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Forcing my eyes away from Laiken, I look down at Mal. “You know, before she came back, you were a lot less mean.”
She smiles brightly. “False. I’ve been the best person you know since the day you met me.”
“Oh, yeah. You’re a real peach.”
The back of her hand flies into me as Owen finally releases Laiken and she moves to give Lucas a hug. But as if she knows I’ve got eyes on her, that one is a lot shorter.
It’d be lying if I said it doesn’t suck, watching them all greet her like they weren’t absolutely gutted when she left. But in reality, they weren’t. That was just me.
“When the hell did you get back?” Lucas asks her.
She looks over at me and looks me up and down before biting her lip, and I hate the way it makes me want to turn to putty in her hands. “When this one decided to play bumper cars with a motorcycle.”
My eyes narrow. “Rude of you to insult me when you’ve given everyone else a hug but me. Am I your victim of the night?”
Taking a few steps closer, she keeps her eyes locked with mine. “Do you want one?”
Say no.
Say no!
Fucking say no!
“I mean, if you’re giving them out…”
That’s all she needs to hear before she closes the gap between us and wraps her arms around me. And fuck, I’m so screwed. The last time I held her, she was in the middle of a panic attack, and it was a necessary evil. But that’s not what this is. Everyone that knows us watches with bated breath as I give in and hold her close.
And then the panic sets in.
Laiken doesn’t make a big deal out of it when I let her go quicker than I ever have—even before we started blurring the lines—but the look on her face tells me she noticed. I’m not trying to be an asshole. Really. I’m not. It’s just that as much part of me would love to dive right back in with her, I can’t.
There’s just too much residual pain there.
“Nuh-uh,” Lucas whines. “He had his shot. It’s my turn.”
Jesus Christ. I have a feeling my patience is going to be tested tonight, and not just by the way Laiken looks.
ALL OF THE OTHERtimes we’ve done this, everything went smoothly. There wasn’t a single issue we had to deal with. But just like with everything else lately, the universe has shown that it loves nothing more than to torment me, which is probably why we’ve had almost every possible problem tonight.
One keg was empty.
One keg didn’t taste right.
The cash register shut down.
And my personal favorite, someone puked in the bathroom.
“Riley is getting a two dollar raise,” I tell Cam.
He looks over at me and chuckles. “She’s cleaning it?”
“Yep.”
“That’s fine. I would’ve given her three.”
I hum, taking a sip of my beer. “I was prepared to go to five. Did you see it in there? It looks like the bathroom in an illegitimate basement rehab.”
Cam smirks. “Been to a lot of those, have you?”
