour later, we were stuffed full of waffles and settled on a park bench—Phil asleep on my chest, while my legs were stretched out and rested in Thatch’s lap. I watched him watch the people meandering by, his eyes following their Saturday paths with nothing but mild curiosity.
He untied my laces and slipped off my shoes and socks, leaving my feet bare beneath the late morning sun. His fingers kneaded into my soles and started their talented course of finding all of the sensitive spots that ached from the run.
A soft moan fell from my lips, and his gaze met mine.
“Feel good?”
“So good.”
He grinned.
“You know, you’re a really good boyfriend,” I admitted. Even though our relationship had an undertone of pranks and jokes and relentless teasing, Thatch was a good boyfriend. I knew I wasn’t an expert by any means when it came to relationships, but beneath that wicked sense of humor, he was thoughtful and caring and sweet. So fucking sweet sometimes I wondered if I’d get a stomachache from sugar overload.
His brow rose in question.
“I mean, look at you,” I said, nodding toward his hands on my feet. “You’re rubbing my gross feet after I just ran like fifty miles.”
“You’re feet aren’t gross.” He plucked one of my hot-pink painted toes with his index finger and thumb. “They’re cute.”
I wiggled my toes. He chuckled.
“And you only ran a mile. Mile and a half, tops,” he added with an amused grin. “I ran more than half of the race with you and Phil on my shoulders.”
“But I ran the hardest part of the trail. There were more hills on the first end.”
Yeah, that was a lie. They weren’t any hills.
He winked. “Of course, you did, honey.”
I wiggled my toes again. “So who taught you how to be a good boyfriend? Your last girlfriend was in high school, right? What was her name?”
“Yes.” He paused briefly and then started kneading at the balls of my feet. “Her name was Margo.”
“How long did you guys date?”
“A little over a year.”
“Why did you break up?”
“We didn’t.” He turned on the bench to face me. “She died at the end of our senior year.”
Whoa. That had been unexpected. In the past, before Thatch, I would’ve shied away from going further with this conversation and tried to lighten the tone, but I didn’t want to do that.
“Wow, Thatch…I’m so sorry…I don’t really know what else to say.”
“It was a long time ago,” he reassured. “When it happened, of course, I was devastated. But as time passed, and wounds healed, I knew that my relationship with Margo was a huge part of my life because of the way it ended, not because of the actual relationship we had. We were both young, wild, and selfish. If she had lived, and every day I wish she had, I know Margo and I wouldn’t have been sitting here together on this park bench. I just wish she could have had the opportunity to spread her wings and really fly, really find herself.”
My heart grew two sizes bigger inside my chest. There were so many facets to Thatch’s personality, so many tiny particulars and huge guarantees, but underneath all of that charming swagger and good-natured sense of humor was a good man. The best man.
I reached out my hand and grabbed his, squeezing it gently.
He smiled softly in response. My lips mimicked his, and I didn’t try to stop the permeating affection from showing beneath my eyes. I wanted him to know I cared. I wanted him to know he was easily becoming my whole world.
Phil snorted in my lap. His little eyes peeked open and glanced around the outside oasis.
Thatch grinned down at him and then his eyes met mine again, “Ready to go home?”
Home. I couldn’t deny my first thought was, Home is wherever you are now.
“Yeah, baby, let’s go home.”
“So you’re good to get him to Monarch tonight, right?” Georgia asked as I stepped into the crosswalk with the phone to my ear.
Kline’s birthday party was finally upon us, and we were all just living in Georgia’s world until it was over.
I shook my head and smiled at the near panic in her sweet voice. “I won’t let you down. I’ll get him there no matter what it takes.”
A bike messenger weaved up and around me to cut in front of the pedestrians. Cabs and cars filled the streets, the height of the commuting hour packing a half a dozen extra sardines into the can.
“But, like, you’re not gonna drug him, right?”
A startled bark of laughter had the people in front of me looking over their shoulders. I ignored them and focused on the woman at my ear. “No. I won’t be taking advantage of your husband in any way. But I will carry him there if I have to.”
“Good.”
“Not good,” I corrected. “If I have to physically carry your husband to his party tonight, you better start planning my funeral.”
She giggled. “Okay. At least I’ve gotten a little practice at event planning, so I’ll make sure it’s nice.”
“That’s not really comforting at all.”
“I’ll also make sure Cassie puts a picture of her boobs in the casket with you.”
I smiled at the visual. “Okay, I’m feeling slightly comforted now.”
“Fantastic!”
I heard some guy hoot in the background, and my eyebrows pulled together as I made my way across 5th Avenue. There was never any shortage of people talking to you when you didn’t want them to, men hooting at the attractive women, as though yelling at them gave them a chance, or crazy people forgetting the meaning of personal space. But as hard as I focused my ears, I couldn’t figure out which of those scenarios Georgia was currently encountering.
“Where are you? Do you need me to do anything else? I’ve got about an hour before rugby practice. I’m just running by the tattoo shop to make sure Frankie’s good, but I can skip it if you need something.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ve got everything covered. I’m meeting Cass in just a few minutes, and then we’re going over to the bar to finish setting up.”
Three beats in the space of what should have been one, my heart sped up at the mention of my roommate and lover. It was unexpected but not completely unwelcome. Still, the feeling was overpowering, so I tried to distract myself with meaningless questions.
“What did you tell Kline? I can’t imagine he likes the idea of not being with you on his birthday.”
I could practically hear her smile. “I told him it wasn’t that he wouldn’t be with me, just that he’d be with me later. And that I’d make sure being with me was verbiage for some very dirty activity.”
“Ah,” I breathed. “The real way to a man’s heart. Your puss—”
“Yeah, I get it, thanks.”
“Hey, I’m just saying, my stomach isn’t really the answer unless it’s got a pussy sitting on—”
“I said I get it!” she yelled, and I laughed at the mental visual of curious eyes turning her way on whatever busy street she was walking.
“What’s that? Did you say you didn’t get it? I said—”
“I will hang up on you!” she threatened in a way that was supposed to be scary but had all the danger of a chipmunk behind it. She was too cu
te to be lethal, and if she wasn’t, I guess that was how I’d die.
“Okay, okay,” I conceded with a laugh. “Just pass the message along to Cassie, okay?”
“I will not dirty-talk my best friend for you.”
My face felt swollen as my cheeks climbed up around my nose, but I made sure to do my best impression of an audible pout for her benefit. “Ah, come on. The visual is so good.”
“Kline would kill you if he could hear you right now,” she said in my ear, just as I spotted what I knew was his back disappearing down the steps of the subway ahead. It didn’t happen often, especially now that he was living outside the city, but on occasion, the world did its best to remind me how truly small it was. Quickening my steps, I strode after him.
“Good thing he can’t, then, huh?” I teased.
“I’m not even sure why I talk to you.”
“Because you love me. Everyone loves me,” I deadpanned. The woman walking next to me glanced up with surreptitiously curious eyes. She didn’t want me to know she was listening, but she also didn’t want to miss a word.
Raising a hand, I gave her a wave and wink. Disgusted eyes met mine for a second before she sped up her stride to put distance between us. Given the natural length of my stride, her little legs looked like she was running a hamster wheel.
“Right,” Georgia scoffed in my ear.
“I’ll see you in a couple of hours, Georgia girl, and I’ll have your dreamboat of a man at my side.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“—ly handsome? I know. Don’t worry. I won’t tell Kline you think so if you don’t.”
“Bye, Thatch.”
I shook my head as I heard the sound of her hanging up on me before I could respond.
Everyone made it so easy.
Except Cassie.
That wild, beautiful woman brought her own game to the table, and as time went on, the truth was becoming more and more apparent—I fucking loved it. The challenge, the change, the way she didn’t take any kind of shit without giving it right back. And somehow, she managed to maintain a certain amount of softness while she did it.
Whether it was a glance or a smile or a step closer to me in proximity, there was always some sign that she had vulnerability in there somewhere. That she cared about others and wanted them to care for her.
That she wanted all the things out of life that people often misunderstood about a woman like her—family, friendship…love.
I sped up, taking the steps down to the 57th and 6th station two at a time. The train sat on the tracks waiting, and with five huge strides, I slid on just before the doors closed. Kline glanced up from his paper at my Cosmo-Kramer-like entrance.
His lips formed the word “Great” with fantastic faux sarcasm but finished with a smile.
“Are you stalking me?” he asked as I took a seat close to him but left one in between us. Spatially, that was the only way if I wanted to maintain any use of my arms.
“Yes. I’ve actually been watching you from the little window to your office all day. Didn’t you notice me?”
He shook his head and laughed, tucking the newspaper into the handles of his duffle bag between his feet. “I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s not like you’re busy or anything.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, knowing he knew I was busy in the most literal sense of the word. Kline knew pretty much everything about me, so much so that I could barely even surprise him anymore. He actually pointed out tons of investment opportunities to me before I ever mentioned them. Granted, I was usually already looking into them, but he was just a millisecond behind me. And when it came to money moves, that was saying something.
“Ready for practice?” I asked as the train started to move.
“Honestly?”
I shrugged and nodded.
“I’d rather slice my eyeballs open. I just want to go home and be with my wife and our fucking wildlife refuge.”
I smirked. “You have two animals. Hardly zoo material.”
“It doesn’t feel like two. Stan weighs a million pounds and shits bombs, but he’s actually the easier of the two.”
“Well, that much I believe,” I conceded easily. “Walter is a little prick.”
“But I still enjoy it because Georgie does. What’s that say about me?”
“That you misplaced your balls?” I joked.
“Fuck you.”
I leaned my elbows into my knees. “It means you’re a lucky bastard. Above us right now, thousands of unhappy assholes are leaving their miserable jobs and going to the bar instead of home.”
Kline raised his eyebrows.
“By choice. They’d much rather be there than go home, but you, my friend, are one of the wise ones.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You’re fine with going to the bar instead of home?”
“I rarely go to the bar anymore.”
“Not my point at all, and you know it.”
I shrugged with nonchalance and tried not to let my thoughts run away. “I want what you have.”
He smiled. I pushed.
“You think Georgie would be into me?”
His smile turned into a scowl.
“Kidding,” I said through a laugh. I almost told him I’d just gotten off the phone with his wife, but that would have raised at least one flag.
It wasn’t like I didn’t talk to her, but I didn’t tell him about it every time I did.
“How’s it feel to be a year older, Grandpa?”
He laughed. “You’re older than I am.”
“Yes, but I’ve aged better. Don’t take it personally. I credit most of my looks to a rigid diet of Oreos, Nutella, and Trix. Plus, you know…”
“I know?” he questioned.
“Don’t be embarrassed. You can’t help it.”
He lifted his brows and waited. The man had legendary patience, so of course, I caved.
“It’s not your fault your growth was stunted.”
“Jesus,” Kline breathed out before a laugh. “The only thing embarrassing is you.”
I lifted my shoulders to my ears. “I can live with that.”
“Come on, Thumbelina, shower faster!” I yelled through the closed door of my guest room.
Since Kline didn’t live in the city anymore, he had to use my pad as his locker room post-practice. Now that I was clean and had dropped off Phil with the sitter, I figured he’d had plenty of time.
The door swung open immediately, and I bobbed and weaved as Kline’s fist punched the air an inch in front of my stomach.
“Oh, good,” I stated calmly. “I thought you were going to take forever, and we don’t have time. Places to be and all that.”
He tried to hide his cringe. I did an equally poor job of hiding my laugh.
Since I’d run into Kline, I’d decided to forgo the tattoo shop and just head straight to practice with him. Frankie didn’t mind, but really, it didn’t matter if he did. My shares of ownership outweighed his. But it also did matter because I wasn’t an asshole. Not most of the time, anyway.
“Sorry, buddy. The faster we go out, the faster I’ll have you home to your brood. But for now, you’re stuck with me.”
“Which is obviously the worst-case scenario,” he muttered in jest. “I’ll have to suffer through it. Where are we headed?”
“Monarch Bar,” I answered succinctly. “Thelma and Louise are already there.”
His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Thelma and Louise?”
“Oh,” I said with pretense and a waggle of my eyebrows. “Twins. I can’t remember their actual names.”
He looked ready to interrupt, so I bowled right over him. “And they’re both for me.”
“What about Cassie?” he asked as we walked down the hall to the living room.
“What about her?” I replied with a hidden smirk.
“Her stuff is here, in your apartment, and you’re meeting women?”
One of wh
om was her. “Yeah, she won’t mind,” I lied.
I wasn’t quite sure how serious she was about our relationship—if she was as serious as I was—but I knew she was serious about being the only woman. I liked my balls, thank you very much. They weren’t exactly the best-looking guys in the place, but they made sure I had a good time when it counted.
My phone vibrated in my pocket as I shoved Kline out the door and locked it behind me. His face was in full mope mode.
“Come on,” I encouraged. “Once we’re on the subway, you can text your little wife until we get there. Where is she again?”
“Working,” he said with a sigh.
“Boy, Wes knows how to crack the whip.”
“It’s not him. I already confronted him about it. She’s just fucking determined to do a good job.”
“Well, I’d say that’s a pretty good quality, right?” I asked as we stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of my building. My fingers itched to dig in my pocket for my phone knowing I had an unread text, but it was only a quick walk to the corner and we’d be on the train where I’d have a better chance of keeping it hidden from Kline’s astute eyes.
“Of course, it’s a good thing. There’s a reason I’m always trying to hire her back.”
“I thought it was horniness.”
“Okay, so there are two reasons.”
I laughed and kept walking, leading the way down the stairs and into the dim lighting of the subway station. We didn’t have to wait long as the train pulled up and the doors opened. It was just a quick ride on the R down to the party, so neither of us bothered to go for a seat. Instead, we found a spot in the center around one of the stripper poles.
Okay, it wasn’t actually a stripper pole, and guaranteed, you’d pick up some kind of disease if you rubbed yourself too thoroughly on one, but it sure looked like that’s what it should be. I’d have to talk to the MTA.
My phone buzzed in my pocket again. Pulling it out carefully, I tilted the screen slightly away from Kline so I knew he wouldn’t be able to read it.
Cassie: Has the Eagle landed?
Cassie: I will castrate you if you don’t answer me.