Two-Man Advantage Read online

  When a slap came to his back, he looked over to see his brother Seth sitting down as Laurence took a seat on the other side. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” they said together, each ordering a beer before Laurence pointed to the picture that was filling Matty’s phone.

  “She’s a cutie.” He smiled as he pulled out his phone. “She looks just like Avery and is a doll. She kept grabbing my face and nuzzling her nose in my beard.”

  Matty tried to smile as Laurence went through his pictures. Seth leaned on the bar and said, “Yeah, and she’s walking now. It’s so cute. She’s like a little drunk person.”

  Matty scoffed as Laurence played a video of Ashlyn eating some pasta, dancing with the spaghetti falling from her mouth. Jace was right there, trying to wipe her mouth and clean her up, though it was no use. Matty’s heart hurt as Avery’s laugh filled the video. “He’s a good dad, I guess?”

  “The best,” Seth agreed, leaning back. “I didn’t think I’d like him since he knocked her up and married her without anyone knowing, but he’s actually great to both of them. Really respectful to Mom and Dad.”

  “Yeah, he’s a good dude,” Laurence agreed with a nod.

  Biting the inside of his cheek as Laurence scrolled through the pictures, Matty found himself asking, “How’s Avery?”

  Laurence paused, dropping his phone to the bar, and Matty didn’t miss the look he shared with Seth. “She’s good. She’s gained some weight,” he laughed, and Seth shook his head ruefully.

  “Dad said something to her, and man, I thought Jace was going to throw the table across the room.”

  Good. Their dad could be a little hard to deal with, and it was good to know Jace was there to defend Avery.

  Since Matty wasn’t. Not that he ever had been.

  Swallowing hard, he looked toward the screen as Laurence went on. “She’s sold three more songs, which is awesome. They’re buying a new house, and yeah, things are good.”

  “Good for her,” he said softly, taking a pull of his beer.

  “She asked about you,” Seth added, and Matty kept his face stone-still as he looked up from the screen.

  “She did?”

  “Yeah, she wondered how you were.”

  Matty slowly nodded as a silence fell between the three of them. She may have asked about him, she may have honestly cared also, but it was well known that he wasn’t invited to anything. He also assumed that his brothers saying what they did wasn’t just conversation. They were trying to build a bridge to bring their siblings back together. They probably had told her Matty had asked about her and Ashlyn, though he hadn’t until that moment. They were constantly trying to get the two to reconcile, and while Avery might have been on board, Matty just couldn’t do it.

  And it wasn’t fair to her, Ashlyn, or even Wells.

  But most of all, to himself.

  The three shot the shit for the next hour before Matty found himself in his room, alone. His roommate, Jeff McNaire, was never in his room. He always seemed to get another room for his mistress or whatever, so Matty hardly saw the guy. Worked great when Wells was in his life, but now… Now, Matty was lonely. He could call his brothers up, but doing that would only depress him more. They’d talk about how great Ashlyn was and Avery, how their mom and dad were just beaming with joy at dinner. Yeah, he was good without that update.

  Instead, he found himself doing what he knew he shouldn’t. He stalked Wells’s Instagram.

  Pictures of Wells and his best friends, Vaughn and Jensen, took up most of his social media, but there were also lots of pictures of his sister, Wren, along with his parents. In every picture, Wells looked beautiful and happy. When Matty found himself on Wells’s Facebook, his face twisted in confusion when a guy appeared in some of Wells’s pictures. Not a friend either, but a guy Matty knew had a thing for Wells.

  Alex Rahim.

  They had met Alex once when they went to yoga back in Colorado. Wells had convinced Matty it was good for his hips, and Matty had teased back that Wells just wanted to check out his ass. He did, but what Matty didn’t like was that Alex seemed to be checking out every piece of Wells. He had even offered Wells his number when they were leaving. Wells had declined, but apparently, that wasn’t the case anymore. All over the page were pictures of them kissing, laughing, joking, and doing what couples did.

  What Matty couldn’t do with Wells except behind closed doors.

  When he scrolled over to a picture of Wells with his hand up and Alex doing jazz hands, Matty’s stomach dropped.

  We’re engaged!

  His eyes narrowed as he looked back at the picture, and yeah, there was a ring. But what the fuck? It had only been a couple months! How was Wells engaged already? Navigating away from Facebook, he texted Wells.

  Matty: Really?

  Matty: You’re engaged?

  Matty: How? It’s been like five minutes since we broke up!

  The messages were delivered and then read, but Wells didn’t answer him back. Swallowing down the emotion in his throat, Matty typed once more.

  Matty: You won’t go through with it. You don’t love the guy. You love me, Wells. You know you do.

  Still nothing.

  Throwing his phone across the room, he lay back on his bed, his heart slowly but surely breaking all over again in his chest.

  “He won’t do it. He can’t,” he said out loud. “He doesn’t love anyone but me.”

  He was trying so hard to reassure himself, but if that were the truth, why did he have that sickening feeling in his gut that Wells would go through with it?

  That he didn’t love Matty anymore.

  That it was over.

  Three

  Alex was asleep beside him when Wells’s phone started to go off.

  He reached for it off the nightstand, and his heart stopped when he saw who the texts were from.

  Matty.

  Staring at the string of messages from his ex-lover, Wells felt his heart start to race and sweat begin to gather at his temple. He had done so well ignoring Matty, trying to get over him. But these words from him made Wells restless. Pushing the blankets off, he got out of bed and headed out onto the balcony, letting the brisk night air hit his naked torso and cause goose bumps all over his body. Swallowing hard, he looked through the messages once more. He even went to type back, but he couldn’t.

  He wouldn’t.

  Matty: You won’t go through with it. You don’t love the guy. You love me, Wells. You know you do.

  Wells looked out over the Denver skyline, emotion choking him as he repeated what Matty had sent, over and over again. He wanted so badly to text him back, to remind Matty that he was the one who didn’t want this, what Wells and Alex had. But what was the point? It would just hurt both of them.

  He was tired of hurting over Matty Haverbrooke.

  The first month after his trip to New Jersey, Wells was a wreck. Didn’t do anything for the first two weeks, when he wasn’t on the ice, but lie in his bed and wallow. After deciding that was pathetic and he needed some spiritual healing, he went to yoga—and that’s how Alex came along. It wasn’t supposed to happen, but one thing led to another, and he found himself with his cock so far down Alex’s throat that he forgot.

  He forgot everything.

  The pain, the hurt, the loneliness, the memories, everything—they were gone. But they always came back. Tenfold. And then he was a mess once more. Hell, he was still a mess. Closing his eyes, he let his phone fall to his side as he leaned into the rail of his balcony.

  What the hell was he doing?

  Did he love Alex, or was this whole thing out of spite? Was it just the sex? Was it the fact that he didn’t think much when he was with Alex? He didn’t want to cry or beg for Matty to come out so they could be together. Because Wells wasn’t going to go back to Matty unless he did. Wells wouldn’t do that to himself. No way, and because of that, he hurt all the time. He missed Matty with a fierceness he couldn’t even describe. He missed Matty’s l