The beer bottle I gripped held firm against my ever-tightening grip.
“She was in town at Christmas. I ran across her at Broken Oar, and she asked if I’d seen you lately.”
My stomach dropped. Broken Oar was another downtown bar. Katrina was asking about me? A good way to ruin my day was to see her. To know I hadn’t changed, and she was still right about me. All of them had been right—every woman I had dated and that dickwad from school. “Her grandparents still live in town. She’s not here for me.”
The grandparents, I didn’t mind. They still called me a nice boy when I ran across them in the grocery store. Even Katrina’s mom had been nice enough. Her dad though... It was a toss-up who sucked the most. Bobby from school, Katrina, or her dad.
“She still wants you,” Cassie said.
I grunted. “Doubt it.” My gaze strayed to Ruby. Her face didn’t just turn red from embarrassment. The spirits had given her a solid blush. How far down did it go? A question that had repeated in my brain far too many times tonight.
Cassie followed my gaze. “Katrina’s out of luck,” she muttered. She leaned over the table again. “I’m confused. Youwere obviously right about men tripping over themselves for a taste of Little Miss Snow White. Why are you still sitting here, letting her get hit on?”
Why was I?
Because she could have anyone. Not some workaholic who had lived with his mother until he was almost thirty and spent all his time helping his family. And when he wasn’t, he had “hobbies to be ashamed of,” according to Katrina. Hobbies that had made her embarrassed of and for me.
“She gets to choose who she’s with,” I said.
Cassie’s eyes flared. “You’d let her go home with one of them?”
Ruby was a bundle of energy. She swayed in her seat and laughed, but she was also beyond tipsy. “No. She’s drunk. But she’s having fun.”
Cassie tipped her head. “That girl might be enjoying herself, but she’s also a ninja. She’s not having the fun you think.”
I eyed Ruby again. She spun one way, took a selfie, then another.
“Every time someone gets handsy, she moves,” Cassie clarified.
Frowning, I kept studying the Ruby show. She had told me how much she loved her job, so I assumed the photo shoots were a part of it. She had free rein to take pics and pose with people who didn’t mind being in the shot. Hell, maybe she had personal accounts to post on. I would be the last to know. I used my phone for communication, checking the weather, and tracking market prices for the ranch.
A guy with a wedding ring would crowd too close from behind and she’d jerk around to laugh loudly at another guy’s joke. Then when fingertips touched her leg, she was twisting the other way.
Shit. “I’ve gotta go.”
Cassie’s laugh followed me out of the booth. I stormed across the bar and pushed through the two men crowding behind her. “Time to go.”
A chorus of male dismay rang out.
Ruby clutched at me. “Tenor. Oh my god—I think... I think you might be right.”
I helped her off the stool and she wobbled. “Of course I’m right.”
Allen was pouring what might have been her seventh drink and ogled her ass. I wedged myself between Ruby and all the guys.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. “Dude, the lady doesn’t want to?—”
I glared at the first man to approach her. “You really want to tell me what the lady wants, Travis? Or do you want me to tell your fiancée how you spent your night?”
Ruby’s scandalized gasp rang behind me. “You’re engaged?”
All the guys went silent.
“How ’bout you, Kenny?” I asked one of the men trying to paw her from behind. “You didn’t even bother to take your ring off?” The anger inside me was rising to alarming levels, pushing against my temples. The other guys were single as far as I knew. Allen was a good target. I’d been so determined to let Ruby have what she wanted I’d been willfully ignorant of what had been going on. “So help me, Allen, if you keep leering at women, they’re not going to find your body.” Allen paled. I had the right type of land to lose a whole-ass person in and he knew it. “I might just dump you off the nearest overpass for pouring her drinks so strong tonight.”
Fucker had done it on purpose.
I prompted Ruby to head toward the door, but she wobbled again. I picked her up, slipping my arm behind her back and my other under her knees.
