It’s not a request. The words carry weight, authority, threat. Yellow Teeth glances at his friend, uncertainty flickering across his face.
“We didn’t mean anything by it,” Beer Gut tries again, but his bravado crumbles fast. “Just having a conversation.”
“Beat. It.” Calder’s voice drops lower, colder. “Now.”
Beer Gut holds his gaze for maybe two seconds before looking away. “Jesus, man. We didn’t know she was yours.”
The words hang in the air.Yours. Like I’m property. Like I belong to him. I should correct them, should say something, but my voice won’t work.
Calder doesn’t deny it. Doesn’t confirm it either. He just stares at them until they back away, muttering apologies as they disappear into the crowd near the bar.
My hands are shaking. I set down the beer bottle before I drop it.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Calder’s gaze shifts to me, and the intensity of it makes my breath catch. For a long moment, he just looks at me. Reading me. Assessing.
“Where’s your friend?”
“Bathroom. She got a call and...” I’m suddenly aware of how young I must seem to him. How foolish. Standing here alone, tipsy, unable to handle two drunk men on my own.
His jaw tightens. His gaze flicks toward the bathrooms, then back to me. “You shouldn’t be here alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. Allie was right here, she just...” I fumble for my vibrating phone, pulling it from my dress pocket with trembling fingers. The screen shows a new text message.
Ryan had an emergency. Had to leave. I’m so sorry!! Call me when you get home safe. Allie
The words blur slightly.She left.My best friend left me here at a bar on my eighteenth birthday. The betrayal stings worse than it should.
“She’s not coming back.” I show him the screen because I don’t know what else to do.
Calder’s expression darkens as he reads the message.
He glances back toward the bar where the two men watch us, whispering to each other. His hand moves to my elbow, notrough but firm. I look down at it, and my skin burns where he touches me.
“Come on. I’m taking you home.”
“No, it’s okay. I can walk. It’s not that far and?—”
“You’re not walking.” His tone leaves no room for argument. “Let’s go.”
I should refuse. Should insist I’m fine, that I don’t need his help. But those men are still watching, and Allie is gone, and the beer has made everything feel slightly off-kilter. It’s probably better if I just let him take me home. I drop the pool cue on the table and let him lead me toward the exit, leaving a half-full beer behind as well.
Outside, the night air kisses my cheeks cold and sharp, helping to cut through the fog in my brain. I look up and notice the stars scattered across the black Montana sky. It’s beautiful, and terrifying, the sky that is. Gravel crunches beneath my feet as we walk across the parking lot. His truck looms in the darkness. It’s massive and black, exactly as I remember from when I was seventeen. He opens the passenger door for me like a gentleman, and my stomach does this strange somersault. I climb in, my heart hammering against my ribs.This is it.My one chance to be close to him.
The seat feels both foreign and somehow right.
Calder slides behind the wheel, his presence filling every inch of the cab. He smells of leather and whiskey and something woodsy that makes my head spin worse than the alcohol. The radio hums low, another country song I don’t recognize. The buzzing in my veins makes it difficult to focus on anything but him.
We drive in silence, and I steal glances at him from my seat.
Calder is sin dipped in danger, and I want to taste that danger.Once.Just once.
I take in his clenched jaw and the way his knuckles whiten as he strangles the steering wheel in his grip. He seems angry, but I can’t tell if it’s because of me or the situation or something else entirely.
“Thank you,” I say again, breaking the quiet, “for helping me back there.”
“Don’t mention it.”
