“At least Cora isn’t fussing over me anymore. If I take one more Tylenol, I’m going to need my stomach pumped.”
“Who’s Cora?” I frowned.
Josh grinned. “Are you jealous?”
I stared at him.
“Cora is the fifty-eight-year-old office manager and wife of my boss who mothers everyone within a twenty-mile radius,” he said after a moment. “She’s a good-looking fifty-eight, but she’s not my type. I prefer feisty, awkward bookworms who get me punched.”
I punched him in the arm. “Shut up.”
Holley looked between us. “Shakespeare couldn’t have written a better love story.”
“Did he write love stor—” Josh paused. “Oh, right. Romeo and Juliet.”
We both blinked at him and said at the same time, “Romeo and Juliet is not a romance!”
I even heard that echoed from Saylor from wherever she was.
Josh looked around. “Right. Okay. Why not? They fell in love.”
“And then they died,” Holley said slowly, looking at him as if he’d just told her all books should be burned. “He poisoned himself because he thought she was dead, then she woke up and stabbed herself because he was dead. In what world is that even remotely romantic?”
“Uh…” He hesitated. “It’s kind of romantic that they couldn’t live without each other?”
“No,” I said. “That’s romantic when you’re talking about ninety-year-old couples who’ve been together for seventy years. Not two obstinate teenagers who were, by all accounts, complete little shits.”
He blinked at me. “You wouldn’t do that for me?”
“Would I hell,” I replied. “I don’t like you that much.”
He tried to look hurt, but all that happened was he ended up laughing. “And I took a punch for you.”
“Your fault.” I dipped some bread in my soup. “Really, all you had to do was not tell me you had feelings for me and none of this ever would have happened.”
“So it’s all my fault.”
“Absolutely,” Holley agreed. “As a rule, it’s always the man’s fault.”
I inclined my head in her direction in agreement. “She’s right.”
“This is why I’ve been single for so long,” Josh said dryly. “You’re too much hard work.”
“Yes. You’re a regular walk in the park yourself.” I gently touched the bruise on his jaw. “Jurassic Park, maybe.”
He looked over at me, meeting my eyes, and his lips twisted in amusement.
Holley looked between us. “You two need a room.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE – JOSH
rule twenty-five: dating is never, ever easy. but it’s worth it.
I pulled up in the parking lot outside Bronco’s and killed the engine. It’d been a long, tense week at work, and all I wanted to do tonight was go home, shower, and go to sleep.
Kinsley had other ideas.
Despite my suggestion that she could come over, she’d insisted on us having dinner at Bronco’s.
I said no.
Which was why I was outside Bronco’s.
Obviously, I lost that fight.
I was getting used to that.
At least I’d been able to talk her into letting me take a shower before I came.
I got out of my truck and headed inside, only pausing to lock the doors. I pushed the front door of the bar open and stepped into the foray of madness.
Why she wanted to do this on a Friday night was beyond me.
I scanned the room for her, and it took a good moment before I noticed her sitting in a booth and waving at me. I pushed my way through the throng of people who were absolutely everywhere, narrowly missing being soaked by a kid’s juice, and finally made it to the table.
“Seriously? Here for dinner on a Friday night? What’s wrong with—” I stopped when I saw Colton sitting in the booth. He’d had his back to me, and thanks to the high backs of the chairs, I hadn’t known he was here.
And now it all made sense.
Colton clenched his jaw. “Kinsley…”
She held up her hands. “Don’t yell at me,” she said, looking between us. “Just listen? For a moment?”
Sighing, I slipped into the booth next to her and nodded. Colton nodded, too, and we both waited for her to talk.
“You have got to talk to each other,” Kinsley said, pushing her hair from her face. “It’s been a week, and I can’t take this anymore. I can’t talk to you about the other without both of you tensing up and saying it’ll be okay, but it’s not. It’s not being okay. Nothing about all of this is okay.” She looked at her brother. “If you’ve forgiven me, you can forgive him, too. So stop pretending like you’re waiting for him to talk to you first when you know he’s giving you space.” Then she looked at me. “And stop pretending he’s going to talk to you first. He’s not, and you know it. You’re putting it off because it’s the easy thing to do.”
We both looked at each other, then at her.
“You’re almost thirty years old, for the love of God. Stop acting like you’re both sixteen and jerking off over the same girl in math class. Now move.” She shoved at me, and I got up so she could step out of the booth, then sat back down when she gave me another push. “You two are going to talk. Right now. Or you,” she said to Colton. “I’m going to tell Grandpa what a huge baby you’re being about this.”
Colton’s eyes widened.
“And you.” She pointed at me. “No sex until this is finished.”
It was my turn to widen my eyes.
“Can we not?” Colt looked put out. “I don’t wanna think about that.”
“Then fix this.” She grabbed her glass of wine and headed off into the bar, disappearing before it’d registered that she’d left us without a drink.
“She brings us to a bar to make us talk and doesn’t even buy us a drink?” I said, staring at the empty table then up at Colton. “What kind of shit is that?”
“My sister,” he drawled. “I got this.” He pulled out his phone and texted. A moment later, it buzzed,
