Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

the
    look about him of someone deliberately feeding the fire. Nick liked that
    in a man.
    “God, Zane, please,” Ty tried. Nick reached out and slid his arm
    around Ty‟s shoulders, squeezing his arm hard. He wouldn‟t start a
    baseball-induced brawl in the middle of dinner. Again.
    Zane smiled and laughed, and it sounded real, not put on. Nick
    thought Zane might not be too bad a guy, if he enjoyed getting a rise
    out of Ty as much as the rest of the team did. But Ty didn‟t react to
    Zane‟s ribbing the same way he reacted to theirs. He didn‟t growl or
    bring out that rapier wit Nick knew was so deft. He merely looked
    sideways at Zane and huffed, then went back to his bottle of beer.
    192 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    Interesting.
    After four more rounds of beer, some appetizers, several stories,
    and a lot of friendly squabbling, Digger stopped the pretty waitress to
    ask where the best place to leave his shoes was.
    “Oh God, here we go,” Owen muttered.
    “What‟s going on?” Zane asked, directing the question toward
    Ty.
    Ty just shook his head. He was leaning back on his bar stool,
    propped against the wall behind him. He rubbed at his eyes as if the
    beer was having its way with him, which was unusual in Nick‟s vast
    experience. He must have really been working hard if he couldn‟t make
    it past half a dozen rounds. He had obviously forgotten that Zane
    couldn‟t see him.
    “They don‟t intend to go home tonight, Zane,” Nick answered for
    him.
    “What‟s your name, baby girl?” Digger asked the waitress.
    She was smiling, taking the attention of a table of drunken idiots
    fairly well. “Caroline. Do we need another round, or are we done for
    the night?”
    Ty made a pained sound as soon as she told them her name, and
    Nick began to grin.
    Zane turned his head, apparently trying to follow the
    conversation. “Which one is Caroline?” he asked Ty.
    “Blonde, smells like sandalwood,” Ty answered. Zane nodded.
    Yeah. They came here a lot. Nick elbowed Ty in the ribs, and Ty
    folded up and grunted at him as he set his beer on the table. But he was
    already grinning, so Nick knew they were going to get him to do it.
    After six beers, convincing Ty to sing was easy as pie. After ten, it was
    getting him to stop that was the problem.
    Across the table, Kelly and Owen were already providing the
    melody by humming and drumming their fingers on the table. Caroline
    narrowed her eyes at them but was still smiling.
    “What‟s all this about?” she asked suspiciously.
    Divide & Conquer | 193

    “I‟m so sorry,” Ty told her, smiling even as he apologized.
    “Please don‟t ban us after this.”
    Nick kicked back his stool and stood before Ty could stop him,
    and he began to sing the first few lines to “Sweet Caroline,” the song
    that Fenway Park in Boston had made its unofficial anthem. Nick had
    an okay singing voice, enough that people didn‟t complain when he
    started.
    Zane looked like he was torn between laughing and frowning.
    “Ty…?”
    Ty glanced sideways at him but didn‟t answer. Instead he held his
    beer bottle up as if toasting the poor laughing waitress, and he joined
    Nick as soon as they reached the chorus. The sound of Ty‟s pure,
    beautiful singing voice never failed to send shivers up and down Nick‟s
    spine.
    Caroline blushed prettily and laughed, looking around the bar
    with her hand over her mouth as they serenaded her, and a lot of the
    conversation around them died down as people watched, agape.
    And then the inevitable happened. Nearly the entire bar joined in.
    But nothing could drown out Ty‟s voice from Nick‟s ear. He put his
    arm around his oldest and dearest friend as they sang, trying not to
    think about why a melancholy feeling was settling in his chest.

    ZANE pulled on the old T-shirt and sweats before feeling his way
    along the edge of the bed. It was Ty‟s room, and he was more than a
    little uncertain if he should stay there or go up to the futon in the third-
    floor guestroom. Ty hadn‟t said anything about any of the guys staying
    over, but they were his friends. An invitation to stay might be assumed.
    And Zane certainly knew it wouldn‟t go over well if they saw him
    sleeping in Ty‟s bed. There was only so much that could be explained
    away as “helping” your blinded partner. Zane huffed and rubbed his
    hands over his face.
    He slowly walked toward the bathroom door on the staircase
    landing, trailing his fingers along