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At any rate, I’d been right about using up all my luck since I never saw her again after that spring. Until today.
Bailey starts laughing her head off, drawing every eye in the room. Not that most of them weren’t staring at her in the first place. Her dress is—
Something else I shouldn’t be thinking about, considering she’s here with another guy.
Dickbags don’t count.
God, it’s a tempting thought. For one brief moment I wonder just how hard it would be to pry her away from Dick Hicks... But I can’t do it. I can’t stand the guy, but this is still a work function for me. I can’t afford to give anybody else at Sizzle a reason to hate me, and Hicks certainly doesn’t need the ammunition. Still. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the two of them together, though. Maybe Mira/Miranda/Mila has a point.
“Is that so hard to believe?” I ask Bailey. The question sounds defensive even to my own ears. She pats my arm.
“Don’t get your back up,” Bailey says quietly. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I heard through the grapevine somebody was giving Drew a hard time lately.”
“Hard time, huh?” I look over and watch, fascinated, as the color rises in Hicks’s face.
“It’s a good thing it’s you, Coop,” Bailey continues, still grinning. “I thought for sure I was going to have to beat some ass. But you’ll do.”
I can’t help but grin back at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she says, leaning up to kiss me on the cheek.
Mila elbows her way in between us. “I don’t believe we’ve met before,” she says to Bailey. “You’re Drew’s girlfriend?”
Bailey squeezes my arm and returns to her place next to Hicks. I resist the urge to cover the spot where her hand was resting to trap the warmth she left behind.
“I am,” says Bailey, the humor in her eyes cooling. “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name. You are...?”
“Skeptical,” says Mila.
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t believe you,” says Mila, over-enunciating each word. We don’t have the attention of everybody in the ballroom, but anybody close enough to hear doesn’t even pretend not to watch the drama unfolding. “If you’re really here with him, kiss him.”
“I just did,” says Bailey. She’d kissed Drew on the cheek just a minute ago; I know Mila saw it because she’s been staring the whole time.
“Not really,” sneers Mila. “I think you’re bluffing.”
“Mila, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but this is absurd,” says Drew. “Excuse us.” He keeps his voice low and tries to walk away with Bailey in tow, but she pulls him to a stop.
“Really, Drew,” she chides. “I know how much you hate PDA, but if the woman wants a show, it’s the least we can do.”
I find myself grinning and crossing my arms. Why Bailey putting on a show with Drew Hicks should amuse me so much, I don’t know. If anything, you’d think I’d be jealous considering our history.
Then again, our history is of the ancient variety, so I’ve got no call to be jealous at all, not of either of them.
Not that I’d be jealous of her for kissing him. That’d be beyond ridiculous. And gross. Because he’s an uptight jerk and I’m not into jerks, male or female.
And because I hate him, of course.
Oblivious to my mental ping-pong match, Bailey pulls on Hicks’s hand until their bodies meet and wastes no time wrapping a hand around his neck to draw him down for a kiss.
Hicks looks stunned for a minute as Bailey leans up on her tiptoes to touch her mouth to his. An instant later he wraps his arms around her tight, kissing her like he means it. This draws some cheers from the people watching nearby. I guess Mila doesn’t like that much because she pivots wildly on her stilettos and stalks away. Everybody else goes back to their conversations, except Bailey and Hicks.
And me.
Watching them makes my chest hurt and my heart pound, like something’s coming for me and I should run, but I can’t make myself look away. Bailey’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in real life and while it galls me to admit it, Hicks might have some appeal. I mean, he’s not my type—gross—but them together…
I tug at my tie, trying to buy a little more breathing room around my collar. It’s stuffy as hell in here.
