“Nessa?” Hutch laughs. “Since when do you go by Nessa?”
“Since I want to,” she answers, a bit of venom seeping into her words. She glares up at her brother. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? This is my bar.”
“Your bar? I didn’t know you owned a bar.”
He levels her with an annoyed look. “I don’t meanmyactual bar. This is where I come. My teammates and I.” Hutch slaps me on the back. “Right, Locke?”
For the first time, Nessa turns her gaze to me, and I find myself holding my breath again. I don’t know why I keep doing it. I’m not even entirely sure what I’m waiting for when I do it, but it happens anyway.
Hutch is looking at me, waiting for me to say something, so I exhale. “We come here after games a lot.”
Slowly, she pulls her eyes from mine, looking back at her brother. “Well, if you don’t own the place, I guess I’m free to do as I please.”
“Which is what?”
“Running a marathon.” She lifts the glass, shaking it at him. “What the hell does it look like I’m doing? I work here now.”
Hutch grinds his teeth, his jaw working back and forth as he processes that.
Finally, after several moments, he blows out a long breath and nods. “Okay.”
Nessa looks surprised by his relenting. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Just don’t…” He leans in closer. She follows.
Wildflowers. Lavender.
“Just don’t tell people we’re related, yeah?” Her eyes widen, and I am about two seconds from punching my captain when he adds, “I don’t mean that to be a dick. I mean it for your safety. For Auden’s. For mine. I love my fans, and the regularshere have always left us alone for the most part, but people are fucking weird sometimes. You never know what kind of long game they’re playing, and I don’t want to jeopardize anyone. I just want us to be safe.Allof us to be safe.”
It might be the nicest thing I’ve ever heard Hutch say to or about his sister. Based on the look on Nessa’s face, I’m not the only one who thinks that.
She gives him a hesitant smile. “I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Good.” He taps the bar twice. “I’ll take a whiskey, two cubes, and whatever he wants. I’m hitting the head.”
His feet stomp across the floor as he walks away, leaving me alone with Nessa for the first time since the hallway. The other bartender has gone about his business but keeps one eye on me and his newest employee, just in case. I watch as she grabs a bottle of whiskey off the top shelf, plunks two ice cubes into a glass, and pours three fingers’ worth of booze on top.
Silence sits heavy between us, an awkwardness that was never there in New York. I hate it. I hate that we’re in this situation. I hate that we didn’t exchange full names. I hate that we didn’t trade numbers. I hate that she left me alone in my bed.
I clear my throat. “So, you work here now?”
“Yep.” She sets Hutch’s drink on the bar in front of me. “I work here now. What can I get you?”
Her words are cold. Robotic even. Like she couldn’t care less that it’s me sitting across from her.
It’s my last straw. My breaking point.
I sigh. “Are we really going to keep pretending?”
“Pretending what?”
She says it so blasé. So unbothered.
But I know she’s not. She’s bothered, all right. It’s evident in the way she can’t seem to keep her eyes on mine, having to look away like she can’t bear to keep staring at me. It’s in the way she startles ever so slightly each time I speak, as if she’s lost in herthoughts, and I just walked in and interrupted them. It’s in how every time she dares a glance my way, her emerald eyes drop right to my lips.
“Stop pretending I don’t know you wear cherry lip gloss, don’t know what you sound like when you come.” I lean closer, dropping my voice. “Don’t know what your pretty pink cunt tastes like,Nessa.”
