Maya moved to him and pressed her finger into his chest. “You liked it, Jake Gallagher. And you totally sang with me and Adele. You told me what you want, what you really, really want.”
Jake just shook his head before leaning down to kiss her softly. “That’s just between us, Montgomery.”
She leaned back and grinned. “I think Border would like to hear that story.”
Jake swatted her ass, and as she gasped, they both froze. “This is going to get confusing.”
Maya just smiled softly. “It’s always been confusing. We’ve merely been ignoring it.”
“I, uh…I should get to work,” he said after a moment, his voice deep.
“Yeah, me, too.” She cupped his face. “Tonight?”
Jake nodded. “Tonight.”
He didn’t know if tonight meant talking or something more, but it meant something. And he was sure that no matter what happened, things were going to change.
Forever.
“So, you ever going to tell us what’s going on in that head of yours?” Graham asked once he’d settled down on the couch next to Jake.
After Jake had shown Maya out of his house, he’d forced himself to put all thoughts of what could be and what would happen that night out of his head so he could work. He’d have thought it would be hard to focus, but instead, it was almost as if everything going on in his mind helped his creativity. He was an artist who worked with his hands, but he needed his mind and heart in order to create.
Apparently, having Border and Maya on his mind, even in the background, helped him. He didn’t quite know what that would mean, but he liked it.
After he’d done some of his best work to date, he’d cleaned up and headed over to his eldest brother Graham’s home. While the Gallaghers weren’t as vast as the Montgomerys, they were still a decently sized crew. His parents had somehow raised four sons to be independent and creative in their own ways—even with all the hell that Murphy had gone through growing up with the treatments and surgeries.
“You going to answer? Or are you going to sit there and stare blankly at the TV while it’s on mute before the game starts?”
Jake shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to Graham. “What?”
His brother snorted. “Dude, your mind is gone. What is going on?”
“Yeah, you’ve been in a funk for a while now,” Owen said as he came into the room, four beers in his hands. He held out two by the necks toward Graham and Jake, who took them from him.
“And it can’t just be about Holly,” Murphy added in. He held four boxes of pizza and a couple of containers of wings. He set them down on the coffee table and slid the bag on his wrist that held the paper plates and napkins off.
“It’s not just Holly,” Jake said absently, staring at the food. “I don’t know if we have enough food here, guys,” he added dryly.
Murphy shrugged. “I figured Graham could have leftovers.”
Graham cursed under his breath. “I’m nearing forty, guys. I don’t know if I should be eating this much grease.” Even as he said it, he opened up the top box and pulled out a slice of pepperoni pizza.
“We’re all nearing forty,” Owen said dryly.
Jake flipped his younger brother off. “No, Graham and I are nearing it. You and Murphy are still below the halfway mark in your thirties. You can’t start bitching about the next decade until you reach the five-year mark.”
Murphy grinned, his dimples deepening. “Yeah, well, no matter what happens, you’ll always be older than me. I’m just glad I’m getting older at all.”
With that pronouncement, he piled a few slices and wings on his plate and sat down on the other couch in the room next to Owen.
The other three brothers stared at each other at the casual way Murphy spoke of his mortality. Their kid brother had almost died countless times when the cancer had overtaken his body, but now he was here, alive, healthy, and making comments about the fact that he was damn lucky to be alive.
Jake wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he quietly dumped wings on his plate with ranch and celery. He’d dig into the pizza later and continue to ignore the fact that he didn’t know what to say when it came to Murphy and his cancer.
“So, Holly, huh?” Murphy asked around a mouthful of pizza. “You said it’s not just her.” He swallowed and took a sip of his beer, and Jake just shook his head at the way his baby brother ate. And he thought the Montgomerys could pack it away.
“No, it’s not just Holly,” Jake repeated.
“So, what’s it about?” Owen asked, wiping his hands on one of his many napkins. The damn man was a little OCD when it came to lists and being clean.
“Could it be about the man you have living in your house right now?” Graham put in. “The man you used to be with, the man who used to be your best friend before he moved away? The man you refuse to talk to us about?”
Jake let out a breath.