“Not.”
She leaned in, closing the gap between us until her breath was warm against my mouth. My pulse kicked up in a way that had nothing to do with the tequila.
“I can be bad too,” she said.
The air between us shifted.
Slowly, I reached behind me and slid the shot glass back across the bar toward her. “Prove it.”
Her eyes held mine. Neither of us moved. The seconds stretched, the noise of the bar fading to static around us. I watched the war play out across her face. The good girl was wrestling with something else entirely.
She broke, snatching the shot glass. “One drink. After that, if you want to keep drowning your sorrows, we can do it somewhere I won’t get arrested.”
I didn’t want to go to her house. Cam was there. Cam and, by now, probably Trystan, and going back meant facing all of it. Going back meant ending things. And even though I knew it needed to happen, even though I’d known for weeks...
I wasn’t ready to possibly ruin another friendship.
“I have a better idea.”
Harlow raised an eyebrow, waiting.
The rest of the night blurred together in fragments; neon signs bleeding color across rain-slicked pavement, Harlow’s laugh filling the car. The bass of a song I’d forget by morning was vibrating through the speakers. Her hand on my arm, steering me somewhere. The click of a door closing.
Then nothing but dark.
CHAPTER 2
OWEN
I groanedand immediately regretted the movement as my stomach churned. I forced one eye open and winced at the sunlight stabbing through the gaps in the curtains.
I was in my bedroom, lying face down on my bed with one arm hanging off the side. Somehow, I’d made it home last night, which was surprising considering I couldn’t remember anything.
Last night came back in flashes as I rolled to my back.
The bar.
Jax’s bachelor party.
Lots of tequila.
Harlow showing up.
More tequila.
And then… Nothing.
I sat up slowly, pressing my palms against my temples. My head was pounding like it had been used as a drum in a death metal concert.
The bathroom door opened, and steam rolled out, carrying the scent of my body wash. A tightness spread through my chest, and it was suddenly hard to breathe with the realization that I’d brought someone home with me.
A figure emerged wrapped in a white towel, blonde hair dripping down her bare shoulders.
And I froze.
“Morning,” she smiled way too casually for someone who just destroyed my entire life.
My brain flatlined.
