The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

THIRTY-THREE


Liam was waving us up. He and his friends took up a whole section, spanning five rows. They didn’t fill out the entire row, but Kash was right. Athletes traveled in groups, large groups. Liam was in their third row when he spotted us. The grin faded when he took in Kash, then Matt, then Fitz, and lastly Scott.

Coming down the steps to meet us, he put his hands in his pockets. “I was expecting Liss, Bailey, and maybe a couple guys.”

Kash stared at him. “Well—”

Matt popped his head up, grinning wide. “Deal with it.”

He and Kash both laughed.

Melissa began giggling.

Liam was clueless, his eyebrows raised. He gave me a look. “You know the inside joke?”

I shook my head. “You don’t want to know.”

Kash cleared his throat. “If there aren’t any extra seats, we can sit somewhere else.”

Matt snorted. “That’s code for either he’ll bribe the people for their seats if Bailey wants to stay, or he’ll maneuver us all into a box upstairs.” He hopped up on the same step Liam was standing on, threw his arm around his shoulder, and squeezed Liam to him.

“We’re here for three reasons,” he said, and stuck a finger out. “One: because Bailey wants to be normal. She’s been missing that phenomenon. Me, I was born amazing, so I don’t know any other way.” He held up a second finger. “Two: football. That says enough,” he continued. Then he put three fingers in the air. “And the last reason: to drive Kashton crazy. He’s tempering it right now. He really wants to throw his weight around, bash some heads, make some threats and move Bailey to safety, but he can’t, because we’re back to number one: Bailey. He’s kinda nuts for her, so he’s already primed. Our first meeting sucked, so I’m reintroducing myself. I’m Matt, Bailey’s smarter brother.”

Kash’s mouth twitched.

Liam was slack-jawed. He took Melissa and me in. “He’s for real?”

Melissa nodded. “He’s been like this the whole ride over. I think this is how he is normally.”

Matt winked at her. “Just wait till I get some liquor in me. I won’t care if Bailey’s here. You’re going to be hearing some fabulous pickup lines.” His arm still around Liam, he leaned toward Melissa and dropped his tone suggestively. “They’ll be so smooth, you might learn what ‘combustible climax’ means.” He winked. “If you get my drift.”

Melissa groaned under her breath.

Liam made a gargling sound.

Kash stepped forward, his hand to Matt’s chest, and pushed him upward. “Okay. Calm down, brother.” He winked at me over his shoulder. “Let’s find our seats.”

Whoa.

Wow.

That wink … I was the one who just learned what a combustible climax was.

Melissa sidled close to me. “How do you handle that?”

I spoke, “In bed. As much as possible.”

“Your brother?”

My head jackknifed to hers. “What?”

“I was talking about your brother.” Her eyebrows pinched together.

“Oh!” Matt. I waved that off. “You’ll either love Matt or you’re going to hate him. Don’t sleep with him and you’ll enjoy him. But that’s key. Don’t sleep with him.”

Liam had lingered, overhearing. “Solid advice.”

“Looks like they found some seats.”

An entire row was cleared when we got there, and Matt was already making friends with Liam’s friends. A seat was left open on the other side of Matt, and Fitz went behind our row, dropping into that empty seat.

Matt went first. Kash. Me. Melissa. Scott on Melissa’s side.

Liam moved around so he was in the row in front of us, right beneath Melissa and me.

His friends looked nice.

I didn’t think they were graduate students, just a year younger than Liam.

They, in turn, were studying Kash and me, but Kash laid an arm around me, pulling me to him.

As he did this, my front to his side, he moved to my ear and said, “They’ll stop paying attention to us. Matt will distract them in three, two, one—”

Matt started, “What do you guys lift? What’s the average weight?”

Kash continued, without pausing, “Now all they’ll know is that their computer friend brought another computer friend, a couple, Matt, and two other guys who don’t seem too friendly. They’ll talk to your brother because he’ll make them, and they’ll ignore the rest of us, except maybe one or two will give Melissa attention, wondering if their boy Liam is interested. If he is, we’ll find out who are the good friends and who are the douchebags.”

I slid a hand over his stomach, wrapping around his side. “What do you mean?”

“The ones who respect Liam will be nice to Melissa, but keep their distance. The douchebags will try to hit on her. They’ll either do it at the game or wait till the after-game party.”

“There’s an after-game party?”

Kash lifted his head, cupping my face, and smiled down at me. His thumb traced my top lip. “There’s always an after-game party, and because Matt’s here, he’ll control that.”

I liked how he traced my lip. I tried to catch his thumb in my mouth. “How do you know that?”