Mason hugged Logan, then Nate, and I was last.
After setting me back on my feet, Logan skewered Adam with a look. “What’s that motherfucker doing here?”
I let Mason answer that and moved to hug Taylor. “Hey. How was the trip?”
“Good.” She waved to Nate and Mason, a little shy.
She was the closest to me, but even we weren’t super close. She and Logan had been together for almost a year now, but since she was from Cain, she liked to stick close to her friends there. Logan slept more at her house during the year than ours, which had caused some tension between him and Mason.
Taylor raked a hand through her dark blond hair. “We got to the house, but no one was there, so Logan used a GPS tracker thing he has installed on Mason’s phone. When he realized you guys were here, he got really quiet. Is this a bad place?” She looked around. “I gotta say, this is somewhere my dad would hang out.”
“It’s not really the place. It’s the people.”
“Sullivan?” we heard Logan saying. “I remember taking one off your hands more than a few times. Not that one? Tate.”
Adam shook his head. “Nice, Logan. Yeah. It’s just great to have you back.”
Nate ignored Adam. “It’s Becky, Sam’s old friend.”
Logan looked at me. “Old friend, right? Don’t tell me that’s changed, too.”
“Uh, it was old until about thirty minutes ago. It got genuine again.”
“It did?” Adam asked.
I ignored him. “Don’t knock it until you meet her again, Logan. She’s changed.”
“Not a backstabber any more?”
More like just a smarter backstabber, but I shrugged.
Logan turned to face his brother. “What the fuck is going on? You stopped taking my calls a week ago.”
“You stopped calling.”
Logan thought about that, tilting his head to the side. “Oh yeah. I think my battery died, and I lost the charger by the Eiffel Tower.” He winked at Taylor. “Plus, I’ve been a bit preoccupied. You know, hanging out with your coach.” He turned back to Mason. “We’re the best of friends now, Mase. I call him Big Poppa Bear.”
“Right.” Mason’s tone was doubtful.
“And he calls me his little baby bear. We spoon porridge together, sleep in each other’s beds, and even tried snuggling on his big daddy chair one time.” He grinned, staring off into the distance. “Such good memories. I’m the best daughter’s boyfriend ever.”
Taylor frowned. “You had a beer together. That was it.”
“Yeah, but while we enjoyed our Corona, I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking the same. We synced, Taylor. You can’t take that away from us. Me and your dad, we have a bond you’ll never understand.”
“One where you’re Goldilocks?” She smiled. “That’s not a bond I want. I’m good with the one I have. You might have heard about it; it’s called reality.”
Mason and Nate grinned, and Logan pretended to pull an arrow from his chest. He held it up. “Look at that. It went in through the front.” He smirked at Adam. “Not the back, like someone I don’t want to know here.”
“You’re a fucking asshole.”
Logan’s chest puffed up. He was so proud of himself. “Ah, name calling. Another trip down memory lane. That’s so high school.” He winked.
Mason caught my eye, a meaningful look there, and I got the message. He was still trying to investigate Adam. If he came to his defense, Logan would be all over that like a bloodhound. Whereas if I stopped things, that’d make more sense. I cleared my throat, moving forward. “Okay. Enough with the pissing on each other.”
“He started it,” Adam sneered.
“Adam, go back to your engagement party.” I looked to Logan, whose eyes lit up at the mention of party. “And Logan, you stay away because Malinda is hosting. It’s not one to crash and start a scene. It’s for Mark’s birthday, too.”
The eager light faded from him, and his shoulders almost slumped. “Fine, but where’s Matteo? I thought he was here, too.”
“He’s probably hitting on some of my friends.” Adam started off. “I’ll send him out if I see him,” he called back over his shoulder.
Once he was gone, all humor fled Logan. “What the fuck, Mason? For real. What the fuck?”
“It’s more complicated than it seems.”
“I’d hope so.” Logan looked at me. “Are you actually friends with her again?”
I nodded. “I wasn’t lying. It became genuine thirty minutes ago when I learned she has a monitoring program installed on Adam’s computer. She can get into his email and social media pages.”
“Wait. What?” Mason asked.
I looked at him. “Yeah. Why?”
“Your new friend has a spying program on his computer?”
“Oh.” Spying. What he was doing. “She had it installed to catch him if he starts cheating, but—”
“Can we get access to it? Is she watching his business emails?” Mason asked.
I lifted a shoulder. “I have no clue. I think she’s been mainly focused on his messages with other female friends.”
“Sam, we need to get into that program. That’ll help a lot.”
Logan held his hand up. “Okay. I’ve been gone a month. What the hell is going on?”
“Logan!”
We could hear Matteo yelling as he came down the pathway, heading right for us. He still hadn’t seen us, though.
Mason dropped his voice low. “He doesn’t know.”
“What?!” Logan said.
“He’s a good guy,” Mason added, just as Matteo came around the corner. “I don’t want him involved.”
“Dude!”
Logan cursed under his breath. “You’re an asshole, Mase. God, I love you.” Then a cocky smirk came over his face and he held his arms out. “What’s up, my fellow SBC-er motherfucker?”
Matteo swept Logan up in a bear hug and shook him. “Holy crap. It’s good to see you.” He pounded Logan’s back. “My soul brotha connection.”
As the two professed their love for each other, I drifted over to Mason. His hand came to my hip and around my back as he pulled me against his side. Even now, I could feel some of the tension leaving him.
I studied Taylor a moment. Things were changing. That was a fact, but this dynamic—Mason, me, Logan, even Nate, and now Taylor—that wasn’t going anywhere.