“Hi.” He grinned and poked my nose.
“Hey, you.” I caught his wrist and kissed his fingertips. “Have you checked your social media yet?”
“No, I don’t wanna.” He reached for his water and opened the bottle. “Why are you reminding me?”
Well, because I was happy his latest cooking tutorial had received such positive feedback. But I’d discovered that Clara ran those things for both of them, though Camden was better at interacting when he wasn’t off work. Apparently, they produced more than one video in advance, so the guys didn’t have to come up with something every week. Mildly disappointing—I would’ve liked to watch from behind the scenes as a video was made.
“Because I left a couple comments earlier,” I replied.
He licked a drop of water from the corner of his mouth and eyed me. “Now I wanna see it, but I gotta wade through hundreds of comments.”
“I didn’t leave both comments on the same account.” I smirked a little.
We’d taken a short siesta earlier, and I’d woken up first. With not much to do, I’d perused Camden and August’s NSFW pictures, seeing them in a new light after spending this week with them.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sir.” Camden cranked up the innocence, all while he was trying to send me a special look. One that told me to shut it, because he still hadn’t told August about following me through that account. And liking all my photos.
I wasn’t as inclined to keep that secret anymore.
“Why do you look guilty, little one?” August asked as he sank into the water across from us.
“I don’t!” Camden insisted. “I’m not keeping anything from you!”
I rubbed his leg.
August smiled wryly and raised a brow at me. “So he’s keepin’ somethin’ from me.”
“Mm.” I inclined my head. “I reckon the grown-ups need to show a united front. Otherwise, sneaky little boys might play a few tricks and get away with it.”
Camden gasped and eyed me as if I’d just committed treason.
“Wise words,” August agreed solemnly. “So what’s he done?”
I slid my gaze to a scowling Camden. “Do you wanna tell Daddy, or should I?”
He kept scowling at me for a moment, and I stared right back, undeterred. I loved the push and pull of their dynamic, but this young man wasn’t going to start thinking he could boss me around. Where kink was concerned, I followed August.
In the end, Camden huffed and folded his arms over his chest, petulance written all over his cute face. “Maybe I followed Anthony’s account under our dirty profile before he came down to Nashville.”
“Oh, really.” August composed his expression and stretched out his arms along the edge of the tub. “That’s interestin’ since I recall telling you not to reach out to Anthony on your own. We were going to let Clara handle it.”
“I didn’t contact him!” Camden argued. “I just followed him!”
“And liked nearly three hundred photos,” I added.
“And liked—grrr!” he growled.
I laughed. “And you commented. You said I was hot.”
At this point, Camden was flushed with adorable anger, and August was struggling to keep from laughing.
“Oh, I’m sorry I gave you a compliment,” Camden snarked.
I grinned.
“That’s not the point, darlin’,” August said. “You went against my word.”
“But, ohhhhh!” Camden turned to whining instead. “I just wanted him to see us, Daddy. I wanted him to wonder if it was you and me.”
I hadn’t. The photos were concealed too well—even now. I wouldn’t be able to tell it was them after having shared August’s bed either. I’d already tried. It was one thing. Camden’s snake tattoo.
If Camden hadn’t been so revved up and busy defending himself, he would’ve seen that August looked anything but stern. The man couldn’t hide the affection and humor from his eyes.
Then he quit the act entirely and let out a chuckle. “You can stop pitchin’ a fit, boy. You’re not as slick as you think.”
Oh. He’d already known?
Camden deflated and asked my question. “You knew?”
“I’ve known you’re up to somethin’, not the specifics,” August amended. “I don’t think this is the extent of it either. You’re hidin’ somethin’ else too.”
That was funny. Of course Daddy would sense that his boy was scheming.
“I am slick,” Camden grumbled to himself. “I’m an evil genius.”
“Of course you are, baby.” I humored him and rubbed his leg a little higher up.
I didn’t think I could get off anytime soon, considering everything we’d already done today, but the boy was too enticing. I loved touching him.
In all honesty, I just wanted to finger him a bit. Like any normal person.
Chapter 13
The Outsiders
I loved the pre-chorus in this song. Glancing back at Sylvia, I smiled at her light tinkering on the piano while I sang. Then I raised my voice, and Luiz kicked it up for the chorus.
“Hey, big brother.” Nicky spoke into the mic during an instrumental part I wasn’t playing in.
“Aye, bambino.”
He flashed me a smirk and tossed me something—shit, my harmonica.
“Show ’em how it’s done,” he said, trapping his strings under a finger and distorting the sound. Good thing I was great at improvising. I threw myself into the last chorus while he slapped on the muted strings, and then I stopped providing rhythm and lifted my harmonica to the mic.
Maria and Matt had no problems lifting the choir and singing louder, and it gave me a moment to play the harmonica next to Nicky’s banjo.
We only had a few songs left, and I understood what my brother was doing. We were having the time of our life, and some things, we didn’t want to end.
“Let the knife do the work, sweetheart. No need to push the blade through the meat.”
Right. I was being impatient because I was starving. It was also mildly unnerving to stand on the other side of the kitchen island, across from him, and hear his knife make those incessant little chops at
