“An hour ago. Sucked to miss the ceremony, but I wasn’t gonna miss the free booze. It’s the good shit,” Aiden says, taking a long pull of his beer. He leans in closer, his voice dropping into a serious, protective brother tone he only uses when one of us is about to do something profoundly stupid. “Look, I see who you’re looking at. Do you think it’s a good idea, Aston?”
I shift my weight, feeling defensive. “What do you mean? I’mjust going over to say hi. Archie and Emma are talking to her. What’s the big deal? We’re both adults.”
“Right. Because you always look like you’re trying to undress someone when you’re just saying hi,” Aiden counters, raising an eyebrow. “Ace’s ex. The only ex who managed to turn our brother into a mess for six solid months. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you told me one drunken night a few years ago about you wanting her first. You sure you want to skate into that zone?”
“It’s been over for a long time,” I mumble, my eyes sliding back to Eva. She’s still looking at me, her smirk widening as she watches me get lectured by my brother. “And Ace is in Mexico with another woman.”
“Out of sight, out of minddoesn’t work with family, little brother,” Aiden warns, tapping my chest with his knuckles. “Don’t start something you aren’t ready to finish. If something happens between you and her, don’t ask me to help you fix it with Ace.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say, clapping him on the shoulder before walking away. “Go find one of these rich girls to hit on.”
Aiden lets out a rough laugh, shaking his head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I leave him by the bar and cut through the crowd, my heart doing that familiar stupid rhythm it only ever did around her. As I get closer, the rest of the Walker crew joins Archie, Emma, and Eva, crowding around the cluster of tables near the dance floor, and it’s pure chaos. Archie and Emma banter about his signature dance moves looking like a striptease as he grinds up on her.
“Darlin’, don’t act like you don’t like it. Just the other night?—”
Emma covers his mouth with her hand. “Archie, no.”
He removes her hand, then leans in and whispers something in her ear, making her drop her head back and laugh.
I stand opposite Eva, and though we’re surrounded by a group of people, I am so in tune with her every movement. I’mlooking at the person talking, but my focus is on her. It feels like I’m in college all over again, and I swear I have never felt more like a kid with a crush on a girl than I do when I’m around her.
Next to us, Charlie and Beck Linson are taking shots of tequila like we aren’t responsible adults now. I mean, shit, they’re parents now too.
“To the groom!” Charlie yells, slamming her empty glass on the round top.
“To Pitzy!” We all hold up our drinks and nod to Liam, standing among the group.
Poor Alie looks like she’s not sure what to make of us.
“I’m just saying,” Casey King, a friend and one of my old teammates, says loudly over the music, “we should totally steal a few of these golf carts and head down to the beach later and watch the sunrise.”
“Or we could just go back to our rooms,” Chelsea suggests, leaning against Bo’s chest. “I’m too old to stay up all night.”
“Lucky, we’re in our mid-twenties,” Bo says, laughing.
“Still, we have to get back to Philly early tomorrow.” She leans up and kisses him.
Bo Callaway was our quarterback at Walker after Liam transferred to Michigan for his senior year. He and Chelsea met in college and married last year.
I look over at Eva and see her smiling, watching, and listening to everyone. Then I work my way around the table, getting closer to her.
“Well, well, well,” I say, leaning an elbow on the table, “if it isn’t the pride of Walker University’s sports broadcasting department.”
“Aston,” she says in her sexy, raspy voice that should be illegal. She looks down, then back up to my face. “Nice boots. Can’t take the cowboy out of Texas, huh?”
“Texas forever.” I lift my beer, then take a drink.
A grin spreads across her face. “That’s all you got after two years?”
“If I’d known you’d be here, I might have had a better speech planned.”
“Oh?”
For a second, we just stand there, smiling at each other. Neither of us moves. And neither of us looks away.
The years between us suddenly feel a lot shorter than they should.
