“That would be helpful,” Juliette said. She looked at Trick. “I’ll smooth things over with her, but if you could distract her from me being a shitty friend, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll do my best.”
He followed Juliette out into the main area and took up his post by the door, listening as Juliette apologized for getting caught up in moving into Sigh’s house.
“I was worried, then I was mad,” Cassidy said. “Now I feel like a loon because I walked in here to make you feel bad for ghosting me for a guy you’ve known for two weeks, but I’m the one who feels like I’m intruding.” She pushed off the stool. “I should go.”
Trick opened his mouth to tell her to stay, when Juliette said, “Stay, please. Sigh is making you the special. I’m a terrible friend, and I owe you a hundred apologies.”
“To start.” She pressed her lips together, then said softly, “I’m happy for you and Sigh, I just wasn’t ready for things to change so fast.”
“I know. I really am sorry.”
“You forgot me tonight,” Cassidy said.
“I did, and I hate that I did.”
Cassidy looked away, blinking fast, and Trick saw the emotion in her eyes. She was genuinely hurt by Juliette, and it made his wolf restless. It wasn’t his situation to fix, but he wanted to all the same.
“I promise I’ll do better.”
There was a beat of silence, and he thought Cassidy might try to leave. Instead, she glanced at Trick, and he saw something soften in her. Then she hugged Juliette. “I forgive you.”
Juliette grinned. “I’ll go get your burger. Then I’ll sit with you while you eat. You’ll love the Trick Smash, it’s a great burger.”
She walked back into the kitchen, and Cass swiveled on the stool and looked at Trick. “Is that burger named after you?”
“Yep.”
She hummed. “Juliette had one named after her too, the Juliette Melt.”
“It’s a new thing with Sigh, naming the burgers after the pack members.”
A few people came in and he greeted them, holding the door as they walked through. When he looked back to Cassidy, a human male who’d been drinking for the last hour had moved to sit next to her.
“Hey, you new around here?” the male asked. He wasn’t drunk, but he was definitely getting close to that point.
Everything in Trick narrowed down to the way Cassidy’s whole body tensed and she leaned away from him.
Before the male could get another word out, Trick moved between them, looming over the male. “She’s good,” Trick said.
“I was just talking,” the male said.
“And now you’re done.”
The male opened his mouth like he was going to argue, when Trick let out a low growl, just enough to trigger the part of the male’s brain that registered he was talking to a lethal predator.
“I’ll just go back to my friends,” he said, slipping off the stool.
“Smart.”
The male muttered under his breath as he moved back to a table with several other males. Trick stared at them until they avoided his glare, and then he turned to Cassidy.
“Do you do that a lot?” she asked.
“Move half-drunk guys away from beautiful females?”
Her eyes widened. “I mean act like a wall between a girl and unwanted attention.”
