Crave Me (The Good Ol' Boys #4)(20)

She chose to work, for reasons that I already knew, but she never voiced.

When I saw Alex walking down the beach with Cole beside her an hour prior, I was shocked to say the least. She never went to these things. Parties weren’t her thing.

“You still have me, Half-Pint,” I reminded her, sitting on the other side of the pit.

“Thank God for that,” she breathed out, “or else I would be completely losing it.”

She crawled her way over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. Her face tucked securely against my chest. I kissed the top of her head as she lay in my arms. I could sense Lucas’ glare, but still felt the need to look up at him. To my surprise it wasn’t a look of jealousy or anger like I expected.

There was longing.

As if I held his entire world in my arms.

For the first time we were on opposite sides of the fence, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel good to finally be the one that wasn’t standing on the wrong side.

I never imagined anyone could break Lucas and Alex’s bond. I would have bet my life on it. There were plenty of boys that were interested in Half-Pint throughout the years, but they all knew she came with baggage.

Four of them.

Cole showed up out of the blue one day, making it known that he was interested in our girl and not giving a shit what we thought about it. I didn’t know whether to beat the shit out of him like the boys wanted to or shake his goddamn hand.

He was in love with Alex. It didn’t surprise me. Alex was hard not to love. He put up with all of us boys because she didn’t give him a choice.

At the end of the day we would always be her good ol’ boys and for some reason…

That had always been good enough for me.

Dylan hugged Aubrey closer into his chest. Her back pressed up against him with her head tilted to the side, resting on his shoulder. Both of them watched the flames of the fire, lost in their own thoughts.

Dylan had started showing interest in the new girl, Aubrey two years ago, and to be honest, I was still dumbfounded by it. He was a bigger whore than I was. He pretty much chased her down until she finally gave in, challenging him to keep his dick in his pants for a month before she agreed to go on a date with him.

They’d been together ever since.

What once was a happy-go-lucky relationship turned into something volatile a few years later. Only proving to me that love was a bunch of f*cking bullshit.

And Jacob, well… he was another story. One that I would learn soon enough, showing me how much of a hypocritical son of a bitch he really was.

Alex took a sip of her drink.

“Take it easy on that,” Lucas warned, his eyes still intently placed on us.

Alex wanted to forget, she wanted to rebel, she wanted to prove something to us, and that’s why she was drinking in the first place. As much as I hated to admit it, Lucas was right. But I was the last person that had any right to tell her what to do, so I just grabbed the drink out of her hands and finished it off for her instead.

Yeah, I’m a f*cking hypocrite too.

“Ugh,” Alex protested. “I’ll just go get another one.”

She stood, losing her balance. Aubrey grabbed ahold of her.

“I’ll go with you.” She knowingly winked down at Dylan.

Aubrey loved our Half-Pint, too. Her and Cole were both seventeen like me, and going into their senior year of high school as well. To be honest, I really liked Aubrey. She was good for Dylan, kept him on his toes and put up with all his bullshit. He was lucky to finally find someone who would. Aubrey was the best thing to walk into his life. They were meant to be together.

We watched them leave.

“You alright over there, McGraw?” I asked Dylan who was gazing at Aubrey with the same yearning that Lucas displayed over Alex.

“Just f*ckin’ peachy, brother,” he replied, shaking his head. “How about you? How you holdin’ up? You ready to run this f*ckin’ town without us?”

“Been doin’ that since the day I was born.”

We all smiled.

“I know. I taught you well,” Jacob chimed in, cracking his neck.

I chuckled. Lucas still hadn’t taken his stare off Alex. He wasn’t paying us any mind.

“You’re the last one left, Austin,” Dylan said out of nowhere, catching me off guard.

I turned from the fire to look at him, not sure where he was going with this.

“I know we all give you shit for being the youngest and you used to be the smallest. Come to think of it, there was a time I thought Half-Pint might be bigger than you.” He grinned.

“Asshole,” I muttered, holding back my own grin.

“But you grew up,” he added with a sudden serious expression. “And you’re up, brother. We’re not goin’ to be around, and Half-Pint is gonna need you now more than ever. Especially since this is her last year before she’s really alone.”

I nodded, understanding.

“She’s your responsibility. You watch out and take care of our girl,” Jacob added.

“Of course,” I vowed.

Jacob nudged my shoulder. “Won’t be the same without you, bro.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Dylan stood. “But enough of this sappy shit, I feel like kicking someone’s ass in a game of beer pong.”