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It was far too early to be waking up. When the soft creak of my bedroom door roused me, I grasped for the hand over my chest. Figuring it was too big to be Sophie’s, I felt comfortable enough to give it a squeeze before raising my head to check out the early morning intruder.

“Good night, son?” My dad’s eyebrows were almost to his hairline. I looked around the bed, thankfully one of us having had the foresight to pull the duvet through the night so he wasn’t getting an eyeful of anything he shouldn’t. “Coffee. Come on out.” He hitched his head down the hallway before closing the door.

Great, lecture time.

Gently shoving Jake’s hand from me, I crawled from the bed, the beginnings of a headache making me wince. Searching around for some sweatpants, I disregarded underwear knowing I’d be in the shower before long. Tiptoeing from the room, I left Sophie and Jake wrapped around one another, sleeping, not wanting to wake the comfortable looking couple.

Traipsing down to the kitchen, the smell of coffee had me groaning, my steps quickening. I wondered if my uncle had stayed over too and was going to witness my dad’s pearls of wisdom this morning. There was no sign of him as I shuffled onto a stool at the kitchen island, and I was silently thankful. A roasting from my dad was never pleasant, even without an audience.

“Ryder not here?”

Dad pointed his mug toward Jake’s closed bedroom door. “Figured it was safe to sleep in Jake’s bed once he’d changed the sheets. The boy needs to do laundry more,” he smirked. “You want coffee or hair of the dog?”

“Funny...coffee, strong.” I rubbed at my tired eyes.

Once he’d made two fresh cups he came and sat down opposite me, handing me the steaming mug. “Hangover?”

“Not really, just a headache niggling.” Dipping his head, he didn’t stop his staring at me while I squirmed on the stool under his scrutiny. “What?”

Coughing into his hand, he was probably embarrassed about what he saw, but he launched into it anyway. “That happen often?”

“What do you mean?” I knew damned well what he meant but if I was squirming, then so was he. I wanted him to spell it out, just for shits and giggles. I was a grown man, and while I was still his son, what my sex life looked like wasn’t his business.

“You and...others? More than one...um...bed partner at a time?”

I shrugged at him. Yeah, I’d had a threesome a time or ten, always with Jake but it was by no means a regular thing. “Not really,” I admitted, putting him out of his misery as he waited for an answer.

“With Jake?”

Wondering then if I’d crossed a line, having never clued my dad into anything Jake and I got up to, I cringed. As far as he knew we were best buddies, like he and Ryder were. They sure as hell weren’t sleeping together so it wouldn’t have crossed his mind that perhaps Jake and I were, at least, on occasion. Suddenly, I felt like I’d been lying to him and that didn’t sit right with me at all.

“I’m sorry.” I had the decency to be suitably ashamed.

“For what?” My dad took a sip of his coffee.

“Not being honest.”

“About Jake?”

Making a noise in my throat that he probably took as affirmation, I ran my fingers through my hair and tipped my head backwards. Stretching, I felt better for it. “He’s my friend above all else.”

“But you sleep together?”

“Yes. Sometimes.” I didn’t know how to explain it to him without it coming across as...icky. And what Jake and I had been doing was certainly icky. The term ‘fuck buddy’ seemed like a slight toward Jake so I didn’t use that term either. “It’s just sex.” Was the best I could come up with, and even that sounded pathetic to my ears.

“And Sophie?”

Ducking my head, I waited for the disapproving tirade my dad was sure to throw my way. He knew Sophie, who she was to me in particular, and without him saying a word I knew he objected. Nothing untoward had gone on between the three of us. Sophie had merely enjoyed the show. He didn’t know that, and I was reluctant to fill him in on the details.

“Son...” he paused before reaching out to put his hand over mine. “You’re playing with fire. These things never end well, you must know that.”

I did, hence my epiphany the night before, ten seconds after Jake had come down my throat. My cheeks coloured, and I couldn’t look at my dad. He was right, situations like ours only ended up messy and ugly, with someone hurting. I didn’t want that to be the case with my best friend. Jake was one of the closest people I had in my life, I wanted it to stay that way.

When a strong hand clasped the back of my neck, I got the fright of my life. “Morning, Casanova.” Ryder let go and plopped onto the stool off to the left of me. “Damn, I love my kid, but best night’s sleep ever.”

“It’s done.” I finished my conversation with my dad, who would likely catch Ryder up later.

“You using condoms, dude? Glove up, always. If it don’t feel so good with a rubber on, go buy some of that play lube shit they have at the supermarket. Makes your dick hot or something. That’ll make it feel better.”

I burst out laughing as my dad glared daggers at Ryder. My uncle was something else, no mouth filter most of the time, much to my dad’s displeasure.

“Ryder!” My dad admonished right on cue.

“What? Just saying.” He shrugged. “What’s your sage advice then, oh wise one?”

“God, you’re a pain in my arse sometimes. You want coffee I take it?” He stood up to fetch his brother a fresh cup.

“Yeah. So, who’s the chick?” He obviously hadn’t got a good look last night.

“It’s Sophie,” my dad spilled before I could. “Watch your mouth.”

“Oh, man.” Ryder looked astonished. “You don’t pork your best mates, Ayden. That’s a shit storm waiting to happen. Did we not teach you anything?”

Before I could say a word in my defence, soft footfalls from the hall grabbed my attention and I swivelled in my seat to watch a sheepish Sophie wander into the kitchen, a sight for sore eyes with her hair plastered to one side of her head and panda eyes. She’d put on my robe and it was massive on her as she held it tight around her body like some sort of protective cloak. Standing awkwardly a few feet from me, she looked intimidated by the two men gawking at her. I motioned her over and she came without protest, didn’t seem to mind when I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her into me. Miss Shy was clearly present this morning. Whether from being in the kitchen with my family or the antics of last night, I had no clue.

“Hey, darling.” Ryder stuck his hand out toward her. “I’m the douche’s uncle, lovely to finally meet you, Sophie. Though I think I saw a peek of your arse last night, so really - we met already.”

My dad cuffed Ryder across the back of the head and he feigned hurt over the action. “Behave!”

Taking my uncle’s hand cautiously, Sophie said hello, her gaze constantly returning to my dad. If she thought he’d disapprove or think any less of her, she was mistaken. He’d met Sophie on numerous occasions when I’d brought her to Beaufort, Ryder had never seemed to be around, his baby daughter taking most of his time. This was the first they were meeting.

“Seems I’m making all the coffee this morning. You want some, Sophie?”

“Um, yes, please.” She was quiet, not sure what to make of either man amid the state in which she’d wandered through the Loft.

My dad eyed my arm around her waist before motioning to the stool beside me. “Have a seat, I’ll get one going for you.”

The sound of a phone ringing in the living room made Sophie jump, and she hurried from my hold. “Shit, that’s mine. I need to get it.”

Ryder watched her practically run from the room. “Not trouble with the rents, I hope.” He looked at me in a weird way.

“No parents. Most likely her brother checking in.”

Sophie came back through five minutes later and eyed the coffee my dad had set down next to mine. She made no move to take it. “I need to go home. Shaun’s not happy.”

Ryder flicked a look at my dad which confused me, then got to his feet. “I’ll take you. Ayden shouldn’t be driving ‘til later.”

“I can just get a taxi. It’s no problem.”

“My pleasure, darling. I insist.” He again looked over at my dad and I felt like I was missing something important there. Something big.

“Oh, okay. Thank you. I’ll just go get dressed.”

Sophie took off quickly down the hallway, leaving me baffled. She’d phoned her brother when she was leaving the club, he’d never had a problem with her staying here before. Granted she didn’t stay often but I was puzzled as to why it would be an issue now and what her hurry to leave was.

And what the fuck were my dad and Ryder being dodgy about suddenly?

Ryder spoke first. “You know who her brother is?”

“Not really,” I admitted. “What’s the big deal?”

My dad’s sigh was one of those ones that meant something heavy was about to be offloaded. “The big deal, Ayden, is who he is. Not who she is.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Lord, the oldies talked in riddles half the time, I swore it. I was thoroughly perplexed now, and it wasn’t from the alcohol the night before.

“Shaun is one of Charlie’s boys.”

“And?”

“Charlie’s top boy, as in, he’ll be walking in his shoes before long. Running his show.”

The penny dropped. How had I never made the connection before? She talked about Shaun a lot, not so much what he got up to but other stuff, like how they spent their time together. She’d made little mention of how far into his seedy life he actually went. I mean, I knew it wasn’t good, but Sophie seemed okay, so it was never an issue. I didn’t ask, only knew he jumped about in a gang.

“You put Sophie’s nose out of joint, you’ll end up on his radar. He doesn’t play fair,” my dad said.

“Why would I do that? She’s my best friend.”

Ryder scoffed at me. “You had her sandwiched between yourself and lover boy in a cosy looking three-way all night. You had his little sister naked in your bed with another man, Ayden.”

Well, yeah, there was that...

“It wasn’t like that,” I argued.

“What if she doesn’t know that? Tells her brother and he takes it the wrong way?”

I suddenly got angry. “Well, fuck him. I’d never hurt her. It’s fuck all to do with him anyway. She’s twenty-one for Christ’s sake.”

“From what I heard, he doesn’t take kindly to anyone fucking about with his baby sister.”

“We’ve been friends for over a year. He’s not had any cause to interfere before. Why would he now? I’ve never met the bloke, no reason to be on his radar.” I got up from the stool and stalked off to my bedroom, fed up with the pair of them and not willing to admit what we did or did not do last night may have been an epic mistake.

I barged into the room not thinking that Sophie was getting dressed. When I closed the door, I saw Jake sitting up in the bed and Sophie straddling his waist, kissing him. Granted she was clothed but the intimacy was still there. She hurried off Jake and mumbled something as she passed me, fleeing the room before I could get a word in. I simply stared at Jake. This shit was getting complicated and I was not inclined to figure it out right then.

“I’m gonna shower.”