“It isn’t,” I declare proudly. “It’s not fucking casual at all. Hands off. Know what I mean?”
Sev turns to me with the proudest look on his face I’ve ever seen.
“Sickening,” Noah calls out as he comes over to the table. “No one is allowed to be in love around me anymore until I find someone.”
Noah has a smoothie, some applesauce, and soup, still only eating liquids for now. The other guys start asking Noah about his injured nose like they do most days now, some of them actually asking him to remove the bandage and let them see the nasty healing process beneath it.
He tells them to fuck off, pushing a straw into his smoothie and taking a drink.
As the guys break off into their other conversations, I realize how natural it already feels to be here like this.
At the table with my boyfriend.
And there’s no part of me that feels timid about that anymore.
“They love us,” Sev leans over and murmurs in my ear.
“Wouldn’t care even if they hated us,” I tell him. “But I still can’t believe no one was shocked.”
“People know you better than you think, Weston. You have a lot of people who care about you, you know that?”
I let out a long breath. “I’m lucky, I guess.”
And he has no clue how monumental that is for me to say.
I’ve never felt lucky.
I was the unlucky brother, the unlucky son.
I don’t feel anything like that anymore.
After we have dinner all I want to do is spend the next 48 hours or so in bed with him, but I know he has a lot on his plate.
“Listen,” he tells me before we leave. “The engineering ceremony is tomorrow night, and I need to focus on finishing my project. But after that’s done, the only thing that’s important tome is figuring out a way to get Thorne out of your fucking life. Okay?”
I bite the inside of my cheek for a moment. “Can we forget about Thorne? I hate paying him, but Dad did leave us enough money. I’d rather pay him than have him threaten Onyx House.”
Sev nods. “But you don’t have to pay him at all, if I take care of it. Trust me, Wes.”
My chest tightens a little.
I know Sev has a long history with violence. I knowhe’scomfortable using his fists to get his way. But I’ve never been comfortable with that.
“I’m just so afraid it will blow up in the face of the rest of Onyx. I don’t want anyone else hurt for something that’s my fault.”
“It isn’t your fault, it’s your father’s,” he corrects me. “But I understand. I’m never going to let that happen.”
I reach over and grab a fry from Rayne’s tray across the table, popping it in my mouth.
“Since when do you eat those?” Rayne asks.
I shrug. “I’m learning to live a little. That doesn’t mean I’m about to change up my diet, but one fry isn’t going to hurt me.”
Rayne reaches over and fist-bumps me.
“You’re fucking cute,” Sev tells me.
“Good luck working on your project. I’ll be in the auditorium cheering for you in the front row tomorrow night. That engineering ceremony is going to be like a hockey game with all of us there rooting for you.”