“Did you earn your twenty points yet, Mark?” Connor asked, drawing everyone’s attention and not really giving a damn.
Mark’s eyes widened. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the little shit said, lying his ass off.
“That must suck having a short-term memory problem, especially in college. Should I refresh your memory?” Connor asked, barely aware that someone had shut off the music and not really caring.
“I-I-I...” the man stammered nervously as he dropped Rory’s hand and stepped away from her.
“Mark?” Rory asked, glancing between the two of them.
“I-I-I…” Mark continued to stammer.
“Good answer, Mark,” Connor drawled, wondering where she found these losers. The last one made this one look like fucking Einstein.
Rory sighed heavily as she gestured for him to get on with it. There was no drama or theatrics with this woman. She knew the game as well as he did and wasn’t going to freak out over the impending blow. They’d screwed each other over enough times that they were pretty much immune to public humiliation by now. That didn’t mean that she was going to take this lying down. He fully expected some sort of retaliation.
“Seems your little boyfriend here is trying to pop your cherry so that he can earn some points with his frat brothers,” Connor said, trying to hide how surprised he’d been to find out that she was still a virgin. Then again, he did fuck up her life on a daily basis so maybe he shouldn’t be that surprised. He’d lost track of how many losers he’d run off in the last five years.
She was quiet for a moment before she frowned up at Mark. “Is that true?”
Connor snorted at that. As if he’d lie. She really should know better by now.
“I-I...it was…” Mark noticeably swallowed as he backed away from Rory with his hands up in a pacifying motion. “It was just for fun, honestly. It’s no big deal.”
“I see,” Rory mumbled, but didn’t make a move to run away or cry like most women would. She simply stood there glaring at the man.
“You’re not going to hit me, are you?” Mark asked, sounding like a pussy.
Rory simply shrugged. “I don’t have to.”
Mark frowned, dropping his hands. “Why not?”
“Because they will,” Connor answered for her, grinning when five huge men broke through the crowd and started to circle Mark, looking ready to tear him apart and they probably would.
“But it was just a-” Whatever he would have said was cut off by a fist from one of Rory’s brothers.
“Thanks for the head’s up,” Rory said as she walked past him.
“No problem,” Connor said, following after her. He was more than ready to go to bed and get some sleep. He was exhausted, which was probably the reason he didn’t see it, or rather her, coming.
As soon as he stepped outside, he realized that Rory was nowhere to be seen. He really should have known better, Connor thought as Rory dumped what had to be a gallon of piss-warm beer over his head.
“Thanks again,” Rory said pleasantly as she handed him the empty jug and headed towards her car.
“No, problem,” Connor said, fighting back a yawn as he headed after her, only pausing long enough to snatch a large bag of ice out of someone’s hand.
Chapter 1
“Come on, come on, come on,” Rory mumbled as she waited for the only traffic light in town to turn green. Just as it did, she sighed in relief, which abruptly ended when Mrs. Church, Golden, New Hampshire’s oldest citizen, took the green light as the signal to walk across the street using her walker.
Rory’s gaze shot to the dimly lit clock on her dashboard and whimpered. She was five minutes late! She could not be five minutes late. Not today. Normally, it would just irritate her, but today it felt like it was a life-or-death matter. She needed Mrs. Church to haul her ninety-six-year-old ass across the street before the light turned red.
Rory tapped her thumbs against the steering wheel as she stared intently at Mrs. Church in an effort to will the old woman to move faster. It only seemed to draw Mrs. Church’s attention. The older woman stopped right in front of Rory’s new, well, new to her, Jeep and smiled as she waved at Rory.
Fighting back the urge to gesture for the older woman to move her ass, Rory forced a smile and returned her wave. After a few seconds, Mrs. Church slowly turned back around and raised her walker, set it a few inches in front of her and shuffled. Rory watched as she raised the walker again, gained six more inches and shuffled.
The light turned red.
She groaned as Mrs. Church turned and sent her another warm smile. Rory debated getting out of the car and helping her across the street, but she knew that would only encourage Mrs. Church to stop in the middle of the street and brag about her great-grandchildren.
