When Gray started to speak, Nick held up a hand. “Don’t bother. It’s not about me being in love with her. She’s my friend. I may not have a lot of them, but those I have I fucking value with my life.” He glanced off into the distance. “I already had to let one go that I wasn’t ready to. That’s one too many.”
“Snake?”
Nick just nodded.
Gray encircled the fingerboard of his Epiphone, holding on when it felt like the ground beneath his feet could crack open at any moment. “Thank you for caring about her.”
“Yeah.” Nick shut his eyes and dropped his head back against the chair. “See, that shit right there is why she’s with you, not me. You’re a decent guy. You just got fucking lost. We all do. Some don’t find their way back, mainly because they don’t have a good enough reason to.” He opened his eyes. “You do.”
“Yeah.” Gray tightened his grip on his guitar. “I do.”
“Okay, well, uh, this has been some awesome spiritual crap and all, but I’m pretty sure my nuts are shriveling up the longer we talk. We gonna play or what?”
“I’m going to ask her to marry me.”
Nick didn’t say anything for so long that Gray had no choice but to look up and meet his gaze. “Okay.”
“I thought you should know. Considering…”
“Considering she slept with me as a substitute for you?” Nick grabbed his cigs again and pulled one out with his teeth. “Now there’s a sentiment you don’t often see on a greeting card.”
Gray shook his head and traced his thumb over the years of scars on his guitar. They held so many stories, ones he’d never find enough words to tell. “This is some seriously fucked-up shit. Most of all because I honestly think we could be friends, and that seems wrong.”
“Why? You think you’re supposed to bash my head open because I found your hot girlfriend hot?”
His mouth twitched. Damn Nick had a way of breaking it all down. “Something like that.”
“You’d only do that if you thought I was serious competition, and we both know I’m not. So I’ll buy a fucking bag of rice for your wedding and hope like hell you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m quitting. For real.”
“And I’m the douche who wants to believe you.” Nick bit down on the cigarette between his teeth, breaking it in half before he dumped the ends on the table. “By the way, I’m not fucking hugging you even if you say that the Pope is going to marry you at the Basilica.”
Gray laughed. “You think they’d be cool with marrying a foster brother and sister? My guess is probably not.”
“I think I heard that story in a country song once.” Nick grinned. “So we playing or what?”
Gray dragged his guitar in his lap. He had a couple hours yet before it was time for him to meet up with Jazz. Might as well spend it doing his favorite thing.
He smiled and plucked the opening notes to “Sugar Kiss”. Second favorite thing.
“Yeah. Let’s play.”
* § *
“Buy a kitten, miss? Don’t you want to buy a kitten?”
Jazz stopped outside the supermarket and let out a squeal at the pair of furry, wiggling kittens. The kid manning the box couldn’t have been any more than twelve. “Oh, I can’t.” She kneeled to pick up a gray tabby trying to scrabble over the side and cuddled it to her cheek with a happy sigh. “I live with a bunch of boys. We already have a George and a Ratt.”
The kid’s eyes widened. “You live with a bunch of boys?”
She laughed at how that sounded. “I’m a band. They’re my bandmates.”
“Oh. What band?”
“Oblivion.”
“No way. No fucking way.” Before she could say a word, he’d hauled out his phone and taken a couple of pictures. “Man, Eli’s not gonna fucking believe this.” Then he gave her a pleading look. “You gotta buy one of my kittens. My mom’s gonna kill me if I take them back home and they’re only fifty bucks.”
“Fifty bucks? Holy crap.” This kid was hardcore.
She glanced down at the big green eyes staring up at her, and her heart softened into a puddle of goo. “If I take both of them, do I get a discount?”
“Yeah. Only one hundred bucks.”
She laughed and scooped up a white one with a black dot on the top of its head like an inkblot. One of them would be perfect for Harper. The other…hmm. Maybe she’d give her to Lila. Lila seemed like she needed some snuggling time.
“Sold.” She stood up and fished her wallet out of her hip purse. “I hope I have—”