AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The inside of the bar is old and dated, with mismatched chairs and tables, mostly lit by the neon beer signs hung around the room. It’s the kind of place that light never touches, thriving in the dark on cheap drinks and local patronage. I spot the Sandbar crew in the corner, sprawled out around several tables with iced buckets of beer in the center. On one side is Evan, his arm wrapped possessively over the back of Ivy’s chair. A muscle ticks in my jaw, and I ball my hand into a fist so tight I hear my knuckles pop.
Mia glances over at me. “You sure you’re okay with this?”
My eyes meet hers. “Don’t I look okay?”
She slowly shakes her head. “Don’t hit him.”
“I make no promises.”
“Hey,” Mason says, glancing up from his conversation with Rhonda. He grabs a couple of beers from the bucket and hands them out to the three of us. “Fashionably late, but always fashionable. The first round is on me. You guys killed my ticket times tonight.”
I nod in appreciation, pulling a lighter from my pocket and popping the lid off the bottle. I take a long drink and settle into a chair at the table. The chair right beside Ivy, sandwiching her between Evan and I. She glances over, and our eyes meet. I can tell she looks uncomfortable, but there’s something else there too. Something that makes my blood simmer just below the surface. A challenge.
“I thought you had plans tonight,” Mason asks, raising his voice above the crowd.
“I did,” I answer, holding Ivy’s questioning stare. “She blew me off.” I lift the beer to my lips, my arm brushing against hers. I’m close enough to smell the soap from her shower, clean and floral and intoxicating. My eyes travel from her face to her lips and down her neck, remembering the taste of her skin.
“Well, her loss,” Mason adds with a shrug.
A cheerful blonde server steps up to the table, a pad and pen in her hands. “Your party is growing,” she comments. “Any drinks for the newcomers?”
“We’ll both take a scotch, neat. Top shelf, whatever you have. And a round of shots for the table. Surprise me,” Evan says with a smile, his arm tightening around Ivy.
“We,” I repeat softly with a sardonic laugh, taking another drink from my beer. “You guys are a ‘we’now?”
Evan glances over at me. “When you spend more than one night with someone, that’s what happens,” Evan explains. “You should try it sometime.”
“Well,” I begin, leaning back in my chair to fix him with a murderous glare. “Since you asked about my night-”
“Let’s skip to mornings. Like tomorrow morning,” Mia intervenes. “Surf report says eight to ten feet. Any takers?”
“If they evacuate us, I have to leave,” Ryan says from across the table. “I’m in Zone A. But if the hurricane doesn’t go more than a Cat 2, I’ll be there.” He glances over at me, and I nod.
“I’m in.”
“Evan should close the restaurant,” Rhonda says playfully. “It could be dangerous.”
Evan shakes his head. “Only if we lose power.” Mumbles of disappointment rise from around the table. “Come on, guys. Unless they evacuate, these condos will be full of hungrytourists who can’t go to the beach in the rain. Make that money. Dare to live dangerously.”
“Dangerously?” Zaden asks, raising an eyebrow at Evan. “What’s your definition of dangerous? Unbuttoning the third button on your shirt? Pouring your own champagne? Flying Economy?”
Evan laughs, but the look he casts at Zaden is anything but amused. “You’re funny. Everyone knows that private planes don’t have Economy.”
The server reappears with a tray of shots, and Ivy grabs one off the tray before it can even be served, tossing it back with a single flick of her wrist. I suppress my enjoyment, knowing that I’m making her wildly uncomfortable, and she can’t say why without revealing us. Theusthat is greater thanwe, who made love all over my boat last night, not even twenty-four hours ago.We. What a fucking joke. I want to expose her right here and now, but curiosity has me playing along.
When Evan turns to talk to Rhonda, I lean in closer to Ivy, my voice low and rough near the side of her neck. “Come talk to me.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
“I need answers,” I continue.
“Don’t we all,” she replies.
“Leave with me.”
“I. Can’t,” she reiterates, carefully punctuating each word.
“Why?”
