Stronger with You (With You Trilogy) (31 page)

Craig shouted something at Jason but he didn’t answer and Craig looked even more pissed off. The round ended and Craig released Jason immediately, his scowl replaced with a smile as he helped him up from the floor.

“Why didn’t he just tap out?” Josh grimaced. “Carter almost broke his fucking arm.”

The others shook their heads in disbelief and I frowned as I tried to figure it out.
Is that what Craig was saying? Was he trying to convince Jason to tap out?
Jason was stubborn as an ox, I doubted he would have tapped out even if Craig had broken his arm.

As Jason stood up, I could see that he was bleeding from his lip but not too badly. Craig looked almost completely unscathed. The two of them did the whole manly-sweaty-hug thing, which made me smile, and waited for the judges’ decision. I was stood close enough that I could hear the judges talking, but not what they were saying.

I glanced up at the cage again and saw that Craig and Jason were just chatting away, neither of them seemed that bothered to hear the results but the judges made their decision regardless. The referee raised Craig’s arm into the air and he grinned a little and turned to shake Jason’s hand.

The crowd was cheering but I was just glad it was over. They both looked so happy. Ben had said how much Jason enjoyed MMA. I knew the same was true for Craig and it made me glad that they could do something they enjoyed together, even if it would probably give me a heart attack in my early twenties.

Simon gave me a gentle push in their direction as the two of them came out of the cage and made their way through to the back room. I was hesitant to force my way through the crowd of people trying to clap Craig on the back or get him to sign their breasts but Simon and Josh cleared a path and guided me through to the back room.

I looked a little awkwardly at the two of them as they unwrapped their hands. I wanted to hug both of them but I knew that whoever I hugged first would probably rub it in the other one’s face. Thankfully, the decision was taken out of my hands because Simon took Craig aside and I was left with Jason.

I grinned at him and jumped up into his arms, letting him lift me from the floor.

“Are you okay?” I asked, stroking his lip gently where it had been bleeding.

“Of course,” he answered with his million-dollar smile. “Are you?”

“I’m not the one that got beaten up by Craig,” I teased.

Jason laughed. “Beaten up?” He scoffed. “Do I look beaten up to you?”

I raised my eyebrow at him as he set me down and looked pointedly at his lip.

“Pfft,” he dismissed it. “That’s nothing, you probably won’t even be able to see it tomorrow.”

“Come here, Jelly,” Craig grinned, walking back over to us.

I stepped towards him and gave him a hug too, not caring that he was a little sweaty because, let’s be honest, it was his hoody he was sweating on.

“Still my lucky charm?” He asked, grinning down at me with his lop sided grin.

“For now,” I smiled. “But I didn’t want either of you to lose,” I pouted.

“Reed did
way
better than expected,” Craig grinned, looking over at Jason.

“Yeah,” Simon chimed in. “I’m almost impressed,” he nodded. “But only almost.”

“I thought we’d be getting you back in a body bag,” Grayson laughed.

“What the hell, guys? Where’s the love?” Jason pouted.

“If you got back into MMA for real I wouldn’t have had such an easy time of it,” Craig shrugged.

“Do you need me to remind you of the score?” Jason grinned. Jason had received nine points to Craig’s ten.

“Don’t push your luck, Reed, we both know we were taking it easy,” Craig shrugged.

“Because of me?” I asked uncertainly. I wasn’t sure if it made me happy or sad that they’d taken it easy.

“Mostly,” Craig shrugged. “But also because we were just doing it for kicks.”

“No point your brother injuring himself on a fight like this when he has title fights coming up,” Jason nodded.

“Anyways, my point was that if you were back into training you might be able to beat me again one day,” Craig shrugged, grabbing his towel from his bag and heading to the showers.

“Again?” I asked at the same time as Josh and Grayson.

“You’ve beaten him before?” Simon frowned in confusion.

Jason just shook his head in amusement and headed for the showers himself, leaving me with the others.

“Have they fought before, Jamie?” Grayson asked me.

“He mentioned that they had a few times, but it was years ago. He didn’t say who won,” I answered, realising that I’d never asked. I’d actually just assumed Craig had won by the way Jason was talking about him as if he was some sort of celebrity. I felt a little guilty for not asking Jason about it, but at the same time he never seemed that keen on talking about his past.

When everyone was ready, we walked back to the house, Shana and Lottie in tow. They seemed suspiciously tipsy considering there was no alcohol served at the fight. Shana’s handbag looked questionably heavy and I suspected she might have a bottle in there.

Lottie seemed to have set her sights on Grayson but he didn’t appear to mind too much and I caught him grinning conspiratorially at Josh a few times. That left Shana hovering around Craig and asking him a million different questions. I chatted happily with Jason, interrogating him about his previous fights with my brother. Apparently, they had now balanced up their fight history because Jason had beaten Craig on two prior occasions but only lost once.

“After you,” Jason grinned at me as he held the door to the flat open.

“Such a gentleman,” I teased, pushing up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss before I entered.

I went straight to the kitchen to make a cup of tea because I needed a cup, and a big cup at that, if I was going to survive a night with Shana.

“She doesn’t give up easily, does she?” Craig sighed, following me into the kitchen.

“Who?” I asked, feigning innocence but having a pretty good idea who he was referring to.

Craig gave me a look that told me he knew exactly what I was doing. “What was it Karl said?” He grinned. “There’s only so many polite ways you can tell a girl where to shove it.”

I giggled and slipped past him to the fridge to get the milk. “Don’t you like her? She’s pretty,” I shrugged, handing him a cup of fruit tea because I knew he’d like it.

“She’s okay I guess,” he shrugged. “Seems like kind of a bitch though.”

I did a pathetic job of hiding my smile at his assessment of Shana and tried to cover it up by sipping my too warm tea.

“I didn’t think you cared about that stuff,” I said, raising my eyebrow at him. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you said so when I said I didn’t like that girl Matt brought home once.”

“Oh God, she was horrifying. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard,” Craig grimaced.

“Yeah, that’s my point,” I smirked. “You said it didn’t matter because her mouth would be around a certain bodily appendage.”

“Jelly!” Craig scowled. “Jesus, I don’t wanna hear my sister talking like that!”

“You guys talk like that all the time!” I accused.

“We’re older,” he shrugged, as if that made it okay. “Besides, it wasn’t me that said that, it was one of the twins.” He turned away and walked back into the lounge and I followed, shaking my head at him behind his back.

Jason grinned as I entered the room and motioned for me to come sit with him on the floor next to the sofa. Craig sat on the sofa behind us and Shana slid in next to him with Josh on her other side. Grayson and Lottie were making good use of the chair by sharing it.

Despite Shana’s presence, I was having a pretty good time. The general mood was happy and the air was filled with laughter and playful taunting. I loved seeing Craig so relaxed and happy, he was different around Jason and his friends from how he was when we were at home.

Shana kept giggling at everything he said and edging closer and closer to him on the sofa, finding any excuse to touch him. Craig brushed her off tactfully for the most part. She was being mostly ignored but carried on regardless.

“You okay, little squirrel?” Jason whispered in my ear.

He had his arms wrapped around my waist as I sat between his legs and enjoyed his warmth against my back.

“I am,” I grinned, leaning my head back against his shoulder so I could kiss his faintly stubbled jawline appreciatively.

“I like this,” I smiled, shuffling a little between his legs. “I feel all safe and protected.”

“You’ll always be safe and protected with me, Jamie. I promise,” he said seriously.

I smiled happily and left my head on his shoulder as he pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead.

“I gotta piss,” Craig announced, pushing up from the sofa and making for the bathroom.

I glanced over at Grayson and Lottie, their faces were locked together in an enthusiastic saliva exchange. Jason followed my gaze and smirked at the two of them before exchanging a look with Josh, which I was all too familiar with thanks to my brothers. It was the universal “somebody’s getting laid” look. I shook my head at the two of them and returned to pretending to watch the television whilst I enjoyed Jason’s strength around me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Craig yelled from the bathroom.

All heads turned in the direction of the disturbance, even Grayson and Lottie. I noticed Shana had disappeared and process of elimination meant that Craig’s yelling was aimed at her.

“Jesus Christ! Take a fucking hint!” He yelled again, right before we heard a loud slapping noise and a blur of sobbing colour ran past us towards the front door.

“Shana!” Jason yelled, pushing up from the floor. “Shana, wait!” Jason sighed and shot Craig a look of frustration as he ran out after Shana.

“What happened?” I asked, looking at Craig and noticing his glowing red cheek.

“That bitch slapped me,” he grumbled.

“Why?” I asked, anger rising in my chest.
How dare she slap my brother?

Lottie looked a little affronted and gave Craig an angry glare.

“What did she do?” Josh asked, looking over at Craig.

“I was taking a piss and the next thing I know she’s in the fucking bathroom with me making a grab for my dick,” he said, looking pissed off but smirking slightly.

“Eww, Craig!” I frowned, scrunching up my face in disgust.

“My point exactly,” Craig laughed, flopping back down on the sofa behind me and scratching his stomach absently.

“You’re an ass,” Lottie frowned, storming out of the room after Shana and Jason.

Grayson gave Jason an apologetic shrug that said, “women, right?” and then followed her out of the flat.

“You turned her down I take it?” Josh grinned.

“Of course,” Craig shrugged. “Not my type.”

I could have argued with that: a perfect face and body was definitely my brother’s type, but I was too concerned with where Jason was. I sat quietly, whilst Craig and Josh talked, and waited for Jason to come back through the door. I felt my stomach growing heavier and heavier until I finally saw him come back in alone.

“Jamie,” he said, pulling me up from the floor. “I’m just gonna walk Shana home, she’s really drunk and upset.”

Can’t you put her in a taxi or let her go home on her own?
I bit back my questions because I didn’t want to seem petty. Jason had said she was his friend and I didn’t need to question his faithfulness, I knew he was mine just like I was his.

“Okay,” I nodded solemnly.

“Let that other girl take her home,” Craig shrugged.

“I think she’s going home with Grayson,” Jason wrinkled his nose, his lips curling upwards slightly. “If you hadn’t upset her we wouldn’t have a problem,” he pointed out to Craig.

“She sexually assaulted me!” Craig said in mock protest, his grin disappearing as he glanced at me in case he’d accidentally offended me.

“Whatever,” Jason sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

With that, he kissed me tenderly and went after Shana. My good mood had disappeared out of the door with him. I knew he was just trying to do the right thing by taking her home but I hated the way it made me feeling knowing that the two of them were alone together. I trusted him entirely but I didn’t trust her at all.

Josh seemed to sense the shift in atmosphere and excused himself to bed, bumping fists with Craig and giving me a small, one-armed hug as he passed. I helped Craig make up the sofa that he’d be sleeping on and flopped down onto it when we were done.

“You wanna talk about it?” Craig asked, sitting down next to me on the pullout bed.

I shook my head glumly.

“Wanna put your PJs on and come watch crappy TV with your big brother?” He asked gently.

I nodded with a small smile. That sounded like just what I needed. I nipped into Jason’s room to pull on my jersey shorts and tank top, putting Craig’s hoody back on because I was enjoying wearing it.

“You look so young when you wear my clothes,” Craig smiled as I joined him on the sofa bed.

“That’s because you’re huge,” I teased.

“No, it’s because you’re tiny,” he retorted with a smile, lounging back against the back of the sofa with his legs out in front of him as he channel hopped.

He pulled the duvet up over us and let me curl up against him with his arm as a cushion whilst we talked about everything and nothing.

I knew he was doing his best to distract me from being upset and I loved him for it. Despite everything, I was enjoying having alone time with my brother and appreciating him more than ever. He told me stories about things the others had done when I’d been too little to remember. I giggled uncontrollably when he told me that Karl and Matt had superglued the twins hands together once when they’d been about fourteen. Dad had made the two of them run laps of the garden for two hours as punishment but they’d apparently still thought it was worth it. Poor Rick and Danny had to stay stuck together while Dad nipped out to get some acetone.

When I’d finally finished giggling, caught my breath, and wiped away the tears of laughter, I looked over at Craig to see him smiling and relaxed.

“Why can’t we always be like this?” I asked him with a sad smile.