The Bromance Book Club Read online

  “Mommy, can we swim?” Ava suddenly asked.

  Del had an indoor pool, and it had become part of the tradition that after everyone’s dinner had settled, the guys took the kids swimming. Thea turned in her seat to look at the back seat. “I brought your bathing suits.”

  The girls let out a cheer. At least they would have fun today.

  Gavin pulled along the curb in front of Del’s house. A ribbon of nervous tension tightened around Thea’s chest. This would normally be the time when she would adopt her perfect WAG smile and pretend to love every minute of this.

  Screw that this year. She and Gavin unbuckled the girls and sent them running up the sidewalk. Just as they reached the front portico, the door swung open. Del’s wife, Nessa, walked out looking stunning, as usual. She wore wide-legged black slacks and a slim camel turtleneck. It was the kind of effortlessly classy outfit that only tall people like her and Liv could actually look stylish in. Nessa gathered the girls against her legs for a quick hug and then looked up with a smile and a wave.

  Thea waved and leaned into the back to grab one of the pies. Gavin did the same, and he followed her up the sidewalk. Nessa shooed the girls inside and took the pie from Gavin.

  “I’ll help Thea carry stuff. You go out back and stop Del from killing himself.”

  “What’s he doing?” Gavin asked.

  “That fool bought a turkey fryer.”

  “Oh, shit.” Gavin took off at a jog.

  Nessa turned back to Thea. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said, nodding for Thea to come in. “Del said there was a chance you guys might go to Gavin’s parents’ this year. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

  Thea didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing as she followed Nessa into their massive, gleaming white kitchen. The heavenly aroma of the turkey in the oven mixed with the scent of spiced cider in a slow cooker. Sage and garlic from the stuffing made her mouth pool with spit. It smelled just like Gran Gran’s house used to. Those three Thanksgivings when she and Liv had lived there were the best of her life.

  The girls ran through on their way to the stairs, chasing after Del and Nessa’s daughter, Jo-Jo. “She’s been bouncing off the walls, waiting for you guys to get here,” Nessa laughed, lifting the pie high in the air to avoid a collision. Then she set it down on the counter with a dramatic sigh. “I swear, she woke me up before dawn asking if you were here yet.”

  Thea laughed. “The girls have been excited too.”

  And, honestly, if it were just going to be their two families, today wouldn’t be so bad. Nessa was genuine and kind and funny, the only one of the other wives and girlfriends that Thea would remotely call a friend. Mostly because Del and Gavin were such good friends. And the twins adored playing with Jo-Jo. Today could have been OK. But it wouldn’t be. Because pretty soon, she’d be swimming with the sharks.

  Nessa took the other pie from Thea and set it on the counter. Thea could tell just from the way her eyes pinched at the corners what was coming next.

  “So . . .” Nessa said, leaning closer. “I hope you don’t mind, but Del told me that Gavin has moved home. Are things going OK?”

  “Great,” Thea said automatically. Wait. No. She wasn’t going to do that anymore. Thea straightened her spine. “Actually, it’s not going great. He came home last night, and we haven’t stopped fighting since.”

  “Del saw Gavin last week. He said he’s never seen Gavin so broken up.”

  Thea bristled. Gavin was broken up? “It hasn’t been a picnic for me, either.”

  “Of course not,” Nessa said quickly. “I just . . . I know a little about what you’re going through. These men of ours, they’re not great at expressing themselves. Give it time.”

  Thea wanted to press her—because how could Nessa know anything about marital trouble? She and Del had the perfect marriage. But she was cut off by a knock at the front door, which was followed immediately by an impatient dinging of the doorbell. Nessa swore and rolled her eyes again. “Lord give me strength. I have no idea why Del invited him.”

  “Invited who?”

  “Well, well, you must be Mrs. Thea Scott.”

  Thea turned around and came face-to-chest with an impressive set of pecs beneath a tight white T-shirt. She looked up and was nearly blinded by a sparkling smile that may or may not have brought a little whimper from her mouth. Her eyes catalogued the gloriousness of thick dark hair, mischievous brown eyes, and a jawline that could cut glass. He winked, and angels began to sing.

  “Braden Mack,” he said, lifting Thea’s mouth toward his lips. “Pleasure to finally meet you.”

  His lips brushed her knuckles, and Thea’s mouth went dry.

  “I— How do you know who I am?”

  “I know your husband, but obviously not well enough because he failed to mention how beautiful you are.”

  Thea tried to respond but could only squeak.

  Nessa cleared her throat. “Mack, it’s too early for your brand of charm. Why don’t you go out back and help the men?”

  Braden stroked Thea’s wrist with his thumb. “They need advice about women?”

  “No, they’re trying to fry a turkey.”

  Braden dropped the act and Thea’s hand. “Oh, shit.” He took off through the back door.

  Thea swallowed and shivered. “Whoa. I feel like I just met the god of seduction.”

  “Lord, don’t tell him that. His ego doesn’t need any help.”

  Thea and Nessa wandered to the glass doors to watch him walk. She licked her lips and then looked up. Her eyes collided with Gavin’s unmistakably jealous glare. “Oh, crap.”

  * * *

  • • •

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  The minute Gavin looked through the glass door and saw Mack kiss Thea’s hand, something hot and red took hold of his senses, which were already scrambled from the past twenty-four hours. And now the asshole was headed their way, waving and swaggering like nothing had happened.

  “He’s just doing it to get you riled up,” Del said. “He hits on all our wives.”

  “And you let him get away with it?”

  “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

  Gavin curled his hands into fists as jealousy surged. It was childish and immature and completely irrational, but Braden-Fucking-Mack was exactly the kind of interference he and Thea didn’t need right now. Gavin had been competing with smooth-talking, cock-swinging fuckboys like Mack his entire life. He sure as shit wasn’t going to compete with him for his own wife.

  And fuck if he didn’t feel like a loser for even thinking about that. This wasn’t high school. Thea was his wife, not the girl he wanted to take to prom. But logic and reason were scarce quantities in his life these days. Case in point: the argument about masturbation this morning.

  “You dipshits are gonna burn the house down,” Mack joked as he sauntered toward them. He pointed directly at Gavin. “Yo, Scott. Why didn’t you tell me your wife was so hot? No wonder you’re wound so tight.”

  Gavin swung his fist before he could talk himself out of it, before he even realized he’d decided to do it. The punch landed squarely below Mack’s eye and caught him enough by surprise that Mack stumbled back, a hand over his cheek and a wounded look in his eyes.

  “What the hell?” Mack pulled his hand away to look at his fingers, presumably for any signs of blood. “What was that for?”

  “I don’t know. I guess my toxic masculinity doesn’t like you hitting on my wife.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Mack said. “I hit on everyone’s wives! It’s my specialty. You don’t have to punch me for it.”

  Gavin took a step forward. Del wrapped an arm around Gavin’s chest and held him back. “Easy there, Creed.”

  The glass door slid open. Nessa and Thea ran out wearing matching expressions of shoc
k. Thea’s held a hint of something a lot more sinister, though, and Gavin knew he’d just fucked up. Again.

  “What is going on?” Thea demanded.

  “Nothing,” Gavin grumbled, shaking out his hand. Dammit, that hurt. Contrary to stereotypes, professional athletes didn’t go around throwing punches very often. Gavin had been in exactly one bench-clearing brawl in his entire career, and he’d only managed to knock someone’s hat off before the umpires broke it up.

  Thea looked at Mack. “Are you OK?”

  “You’re worried about him?”

  “He’s the one who got hit!”

  Mack cocked a half smile and milked the situation for all it was worth. “Don’t you worry about me now, darling. I get this response from a lot of husbands.”

  Gavin made a strangled noise.

  Thea glared at him. “Inside. Now.”

  Gavin followed on wooden legs as Thea stormed back inside, stalked a path through the kitchen, and ducked into Del’s first-floor study. She slammed the door and whirled around.

  He was in so much trouble. “Babe—”

  “I swear to God, if you try to babe me right now, our entire deal is off.”

  He shut his mouth. The word deal left a sour taste. That’s what his entire marriage had been reduced to.

  “What is wrong with you, Gavin? You’re acting like a lunatic! This is how you plan to win me over again?”

  “I’m sorry—”

  “What if the girls saw you hit him? Do you know how much that would scare them?”

  No. He hadn’t thought about that. She was right. He was acting like a lunatic. A slimy-bellied worm wanker, came the whispered reply. Great. Lord One-liner had now surged past helpful tips into Shakespearean insults.

  “What right do you have to march back into my life after a month of the silent treatment and decide to go caveman on a guy just for kissing my hand?” Thea seethed. “Do you seriously trust me so little?”

  “I trust you, Thea. It’s him I don’t trust.”

  “Oh, that is so insulting.” Thea pressed a hand to her forehead dramatically and adopted a breezy Southern Belle accent. “I’m just a fragile little damsel in distress who can’t take care of herself around such strong, virulent men. Save my virtue, dear husband.” She leveled him with a gaze. “This little jealousy act might impress me a little more if you hadn’t left me.”

  “You kicked me out, Thea.” Why the hell did everyone forget that part?

  Perhaps because you left her long before that, you lily-livered bastard.

  Thea shook her head and stormed toward the door.

  “Thea, wait,” Gavin said, reaching for her. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m being an asshole.”

  With a steadying breath, she walked out, leaving him alone with the voice of Lord Shitty Timing. Worm wanker? Seriously? What the hell even was that?

  When Gavin finally emerged from the study, he ran headlong into a line of stern faces and crossed arms at the end of the hallway. Apparently, several more people had arrived while he was in the study. And apparently, none of them were too happy to see him.

  Del, Yan, and Malcolm glared like he’d just been caught watching soccer. Del gave an angry jerk of his head toward the stairs to his basement. “Downstairs. Now.”

  “I need to find Thea.”

  “She’s with the girls. Go.”

  With a resigned sigh, Gavin followed the men down the stairs to Del’s finished basement. He rounded the corner and stopped. Mack sat on the couch, an ice pack pressed to his cheek.

  Gavin turned around. “No. No fucking way. I’m not talking to him.”

  Del grabbed his arm. “Mack has something he wants to say.”

  “Your wife is hot.”

  Gavin growled. Del smacked Mack upside the head.

  “Just kidding,” Mack said. “I mean, not about her being hot. Your wife really is hot.”

  “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

  Mack stood. “I’m sorry that I caused a problem between you and your wife that did not need to happen. I just can’t help it that I have natural charisma.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Mack,” Del complained.

  Mack looked at the floor. “Sorry.”

  “There,” Del said, looking back and forth between them. “Better? Everyone friends again?”

  “We were never friends,” Gavin said.

  “Chill, man. I won’t touch your apple again.”

  “Sit down, Gavin,” Malcolm said, motioning toward the couch. Gavin obeyed and braced for an ass-chewing that he knew he deserved.

  “What just happened up there?” Del demanded.

  “Well, Del. You might have heard that my wife and I are trying to work through some problems right now.”

  “Judging by the look on her face when she left the study, you’re doing a pretty shitty job of it,” Yan said.

  Gavin sank against the cushions and stared at the ceiling, sullen and obstinate.

  “It’s been one day,” Del barked. “How can you fuck up already?”

  Mack snorted. “Have you met him?”

  “Give us an update,” Malcolm said calmly.

  “I think I’m going crazy. I keep hearing a British accent in my head telling me to say and do things.”

  “It happens to all of us eventually,” Mack said.

  Gavin lifted his head to see if he was joking. Mack’s expression suggested he wasn’t. “You hear the voice too?”

  “It’s your subconscious,” Malcolm said. “At some point in this process, every one of us has had to fight a British aristocrat in our brain that identifies things we would otherwise prefer to ignore.”

  Perhaps because you left her long before that, you lily-livered bastard. “So I should listen to him?”

  “Unless he starts telling you to kill people, yeah,” Del said.

  Gavin thought about blaming Lord Tight Pants for punching Mack. But that one was totally his own fault. As was his worm-wankery this morning when he asked her if she ever masturbated.

  Gavin leaned forward to prop his elbows on his knees. He dropped his head into his hands. “She keeps pointing out that this is only until Christmas. I don’t think she’s going to really give me a chance.”

  “Look, man.” Del sat down across from Gavin in much the same pose as the night when they found him drunk and despondent in his hotel room. “We could help you a lot more if you would just tell us what really happened to break you guys up.”

  Gavin stood. “Not going to happen.”

  “Fine,” Malcolm said. “But just remember this. The point of all this is to court her, Gavin. Not seduce her.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  Mack snorted again. “It’s a fucking miracle you got married at all.”

  Gavin flipped him off.

  “The difference,” Malcolm said, “is to make her want you, not prove how much you want her.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Hell. That was what the next two hours were for Thea. Unmitigated hell. After fleeing the study, she helped Nessa finish the cooking and pretended she couldn’t hear the other wives and girlfriends whispering behind their glasses of wine.

  I heard they broke up.

  He punched Braden Mack!

  Did he really move out?

  But just when Thea thought things couldn’t get worse, a high-pitched female voice rose above the rest.

  “Hello? Where is everyone?”

  Thea crossed herself and uttered a prayer. God grant me the serenity to not slap the shit out of her.

  “We’re in the kitchen,” Nessa called.

  Rachel Tamborn, former model, professional WAG, and arch-nemesis to all nonconformers, swept into the room on click-clacky stilettos and in a cloud of expensive perfume that left a frustratingly pleasant ambianc
e in her wake. Her hair was glossy. Her makeup perfect. Her dress a skin-toned, form-fitting bandage that had the added insult of looking amazing on her. Her husband, Gavin’s teammate Jake Tamborn, strolled in behind her.

  Rachel greeted Nessa with an air kiss on each cheek. “Thank you so much for having us,” she crooned. “I just couldn’t deal with either of our families this year, and I gave our cook the day off, so poor Jake was going to starve without you guys.”

  “Of course,” Nessa replied smoothly. “The more, the merrier.”

  Rachel pulled back and glanced around the kitchen as if she’d never seen one before. Only then did she notice Thea. Her eyes widened. Her glossy lips parted. Thea half expected fangs to appear. But then she suddenly seemed to remember other people could see her.

  She held open her arms. “Oh my gosh! Hi, Thea!”

  She click-clacked over and hugged Thea with the accuracy of a boa constrictor. “I’m soooo glad you are here,” Rachel said, pulling back. “I’ve missed you!”

  “You’ve missed me?”

  “Well, I mean, you weren’t at the last game—”

  Oh, slinging arrows already.

  “—and you missed our last luncheon—”

  “I wasn’t invited—”

  “And with everything else, I just assumed you wouldn’t be here.”

  Wow. There was sooo much to unpack in there. Thea couldn’t help herself. Impulsive Thea was in control of her mouth all of a sudden. “Why wouldn’t we be here today?”

  Rachel’s smile turned sugary. “Oh, I mean, you know . . .”

  Thea stood firm. “No, I don’t know what you mean.” Thea stared, her eyebrows raised, daring her to finish.

  Rachel finally clasped her hands in front of her. “So, you and Gavin are back together?”

  Ah, there it was. What Thea had been waiting for. “That’s not really any of your business, Rachel,” she said quietly.

  Rachel’s eyes widened just enough to show she was shocked that anyone would dare stand up to her. Jake cleared his throat and sidestepped his wife. “Good to see you, Thea,” he said, loosely hugging her in the way people do when they feel sorry for someone. “You look adorable, as always.”