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But then there was a flicker of vulnerability in his eyes that melted my heart. “Can I just have one drink with you?” he asked. “Then I’ll leave you alone.”
“Yes,” I said. “But explain to me why you’re angry. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m angry because I’m fucking walking around and all I can do is think about you. And want you.”
My eyes widened. I didn’t know what to say to that. “I want you too.” Because I did. I wanted more than the hookup. I wanted the fantasy that my mother said was stupid and unrealistic. I wanted Little Red Riding Hood to have her big bad wolf and I had tried to tell him that but my attempts at self-preservation had been weak at best.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Because what I mean is I want you. For real.”
“That’s what I mean too.” I was never one for talking in circles and he knew that. “And you know that. So that’s that.”
Cain’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s that?”
“Yes. Now let me take this to Bella and you can order me a beer if you’d like.” I couldn’t do super-romantic in a bar on the tail end of Bella’s bachelorette party, aka the shit show. Romantic was a challenge for me on the best of days, but this was not the environment I could let it shine in.
Apparently, Cain felt the same way. He just said, “Okay,” and shifted himself around me to the bar top.
Bella was talking to some guy in a plaid shirt. I handed her the drink. She sipped it and made a face. “Ew. There is like zero vodka in here.”
“No, I watched Christian to make sure he put it in there.” Truth. Just not a lot.
“I love you,” she said, leaning over and giving me a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
“I love you too. Do you mind if Cain stays for one drink with me then leaves?”
“That’s so fine,” she said, slurring her words and waving her hand. “Oh, my God, it’s so stinking cute that you have a boyfriend. Your bae is like so dark and dangerous. Soph, I didn’t know you had it in you, girl.”
I almost wanted to laugh. Fortunately, she was dragged off by her friends to dance with a group of guys wearing plaid shorts. I was watching them, marveling at their ability to gyrate, when Cain sat down. “Bella called you my bae,” I told him.
He snorted. “I’ve been called a lot of things but never that.”
“It’s a good look on you,” I teased.
For being a man who had just told me he wanted to be with me he didn’t look very happy. He looked just as agitated as he had when he walked in the door. “So what did Christian say to you?” he asked.
The question was so out of left field I just stared at him. “He said I owed him seven dollars for Bella’s drink.”
He had gotten himself a drink, of course, and he lifted the glass to sip it, brooding and intense as he stared at me. “Do you think that I should have fought Christian for custody of Camp?”
It was a mine field but I was never one to know how to navigate social traps. “I thought your mother has custody.”
Cain frowned at me. “Technically. But the courts and everyone else think Christian is his father. Even though there is no way to prove that.”
It was loud in the bar and this seemed like such an irrational time to have this conversation. “Maybe we should talk about this tomorrow.”
“So that means you do think I should have fought for him.”
Getting upset, I reached across the table and touched his hand. “Cain. It’s just loud in here. Let’s talk tomorrow when I can actually hear you and we have some privacy.”
He didn’t say anything for a second. Then he said, “Sure. That’s cool.”
That was not very reassuring.
Especially when he added, “You see that blonde at the bar? That Christian is trying desperately to ignore?”
I turned automatically. I saw her. She was with two other girls and was laughing loudly, darting glances over at Christian between sips of her fruity drink. “Yes.”
“That’s Ali. My ex. Camp’s mother. Apparently, she’s back in town.”
