CHAPTER TWO
Sunday, 4 December
“No.” Riley pushed his empty pint glass towards Abi. “And it’s your round.”
She ignored it and grabbed his hand instead. “Why not? You love my dad’s lodge. I know you do, so what’s the problem?”
The problem was that beautiful lodge in Wales was now tarnished with his failed attempt at confessing his feelings for Alex, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that. He hadn’t told anyone, and he didn’t intend to. Ever. After mulling the whole thing over and over for the last few days, the only thing Riley felt about that weekend was hurt and embarrassed. No way was he going back to the scene of the crime, as it were.
Abi squeezed his fingers and batted her eyelashes at him. “Come on… it’ll be fun.”
Fun?Nope, it would be many things, but definitely not that.
He rolled his eyes at her attempts to persuade him. “You know that’s never going to work on me, right? Nick might fall for it, but that’s because he’s your boyfriend and you regularly have his cock in your mouth. He has incentive.” She slapped him on the arm in mock outrage. “Whereas I’ve seen you with your head in the toilet after one too many tequilas and cursing like a sailor.”
“So has Nick.”
Riley grinned. “My earlier point still stands.”
“Fine.” Accepting defeat with a sigh, Abi let go of his hand and grabbed his empty glass. “Same again?”
Riley nodded. “Oh, your better half just walked through the door.” He nodded over to the heavily tinselled front door of the pub, where Nick was busy dodging past the spray of mistletoe taped to the ceiling.
“He has impeccable timing, as always.” Abi waited for him to reach their table, gave him a kiss hello, and then walked over to the bar that was also thick with red, gold, and green tinsel. The fairy lights weren’t all that visible in the daytime, but they edged the bar and spread out around the room like creeping vines.
Their local had been transformed into Santa’s grotto. Riley loved it. He caught Abi’s eye as she waited to be served, and she mouthed “Weekend away” at him, with a big cheesy grin.
No.
Nick sat down in Abi’s vacated seat, took one look at Riley’s face, and laughed. “She tried to change your mind about the lodge, then?”
“How could you tell?”
“You have this disgruntled expression as though someone put something nasty in your pint. You always get it when people try and persuade you to do stuff you aren’t keen on but think you should do anyway.”
Apart from Alex, who he was trying hard not to think about at the moment, Nick probably knew him the best out of all of them. He knew Alex well too, seeing as they’d all gone to school together, and he had an air of understanding about him that made Riley nervous.
Sure enough, Nick glanced over his shoulder at Abi and, seemingly satisfied that she was still at the bar, leaned forward across the table. “Alex won’t be there.”
Riley tensed for a second before forcing himself to relax, but he could tell Nick caught it. Not sure of the right way to respond to that—it seemed like a loaded statement—he replied with “So?”
Judging from the sudden gleam in Nick’s eyes, that was totally the wrong thing to say.
“See, normally you’d already know this and be going off on a rant about how unfair it was that Alex couldn’t get time off to come with us. What’s the point of working for your dad if there’s no perks? Right?” He sat back in his seat and jabbed a finger at Riley. “I fucking knew it.”
Shit.
Playing innocent, Riley frowned and resisted the temptation to start fiddling with his beer mat. “Knew what?”
Nick shook his head. “Don’t do that, Ri.” Lowering his voice and his finger, he leaned a little closer. “Something happened between you and Alex at the lodge, and I’m pretty sure I know what it was.”
“Nothing happened.”Where the fuck is Abi with those drinks?
Obviously thinking the same thing, Nick glanced back to the bar again. “I know the pair of you too fucking well to miss all the bloody tension on Sunday morning. You’re not subtle, but thankfully for you, the others were either too tired or hungover to notice.” He sighed and his face softened, making Riley’s heart race. “What did he do?”
It all came back in a rush, and Riley felt his cheeks heat. “He forgot,” he hissed out, keeping an eye on Abi as she paid. “I kissed him, and he kissed me back. It was all great, like some fucking fairy-tale ending. Except we woke up the next day, and he didn’t remember any of it.”
Nick opened his mouth to reply, but Abi was setting their pints on the table, with a huff.
