Slippery Slopes (Winterhaven Series - Vol. 1)

Chapter 55

NOTE:  I added the revised part in the end piece of the last chapter. For those using the wattpad app, you may have to delete the story then re-add it to see the updated version.

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"You are one cool chick," Nolan grinned at Nikki. "That was freaking awesome."

Nikki smiled. "I should've smacked her, just for good measure." She laughed. "I really, really wanted to."

"No one would have objected," Darren assured.

"Absolutely not," Jude confirmed.

Lane chuckled. "Fuck, you could've kicked her in the face with those snazzy boots of yours and we wouldn't have made a peep...other than cheering you on."

"Well, now you tell me," she mumbled, smiling.

Slipping her arm through Nikki's, Lizzy shook her head. "You're like this awesome, cool, sexy, badass chick—where is your boyfriend? Men should be lined up to get at you."

Nikki cast her friends a perturbed look. "I haven't found anyone that these guys approve of yet."

"What?" Lizzy laughed.

"Hey, just looking out for you, doll," Jude winked. "We're just making sure you get the best of the best and weeding out the losers along the way."

Lizzy looked at Jude and smirked. "You've vetoed all her potential prospects, but you let that Tonya chick get her meat hooks in Todd? Clearly, you weren't looking out for him as well."

Lane laughed and nodded. "You got a point there. We were definitely off our game when she came skulking around." He turned back to the table and nodded at Drew. "Go ahead and break."

Moving past Lane, Drew said quietly, "You and Todd have some pretty cool friends.

Lane thought he caught a message in there as Drew briefly met his stare then moved down to the far end of the table and chalked the tip of his pool cue. Nolan returned to the table. "I'm not sure the audience is going to buy our show," he murmured. "We're all being a little too nice to each other."

"Yeah." Lane looked at him. "Should we all stop being nice?"

"Not for real," Nolan smiled. "We have much more fun when we're being nice."

The low burning embers in his eyes ignited Lane. Again, he wanted to forfeit the game and get right to Nolan collecting his prize.

"How's your hand?" Nolan asked and instinctively reached out, taking hold of his fingers, running his thumb over his bruised knuckles.

"It's okay." He stared at Nolan's face. "Still hurts, but I'll deal." He started to say more when he felt multiple pairs of eyes on them and reflexively tugged his hand from Nolan's grasp. The flicker of hurt that skipped through Nolan's eyes filled him with guilt and made him feel like shit.

"Sorry," Nolan mumbled. "I didn't mean to..." he shrugged absently and moved around the table away from Lane and closer to Drew.

Your refuge. There was no denying that Nolan felt the safest with Drew. It struck Lane rather hard and powerful how much he wanted Nolan to feel safe with him. But as long as he was hiding in the shadows, he would never really be Nolan's "sanctuary". Lane glanced at his friends. Jude met his stare, then Darren. They were cool with Drew and Nolan. But Drew and Nolan hadn't been their "straight" best buds for years. How cool would they be with Todd and Lane suddenly switching teams?