“Are you going to talk her into giving love a try, or are you just in it for a piece of ass?” Nate asks.

My eyes narrow on his and my hands flex into fists.

“He’s been waiting too long for her for it to just be about the sex,” Isaac says. Nate doesn’t answer; he just continues to watch me with calm grey eyes.

“I’m not just fucking her.”

“Okay then.”

“What if I was?” I ask out of curiosity.

“Well, that’s your business,” Nate replies, and turns back to hammer more nails. “But I think that Alecia is worth more than that.”

“She’s worth everything,” I mutter under my breath before taking a long drink of water.

“We’re going to the Mariner’s game the week after the wedding, right?” Mark asks.

“Yes, we have tickets,” Matt replies. “And I might need your help with something that day.”

“Don’t do it like that, man,” Caleb says with a roll of the eyes. “It’s cheesy as fuck.”

“Not the way I’m thinking of doing it,” Matt replies with a scowl.

“Is he going to propose at a baseball game?” Will asks. “Dude, you should have done it at the fucking Super Bowl. We won, for Godsake.”

“I wasn’t ready,” Matt replies.

“Don’t do it in public,” Luke says, and runs his hand over the plank of wood that has Meg and Will’s names and the date of their wedding carved into it. “Make it more special than that.”

“Oh! I know! Since Nic owns the cupcake place, bake her some cupcakes and put the ring in one of them and she’ll find it when she eats it.” Mark looks pleased with his idea, but Caleb clocks him in the back of the head.

“That’s ridiculous,” Leo says. “She’ll choke on it.”

“Trust me, I have an idea.” Just as Matt begins to outline his brilliant idea for his proposal to Nic, my phone vibrates in my pocket.

Blake.

I walk away from the brothers and answer the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hey, man, is this a bad time?”

“This is fine. What’s up?”

Blake sighs heavily on the other end of the line and then curses ripely.

“No, I don’t believe I’m interested in fucking you sideways,” I reply with a smirk.

“I shouldn’t be calling you.”

Something in his voice has the hair on the back of my neck standing up.

“What’s wrong?”

He swears again, and now I’m just pissed.

“Blake, what the fuck?”

“First, let me say this: everything Leash ever tells me is in confidence, and I don’t make a habit of breaking that confidence.”

“Understood.” I turn to watch my brothers, not really seeing them, and narrow my eyes. “What’s going on?”

“I just got off the phone with her. Have you spoken to her?”

“I saw her just this morning. She left for some work that she needed to take care of.”

“That’s bullshit,” Blake says grimly. “She ran, man.”

“What exactly do you mean, she ran?”

“She’s not working, she’s at her apartment over-thinking the fact that she slept with you. She’s scared. She has her reasons, and they’re her reasons to tell you, but intimacy scares the fuck out of her.”

“I figured that out,” I reply, and feel my blood heat. It has nothing to do with the heat of summer.

“Yeah, well, I thought you should know.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you telling me this?” I turn my back on my brothers again and pace away.

“Because I think you’ll be good for her, and because when I got off the phone with her a little while ago, she sounded regretful that she left, and I know she won’t fix it on her own.”

I push my hand through my hair and shake my head in exasperation. “I’m on my way to her place.”

“I think she was going to go help out with a wedding tonight, but you might catch her if you leave now.”

“Thanks, man.”

I hang up and return, just as Matt scowls at Caleb and shouts, “Are you just going to stand around all fucking afternoon?”

“No,” Caleb replies sarcastically, “I’m gonna fuckin’ riverdance, asshole.”

The guys laugh at Caleb’s witty response as I slip my phone in my pocket.

“I have to go, guys.”

“Everything okay?” Will asks.

“No, but it will be. If you need anything, Celeste is just inside.”

“We’re fine,” Isaac says. “We’ll have this done in an hour, tops.”

“Is she okay?” Caleb asks.

“I don’t know.” I shove my hands through my hair again. “I’m going to go figure it out.”

“Let us know if you need anything,” Matt says.

“Good luck,” Luke says with a grin, as the others wave. I run through the house, grab my keys and wallet, and set off to Alecia’s apartment.

She fucking ran.

***

I take the stairs up to Alecia’s floor, rather than wait for the elevator. Just as I burst through the stairwell doors, Alecia is stepping out of her apartment and her eyes go wide when she sees me stalking toward her.