“Watching baseball.”He looked up at the screen.“Fuck.”
A collective groan rippled through the crowded room.
“Watching my team lose,” he corrected.
“I meant in town.I know you don’t live here.”
“And how would you know that?”He grinned, and even half-drunk, the magnetic pull of him was impossible to ignore.
“I’d know.Now, answer the question.”
He leaned into me, bringing us shoulder to shoulder, his mouth hovering at my ear.“I like it when you’re a demanding prick.”
My body was still reacting to both the contact and the statement when he jerked back.
He straightened, took a long pull of his beer, and finally answered.“I got invited to the reception.Not the wedding.I’m only good enough for a party.”
The reception.
Something dark and ugly moved through me.This man—drunk, obnoxious, barely holding himself or his career together—would see Jamie in her wedding dress.He’d see it all.And I wouldn’t.
“You’re already drunk.Aren’t you supposed to save it for the party?”
“Nah.”He waved a hand.“I don’t think I’m going.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can tell how much it bothers you.”His expression shifted, something genuine moving through it.The easy charm dropped away for just a second, and what was underneath was surprisingly steady.
Then he cleared his throat and it was gone.“Besides, your girl seems all right, but I never liked Eric much.Everyone acts like he’s some kind of saint.Pretentious asshole, if you ask me.”
I almost laughed.He was either trying to be nice or trying to get in my pants.Either way, I didn’t mind.
“Thanks, but Jamie’s not my girl anymore.”The lump in my throat was an unwelcome reminder that I was still working on believing it.“You should go if you want to.”
I looked around the bar.The home team had lost, the mood had soured, and the collective despair of the room matched mine in a way that was almost comforting.Almost.
“I gotta go.”I pushed off the stool.“Shift’s done and I need to get the cruiser back.You should clear out too.This place smells like ass.”
His laugh was loud and ridiculous, just like I remembered, just the way I liked it, and it pulled at something deep in my chest.Something that almost made me smile.
“We should hang out tonight,” he said.“I drove too far to sit in a hotel room.And the last thing you need is to be alone, wallowing in this.”
He was right.Annoyingly, brutally right for a man who barely knew me.
Fuck it.
I sent him to my place in a cab.The second the car pulled away, reality set in.I’d just handed a near-stranger a key to my house.On one of the worst days of my life.A man I barely knew.A man who had a history of causing trouble.
Except he was Sean fucking Brennan.What was he going to do—break something?Steal from me?The most valuable thing I owned was the beer in the fridge, and he was welcome to it.
The real risk wasn’t what he’d do alone in my home.It was what would happen once I got there.
A rush of urgency hit me anyway, and I went to close out my shift.
