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She smiled back.
Oh, I had it bad. I had it so bad for her. This was a disaster. Why were we here? Zane. Right. Zane.
We showed our I.D.s at the door and once inside, I took Sadie’s hand tightly in my own and weaved us through the masses, looking for the round booth reserved for our group. Zane had given me a general direction to head, saying the booths were on the opposite side of the dance floor, next to the bar.
I’d forgotten how pulsing the music could be in a place like this. Clubs were my thing the year I turned twenty-one. It felt weird to realize how not my thing they were now.
I looked for Zane and finally spotted him chatting with a woman just outside of what had to be our reserved booth. The booth was completely full, a mash of arms and legs and talking. So much loud talking.
So, we’d stand for a while. I was okay with that, and I was pretty sure Sadie was, too. I’d been the one to take her hand when we walked in, but her continued death grip on mine told me how nervous she was. Her face looked bored, but that was just a mask.
Knowing it would be my job to make introductions, I started at one side of the booth and introduced myself and Sadie to everyone there. A lot of the guys stared up at our joined hands, but only with curious, maybe competitive interest. Kellen Tucker was the only one with protective instincts in his eyes. It would have stood out to me even if I hadn’t studied his profile picture and recognized him as Sadie’s former friend.
Whatever his feelings were for Sadie, he still had them. That made me very curious about her feelings in return. He had a golden-eyed, dark-haired Edward Cullen look to him that a lot of women found appealing.
“Sadie.” He moved to get out, and the three people to his right reluctantly slid out first to let him.
“Incoming,” I whispered.
Sadie’s chin lifted slightly in acknowledgement. “Lemme do the talking.”
“K.”
There wasn’t time for more strategizing. Kellen had landed.
“Sadie, you made it.” He moved in for a hug, and when Sadie didn’t drop my hand to reciprocate, he gave her one of those faux-hug things, where her arms stayed at her side, and only his patting hands on her back made contact.
It was painfully awkward to watch. But since I didn’t know enough about the situation, all I could do was watch.
“Have you run into anyone else from the old crew?” he asked, scratching the back of his neck. “Chris or any of the guys?”
“Nope. Just you.”
“Did you know Chris is married now? He’s got two kids. It’s crazy.”
“Yeah, so crazy.” Sadie was squeezing my hand again.
“So, what’s going on with the two of you?” Kellen asked, looking at me for half a second before focusing back on Sadie. “You both just got in the thread. Have you been breaking the rules and meeting up separate first?”
Sadie’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a bit stalkery, Kellen, even for you.”
He laughed. “I was never stalkery. Although, looking out for you was always our group’s thing, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yeah, that worked out really well for me. Thanks for that.”
“I’m sorry how everything went down, Sadie.”
“Sure you are.”
No wonder she wanted to do the talking. I was totally lost, except for Kellen being one-hundred-percent punchable. Sadie’s default was grouchy, but this was something different. He seemed to make her feel small and defensive. I didn’t like it.
Sadie patted my chest. “Actually, Denver and I have a history, too. Small world, huh? We know each other outside of the group. We just didn’t announce it to everyone.”
“Oh, that’s wild. What’s your history?” Kellen glanced between the two of us. Sadie’s hostility was not lost on him, but he seemed to have this eternal hope that if he just tried a little harder, he could fix it.
“He’s friends with a friend of mine.”
“A friend of a friend.”
