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Drew reappeared. “Unhand her, fiend, and take this.” How had he accomplished his mission so damn fast?
Aithan chuckled against my mouth and released me.
Drew passed a dark bottle to Aithan. “Kentucky Shinola. I’m assured it’s the finest Scotch ale in this place.” He handed me a glass with a sprig of rosemary floating in the middle. “Paloma Fizz Mocktail. Rosemary simple syrup, seltzer, and grapefruit juice.”
“Ooh. Thanks, lover.” I sipped it and was about to tell him it was damn good, when a familiar face by the host stand caught my eye. “Uh-O.”
“What?” both guys asked.
“Owen O’Keefe, my first boyfriend, is here. Everyone called him Uh-O.”
“Sounds like a bad joke,” Aithan remarked.
“The guy in the red puffer and baseball cap?” Drew asked. I nodded and he remarked, “Definitely a joke.”
“Seriously. He dumped me halfway through senior year when my thyroid went wonky and I gained a bunch of weight.”
“Hmph.” Aithan draped his arm possessively around my shoulders. “You have nothing to worry about.” His lips brushed my ear, sending tingles all the way to my toes.
Drew clinked his drink against my glass then Aithan’s bottle. “His loss is our gain.” He leaned close and captured my lips, and my breath.
I smiled as he eased back. “You’re right.” Raising my glass, I added, “And this is damn good, Playboy.”
“Na zdrowie,” Aithan said and clinked his bottle to my glass and Drew’s ale again.
“Naz-dro-vee-ay,” we echoed him and drank.
As I savored the Paloma, I considered Owen. The dude hadn’t changed much since high school. What the hell had I seen in him? He was still tall and gawky, with straw-colored hair. He looked like a scarecrow in a puffer jacket and had about as much sex appeal as one. Compared to Drew and Aithan, he was in negative territory when it came to attraction.
I’d changed a lot since the last time we’d seen each other, and I honestly hoped he didn’t recognize me. I didn’t want the hassle. Though I’d lost some of the weight he’d found so horrifying at seventeen, seeing him was disconcerting. My brain started ricocheting between insecure high schooler and successful narrator.
“Ugh.” I scanned the crowded bar. “I thought we’d avoid all my old schoolmates here.”
“It wasn’t always this popular?” Aithan asked.
“Nooo. No one used to come here but retirees and tourists.”
“Hoping to avoid notice, babe?” Drew caught my left hand and raised it to his lips then laced our fingers together.
“Definitely.”
He murmured into my ear, “Then you chose the wrong dress.”
Owen’s gaze drifted across us then stopped and jerked back. He stared, recognition slowly dawning on his face then chased by a mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite read as he eyed me from head to toe and took in Aithan’s arm over my shoulders and my hand holding Drew’s.
Drew snickered. “Avoidance ain’t working.”
“Nope,” Aithan remarked as Owen started toward us.
“What the fuck does he want?” I looked around for the host, hoping we’d miraculously get seated before Uh-O crossed the crowded bar.
“Zelda?” he called, and a few people glanced at him then in my direction.
“Fuck,” I muttered, wanting to disappear. “Hi, Owen,” I said as he neared.
“Holy shit, Zel.” He opened his arms for a hug, and I suppressed the urge to punch him in the balls. “You look great!”
Aithan and Drew held back as I returned my ex-boyfriend’s uninvited hug. I immediately escaped his grasp and introduced them. “Owen O’Keefe, these are my boyfriends, Aithan Mazur and Drew Katterman.”
