I couldn’t care less that she’d used a fake ID to enter a bar. My problem was the speculation in her gaze as she zeroed in on Wyatt’s arm around me. Fifteen seconds later, she’d wound her way through the tables to stand directly in front of the table the rest of the guys had pushed against our booth.
“Hello, Piper. Who’s your friend?” She twirled a lock of her deep brunette hair around her finger like she was still sixteen or something.
Under the table I clenched Wyatt’s rock-hard thigh, but otherwise I maintained my cool—barely. “Hello, Phillipa. Jumping the gun a bit I see.”
“You going to rat me out?”
“No point.” Turning to Wyatt, I said, “I imagine you’ve figured out who this is.”
He stared at Pippa with a raised brow. “Your sister. Huh.” That one syllable contained an entire book of thoughts. He lifted his arm from around me and stood to reach across the booth. “Wyatt Baxter. You can call me Bax.” After briefly shaking her hand, he sat back down and added, “These are my roommates and their girlfriends.” Was it my imagination, or did he add a bit of emphasis to “girlfriends”? “Callahan and Jamaica—I think you already know her—and Danny and Taryn.”
“These guys are more of Wyatt’s teammates.” With a nod, I indicated the other players seated at the table beside us.
Wyatt helped me out there too. “Dally, Taco, Dalton, Fitz, Tarvarius, and Patty.”
Each guy nodded or saluted as Wyatt called his name—some with open interest, others with more shuttered expressions.
“This is my sister, Phillipa,” I said.
When Wyatt returned to his seat, he wrapped his arm across my shoulders and pulled me tight against his side, though he rubbed his fingers lightly over my arm, an outward show of ease for my sister’s benefit. Beneath his touch I relaxed a fraction. He had me. He was there for me, exactly as he’d promised he would be.
“This is who you’re dating?” Pippa asked, that speculative gleam back in her eyes.
“Yes.” Tilting my head, I glanced past her. “You here with Charlie?”
“That’s over.” She shrugged as though her cheating on me with my ex-boyfriend was no big deal. “I’m here with my sorority friends.”
I couldn’t help the tiny gasp that escaped my lips at her callous indifference.
On cue a group of giggling, simpering girls joined my sister. One in particular stood out because the second she opened her mouth everyone at our table went rigid.
“Hello, boys. Long time, no see.”
“How many times are the bouncers going to have to confiscate your fake ID before you catch a clue you’re not wanted here, Tory?” The venom in Callahan’s voice riveted my eyes to him.
“Don’t be a spoilsport, Callahan,” Tory said. Something feral in her expression explained why Pippa was hanging with her. Though I’d done my best to keep her away from the mean girls in high school, somewhere along the line when I wasn’t there, my sister had become one.
“Jersey chasers are bad news. Your sister should watch who she hangs with,” Fitz said, his tone equally menacing. His words might have been directed at me, but he didn’t take his eyes off Tory.
“After the mess you caused last semester, Tory, not one man here is interested in dating you. Move on before you embarrass yourself any more.” Callahan narrowed his eyes, making his meaning more than clear.
“Oh, Callahan. You’re so naïve.” Though her tone was airy, her smile was brittle. “Come on, girls, I know a better place to party on Valentine’s Day.”
With that she tossed her hair and flounced away, the other three or four girls with her falling into step in her wake. All except Pippa.
“I’ll make sure Piper invites you to dinner when our parents come to town next month, Wyatt.” The hair twirl again was already old.
“It’s Bax, Phillipa.”
My sister’s rapid blinks at the steel in his tone said she’d heard exactly what he was saying. Her flirtations were wasted on him. Now that I thought about it, I remembered how Charlie had always flirted with Pippa. At the time, I’d thought he was being nice to my little sister. Recent events had me thinking about those flirtations in a different light.
On the other hand, Wyatt was leaving no doubt he had no interest in Pippa whatsoever. Without meaning to, I sagged into his side, and he let his arm drop to my waist to tighten around me.
“See you later, Pippa.”
The narrow-eyed daggers she sent my way told their own story about her attitude concerning her introduction to my boyfriend. I had a bad feeling she saw this setback as a challenge.
“That’s your sister?” Callahan asked as we all watched her saunter away to join her friends.
