“And just as I was about to drag you to the keg room,” I murmur.
“You were not.”
“No,” I say. “I would never.”
I straighten just as Riley reappears, layers of their personal armor in place before they wave and head for the barn doors. Jake continues to drink, Guinness becoming the sand in an hourglass, and I feel like there are things to say or do, but I have no idea what any of them are. He’ll leave soon, and both of us will be busy, our work and sleep schedules offset enough to require effort for us to meet in the middle. And while we could do that this weekend, maybe Adrian’s celebration will be the smoothest way for Jake and me to end up sweaty and breathless without calendaring a separate occasion entirely.
A group of four stops by to drop off their empty glasses and close their tab, and others who’ve been done for a while leave without a word. Usually I’d go wipe down their tables, but I don’t feel like moving all that far away yet, and I wouldn’t have had the chance when Jake clears his throat.
“Did the rest of your Sunday night go as planned?”
I turn to meet the mischief in his eyes. “You mean, did I really stop somewhere tonotfuck before going home to take care of that all by myself?”
“Yes.”
“I really did.”
“Glad to hear it.” Jake grins and chases it away with the last of his beer, the glass soundless when it hits the coaster. “And with that, I’m gonna say goodnight.”
He slides off his stool, and turns for the bathroom first, and I use the time to make sure the three guys left in the bar—all of them older than Jake, bigger than Beau, and as comfortablein mesh as Mason—need nothing from me. As long as there are no surprises, it’ll be an easy rest of the night for me, and Sage probably won’t see me again until my weekend restlessness hits too hard.
I’ve never told anyone about my trips to the diner, and when Jake returns, I’m strangely curious about whether he has any habits like mine.
Maybe I could ask him over biscuits and gravy, french fries, and a chocolate shake.
“See you in WeHo,” I say.
“And then we’ll go back to my little home in the hills?”
My head tips back when I laugh. “Yes, we’ll go back to that very little home of yours.”
He’s through the doors seconds later, and it feels all wrong, saying goodbye to him from so far away when I’d been able to press my body against his less than a week ago. I rub my hands against the front of my jeans and glance at the well-dressed bears before I escape from behind the bar and mumble a quick promise to be back in a minute.
Jake is parked where he probably always is, but when I see him climbing onto his bike, I think maybe Riley wasn’t all that far off when they’d asked me whether I was scared. My heart kicks at my chest, and I almost forget to move from where I stand just outside the barn doors, finally remembering to speak up just as Jake reaches for his helmet.
“Hey.”
He throws me a look over his shoulder, somehow unsurprisedto see me hurrying toward him. “Did I forget something?”
“No, not really,” I say when I catch up. “I just thought we should—”
I trail off because I’m about to make my point just fine. The fingers of one hand find his leather jacket and hold on tight, and I use my other hand to cradle the side of his face just before I bring my mouth to his, open for him already because I’m not great at doing anything halfway. For someone who hasn’t kissed in nearly a decade, Jake figures me out easily, and his tongue is warm against mine like he’d been ready for it all along. I moan, and then he does too, and it takes a stupidly long time before we want to be anywhere but deep inside each other’s mouths.
When I manage to pull away, he licks his lips, and I barely stop myself from going back in.
“Darren.”
“Yeah. Hi. Or bye, I guess.” I rub the back of my neck and remind myself that none of this is a big deal. “Not that we couldn’t have waited to do that after the party, but it seemed like it might be helpful to take one small step before then.”
“Just a teeny tiny step,” he says. “Hardly significant on its own.”
“And now it’s time to find out where we go from here.”