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Ducking my head, I leave the guys without another word.
Garrett walks beside me. “You okay?”
Replaying everything that has happened in the last twenty minutes, my head spins with more confusion than it ever has before. “I don’t know.”
18
CONRAD
Getting a text from Camden letting me know that Liliana had walked into Whiskey Joe’s and Emree was working tonight was the last thing I thought would happen today. When I got his message, I was in the middle of a gym session and letting out my built-up frustrations. At the rate my life is going, I’ll have high blood pressure before I’m thirty.
After successfully getting Liliana to leave, I can breathe a sigh of relief that the situation didn’t get more out of hand. If I had known she would go rogue like she has, I would have told my father I’d spend the summer in Boston to get to know her rather than have her close to my friends and Emree.
There is no leaving after the information Emree found out, so I take a seat beside Maddox at the table and lounge back. “Anyone want to trade lives with me?” I ask.
Camden laughs. “Not after seeing what a raging bitch Liliana is. Dude, how the hell is that the woman you have to marry? She is insufferable.”
“Parents like his don’t particularly give a shit if the spouse they’re choosing is a good match or not. It’s all about what their family can gain from it,” Maddox answers. While I am grateful for the group of friends I have found during my time in college, I am even more appreciative that Maddox’s family and life experiences are somewhat similar to mine in the sense that he can understand what I am going through.
Over at the end of the bar, Garrett and Emree are talking, their bodies close together as he rubs her upper arm. Something unsettling brews within me at the sight of his hand on her, and I have to restrain myself from storming across the room and pulling Em away from him. While I have never worried about Emree and another guy, especially Garrett, I’ve been feeling extra territorial over her since seeing her on a date last night.
“Dude, settle down. You’re practically purring,” Maddox tells me.
Levi looks at him with his eyebrows pinched together. “Purring? Like a cat?”
“Yeah, purring. You know, like his chest is rumbling.” Maddox’s tone is dead serious, as if stating that a grown man is purring is not unusual.
“Bud, I think you mean growling. Purring isn’t manly enough,” Camden states.
“Will you all shut up? I am not growling or purring. Just drink your fucking beers and stop talking about me.”
Maddox laughs, with Camden and Levi following him. “Oh, you are too much, man. After theConrad’s Love Lifeshow we were graced with tonight, you really think the subject of you is not the topic of interest?”
Resting my elbows on the table, I rub my hands down my face. “Jesus, you are worse than a bunch of teenage girls.”
When I remove my hands, something catches my eye to the left, and I notice an angry Blaire glaring at me. Sitting at the high-top table makes us at eye level and those cloudy gray eyes of hers are storming with anger directed at me.
“Who was that woman and what did she say to my best friend?” she questions me. Her hands are on her hips and her tone is stern. The usual quiet Blaire is gone, replaced with an assertive one that is protecting her friend.
“Blaire baby—”
“Don’t you dare ‘Blaire baby’ me, Maddox Stone.” She points a finger in the direction of his face. “I have a best friend who had her heart broken by this jerk”—her thumb is hitched toward me—“for no apparent reason, and now some random woman shows up, causing problems. While I love you all, I deserve answers, and apparently, my boyfriend feels some sort of loyalty toward Conrad and won’t give me details.”
Camden ducks his head and remains quiet to avoid his girlfriend’s wrath.
“Blaire, before I give you an explanation, I need to talk to Emree. When are you both off tonight?”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Not too sure she wants to speak with you.”
“Not too sure I care.”
“Hey, man,” Camden chimes in, an edge to his voice. “Don’t give a shit how pissed off you are. Watch how you talk to Blaire.”
His girlfriend flashes him a sincere smile. “Thank you, sweetie. Still doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for not telling me what was going on when I asked yesterday after seeing Conrad and that girl together.”
I let out a frustrated groan and look over at Emree. She has since ended her conversation with Garrett, who returned behind the bar and is back to tending to her customers. As she glides between the tables and bar, I can tell by her concentration she is forcing herself not to look in my direction. Little does she know I’m not leaving this bar until she and I talk.
Smiling over at Blaire, I lean back in my chair and get comfortable. “Blaire, sweets, could you please bring me whatever IPA you have on tap and a pulled pork quesadilla?”
