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Emery winked at her boyfriend and then placed the lime in her mouth. She made a come-and-get-it gesture. I laughed at my best friend and felt unbelievably grateful for having her. Even if she didn’t know something was wrong, she allowed me to completely forget about what had happened.
I bent down, licked the salt from Emery’s stomach, and then downed the shot. After I swallowed the tequila back, I took the lime straight from Emery’s mouth. She hollered with excitement as I sucked on the lime. My grin was magnetic as I raised my arms like I’d won a gold medal.
“What did I miss?” Landon asked as I turned around to face the rest of the crowd.
I dropped my arms and shrugged. “Body shots.”
“Ah, like old times then.”
“You don’t have any weed on you, do you? Emery reminded us that you used to be a pothead.”
Landon raised his eyebrows at me and then shifted his attention to Emery. “I was not a pothead.”
Emery hopped off the bar. “Nah, you were too scared of getting caught to be a full-blown pothead.”
“Actually, I think he was too afraid of our dad,” Jensen chimed in.
Landon shrugged. “Well, he could be a scary motherfucker.”
“Landon! Brah, I didn’t know if you’d come,” a guy said from behind him.
My eyes moved from Landon’s gorgeous face to the guy behind him. Brandon McCain. My lucky number twelve in high school. I’d been obsessed with him all four years, and I had even adopted his football number as my favorite. Emery liked to make fun of me about it. I couldn’t even remember all the times I’d mooned over him, but nothing had ever come of it. He’d had a serious girlfriend all four years of high school and never looked my way. But, as far as I knew, he was single now and lived in Los Angeles as a wannabe actor and model.
“Brandon,” Landon said. They firmly shook hands. “Good to see you, man. I didn’t know you were going to be here either.”
“Fuck, man. I wouldn’t have missed it. High school was the shit,” Brandon said. “Though who am I kidding? You killed it in high school, and look at you now! Fucking PGA Tour!”
Landon winced slightly. I narrowed my eyes at that movement.
Why would he flinch about being on the PGA Tour? That was his dream. That was his life. He loved golf with everything in him. It seemed odd that he would be uncomfortable with discussing it. I’d never seen him upset about golf.
“Thanks, man,” Landon said.
Brandon’s eyes shifted from Landon to me, and his smile grew. “Heidi Martin. Fuck me,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. “You look even hotter than you did in high school, and you were fucking gorgeous ten years ago.”
When Brandon said that, I searched Landon’s face, and he went from wincing to pissed in a second. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was remembering that crush I’d always had.
“Thanks, Brandon,” I said, stepping out of his embrace. “You look great, too.”
“We should definitely catch up later.” Brandon pointed his finger at me and winked. “Definitely. But, first, I’m going to steal Landon here,” he said, throwing an arm around Landon’s shoulder, “and get the rest of the football team together.”
Landon shot me a grieved look but disappeared with Brandon. I could already see that a huge group of football players was convened in the back. Landon was their star. Of course they had come to collect him.
I’d really wanted that interaction with Brandon to make me feel better about the whole Landon situation, but it didn’t. Brandon McCain was still really good-looking. Los Angeles ate people alive if they didn’t stay in shape. It was clear that he had been putting in a lot of time at the gym, but I didn’t feel the same spark as I once had.
Goddamn it, Landon. Even guys I could hook up with were tainted by him.
All I’d wanted for four years was this one sexy guy. Now that we were here and I definitely had not misinterpreted his catch-up-later line, I was meh about the whole thing.
“Whoa!” Emery said. “Brandon McCain is so fucking into you. Hello, dream come true!”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Dream come true.”
Emery wrapped her arm through mine. “Okay, roomie, we’re supposed to be having a good time. You know I hate reunions and basically all things high school. But I’m here for you because I love your face. Tell me what’s wrong, so I can fix it.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“News flash, Martin! Brandon fucking McCain just hit on you, and you’re sad. You would have blown that guy behind the bleachers after a game if he’d let you. What part of him thinking you’re super hot is a bad thing?”
