Finn’s shot veered a bit, allowing him to pocket one ball while poorly setting up the second one, which he missed. Since he hadn’t left me much, I walked around the table to determine if I had any angles to play at all. Right as I pushed my stick forward to connect with the cue ball, my phone vibrated. I sheered the side of the ball so it barely had the momentum to move forward, let alone knock the seven into the corner pocket. My friend gifted me a raised brow as he lifted his beer to his mouth.
Fishing my phone from my pocket, I saw Piper’s text: a video of a quite tipsy Piper with her arm around an equally tipsy Chessly. “Prolly better you don’t see us like this.” Giggles slipped through her slurred words. “We’re smashed.”
She was wrong. Piper drunk with her friend was cute.
When I replayed the video, I noticed a couple of guys in the background giving both women a look I didn’t like. At. All.
Me: Do you have a ridehome?
Across the pool table, my friend stiffened. “You look pissed, dude. What’s up?”
I shook my head at his question. “Piper’s drunk and too far away for me step in and set those guys straight about how they have no business staring at her ass. She’s got something else going now.”
He held his hand out for my phone. “Mind if I take a look?”
I passed him my cell and watched in fascination as his normally ruddy cheeks took on a mottled purple color. The only time I usually saw him bull up like this was on the field right before he drove some poor skill player right into the turf. “The fuck are those guys looking at?” He handed my phone back to me.
“Exactly how far is it to Harlo, did you say?”
Another text vibrated my phone in my hand. I was almost afraid to look at it with the way my adrenaline had spiked at the last one.
Piper: It’s midnight. Time Cindyrella go home.
A second text followed close behind.
Piper: Dad’s here. Happy New Year.
She followed that with a winky-face emoji that could have meant anything, damn it.
Me: Dad? Something I should know about you?
The little dots blinked along the bottom of the screen, telling me she was texting back immediately rather than making me wait—for once.
Piper: Chess dad. Give us a ride. Talk tomorrow.
My shoulders dropped away from my ears as I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. Drunk tabletop dancing aside, it seemed even a smashed Piper was a smart Piper. Still, her texts left me unsettled.
I had no right to be jealous or possessive or whatever. Whenever we’d spent time together, it was on her schedule. She called the shots. For fuck’s sake, she’d made me wait formonthsbefore she gave me her number. The girl had turned me inside out that first night, and I hadn’t been with anyone else since. Hadn’t even wanted to be with anyone else.
I wished I could figure out where I stood with her and if by some miracle she felt the same way about me.
Finn returned to the game, pocketing the seven and the eight. Without comment, I handed him the ten bucks I owed him for losing so spectacularly and racked my stick. Though the clock had barely struck midnight, I was done for the night. He didn’t protest when I headed over to the bar to close out my tab, giving me a clue he was done for the night too.
“Bax! Finn! Where ya going?” a girl called when we skirted the dance floor on our way to the door. “We heard you were in town and have been looking all over for you.” She smiled expectantly while I worked to remember how I knew her.
Her smile started to fade about the time recognition hit. I was pretty sure I’d made out with her for like ten minutes at a party at Fitz’s at the start of the semester.
“Uh, hi. Emily, right?”
Sliding a glance at her friend, she said, “See? I told you we knew each other.”
The other girl, who I was ninety-eight percent certain I’d never seen before, dropped a shy grin and gave a little rolling finger wave as her eyes slid to Finn.
“This is my friend Sasha. She’s only in town for the holiday.”
Didn’t take a genius to see where this was headed. I couldn’t speak for my buddy, but I definitely wasn’t in the mood to entertain two chicks I barely knew. Especially with a head full of the one girl I wanted to know so much better. What was coming back to me about the girl in front of me was the part where after ten minutes of kissing her, I hadn’t mustered up any interest in even attempting second base with her.
I nodded. “Nice to meet you.” A movement at Finn’s side caught my eye—our signal for “get the fuck out of Dodge.” “Hope you ladies have a nice night.”
