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I shook my head, a bad taste on my tongue, even though I’d been expecting this very moment. On the drive over, Caden slipped that Jason stopped over to inform him, us—me?—that he was picking up Ryleigh who, funny story, lived in the same complex that we did.
I lifted the longneck bottle of Leinenkugel to my lips and watched the two of them as they crossed the floor. She looked like she felt both out of place and uncomfortable, but she certainly looked good, wearing a little black dress with thick straps over her shoulders, and a criss-cross action going on over her middle. On her arm, a sweater was draped and, as much as I fucking hated him for bringing her, I cursed Jason for making her carry it.
Beyond that, though, she looked real fucking cozy by Jason’s side.
All sorts of shit started to race through my head. She said she wasn’t a puck bunny, and as much as I believed it at first, here she was, with a guy who wasn’t the recipient of her note.
She looks uncomfortable.
She was here with Jason.
I shook my head and tried to turn back to the bar. It wasn’t like she came out and told me she was looking to screw me and no one else on the team. Maybe the shyness was just an act. Maybe she was looking for a stepping stone, and Jason presented the perfect opportunity.
Maybe…
“Who’s the girl with Thompson?” Nick said, pulling me back into the conversation he was having with Kyle Connor. “Isn’t that your Ryleigh?”
“Not my anything,” I said shortly, taking another drag from my beer and forcing myself not to look at them again. “But yeah, that’s her.”
What the hell was she trying to do? The longer this played out, even as short of a time as it had been, the more it was bothering me. Here I’d been, trying to figure out how to possibly respond to her note, trying to find a way to breach her shy guard, and there she was.
Not on my arm.
But on Jason fucking Thompson’s.
“What is she, like, eighteen?” Nick asked, with a squint to his eyes. He must not have gotten that great of a look at her before, if he was only seeing her younger features now.
“Twenty-three.” But it wasn’t me who answered.
I swung my gaze to Kyle. “How the fuck do you know that?” It came out a little...harsher...than I thought it would.
The guy just shrugged, not at all put off by my tone. “Jace and I bumped into her at the mall the other day. Then he invited her here. She said yes.”
With a short, slow nod, I turned my body back to the bar, away from Jason and Ryleigh. So be it. I really was just a stepping stone, it would seem. If she wanted the rook, good for her.
“Why?” Kyle asked me. “You have a thing for her too?”
Nick barked out a laugh but before he could say anything, I shook my head, bringing my beer to my mouth once again. “Nope.”
Not anymore.
Some things died fast.
