“Then go sit on the couch. You don’t need lime or salt or anything, right?”
Border shook his head. “Not with Patron. It goes down smoothly.”
“Too smoothly sometimes,” Jake murmured.
Border settled himself on the couch while Jake sat next to him, not quite touching, but closer than they’d been sitting since he’d gotten there. It seemed they were ready to break through a few of those boundaries they kept toeing around.
“We never could afford this kind of tequila when we were younger,” Border said with a laugh. “The crap we used to drink, I’m pretty sure it took a layer of my stomach lining with it.”
Jake rolled his eyes as he poured each of them a shot. “It was what we could afford at the time.” He handed Border one of the shots and tapped his glass to the other. “To figuring it the fuck out.”
Border snorted but nodded. He quickly took the shot, the warm burn of tequila sliding down his throat nice and smooth. There was a reason this was his favorite brand.
Jake lifted the bottle. “Another?”
While it would take more than one shot for Border to even start to feel the effects of damn good tequila, he didn’t want to start down that road…yet. “Not right now.”
Jake nodded and set the bottle down before settling into the couch a bit more. “So…”
“So…”
“Your shoulder and neck still bothering you?” Jake asked.
Border wanted to lie so he wouldn’t have to explain the scars but knew if he started down that path, there would be no coming back from it. Once he lied, he’d have to keep up the lie, and he’d only lose Jake in the process. And probably Maya, as well. Though he had to talk to her in order to have her.
For now, Jake had Maya. Hopefully soon, he would have Border.
That meant that Border and Maya would find a way to work out how they would…be. Eventually.
And those thoughts were why he needed the damn tequila in the first place.
He nodded in lieu of answering since he wasn’t quite sure his voice would be steady enough.
“Take off your shirt.”
He blinked at Jake’s tone. “Excuse me.”
“Take off your shirt,” he repeated. “I’ll rub your shoulder down.” He grinned. “And nothing else unless you ask nicely.”
“How much tequila have you had if you’re this…accommodating already?”
Jake just rolled his eyes and reached over to tug on the bottom of Border’s shirt. “I’m tired of being angsty, so I’m going to try to get through the tough parts because I remember the good parts. You know? And if I keep thinking about what I’m fucking up, I’m just going to keep fucking it up.”
That sounded like a decent plan to Border, so he did the only thing he could. He took off his shirt.
Since his eyes were on Jake’s, he got to witness the intake of breath, the widening of Jake’s pupils. Jake licked his lips once again, and Border held back a groan. He threw the shirt on the loveseat next to their couch, keeping his eyes on Jake.
“Maya said to do what felt right,” Jake said slowly. “To…be…to be us. Are you okay with that?”
Border tilted his head, studying the other man. Jake looked so much like he had all those years ago, but better. Older. Those strong cheekbones still stood out, as did the squareness of his jaw, but the bend in his nose from where one of his brothers had accidentally broken it made the man look not quite as pretty as he could have.
Instead, he looked fucking sexy as hell.
Border knew he didn’t look quite as…gentle? No, that wasn’t the right word because there was nothing gentle about Jake. But he still had a few rougher edges that came with how he’d grown up and how he’d lived his life after he’d left Denver. Border had been buzzing his hair short for so long, he wasn’t even sure he could quite remember what color his hair was. He was a little broader than Jake, a little bulkier since he had a few more muscles, but that had always been the case. He didn’t have the striking features Jake did, but he did remember the way Jake liked to scrape his teeth along the edge of Border’s jaw.
Jake had seemed to like him the way he was, though they’d been too scared to break their friendship to do anything about it.
It was different now, he knew, so fucking different. Add in Maya, and things were just one step from being a catastrophe. But no matter what, Border would do his best not to let that happen.
“You’re quiet,” Jake said. The other man studied his face, his eyes dark and filled with worry. “And you didn’t answer my question.”