“No, that’s okay. If I see her, I see her.”
“I did see your brother earlier,” he says. “He was looking for you and Luke.”
“He was?” Mia makes a face. “Do you know why?”
“No idea. He just asked if I’d seen you. I said no, but then I told him that Juniper was here, and you’d likely be here later, and he kind of just hurried off. Is he with her?”
“No, he’s not.” Mia looks back over to Juniper. “She didn’t even mention seeing him actually.”
“You want to start a tab, Luke?” Cal looks at me.
I hand him my credit card. “Put the drinks for all the girls on this tonight.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Mia says, shaking her head.
“It’s my treat,” I say. “What good am I if I’m not the sort of boyfriend who will buy you and your girlfriends drinks?”
“True,” she says. “I don’t want a cheap-ass boyfriend.”
“I’d hate to be a cheap-ass boyfriend.” I look across the bar, and I seea couple of women looking over at me intently. My eyes move past them until I register that one of them is Talia. “We’ve got company,” I say, lowering my voice. “Play lovey-dovey.”
“Huh?” Mia puts her arms around me and presses herself against me. She gazes into my eyes and sways back and forth. “Don’t tell me it’s Rex,” she hisses against my lips.
I kinda want to pretend that it is. I want to see what she’ll do if she thinks it’s him, but I don’t lie.
“No, I haven’t seen him, but I do see Talia.”
“Of course she would be here tonight.” Mia rolls her eyes. “I can’t stand?—”
“I know you can’t stand her.”
“She’s just horrible. You want to dance?” Mia asks as she takes another sip of her strawberry daiquiri before placing it down on the bar top.
“I don’t think so,” I say, shaking my head.
I’ve never been much of a dancer—not when we were ten and she wanted to do breakdancing, not when we were fifteen and she wanted to practice twerking, not when we were eighteen and she wanted to learn how to slow dance, and certainly not now.
“Come on, Luke. Why won’t you dance with me?”
“Because I don’t have rhythm and?—”
“Oh, I thought I saw you there, Luke.” Talia’s sultry voice is suddenly beside us.
I turn to the side and give her a warm smile, like we weren’t trying to avoid her.
“Hey, how are you this evening?”
“Good. Tired, of course. I’ve been putting a lot of work into the planning for Rex and Andi’s wedding. They just demand so much, but I suppose when you’re a Haverbrook, you want the finest?” She sniffs and gives Mia a judging look.
“I guess that’s true,” I say. “Though I have no idea what Rex is demanding from you for this wedding.”
“Hopefully he’s not demanding anything. He’s such a good guy. He said Andi can have whatever she wants because she’s the love of his life.” She looks over at Mia. “Does that hurt to hear that?” Her tone is full of fake pity. She’s as fake as her double Ds.
“Why would that hurt?” Mia’s tone is stiff and obviously pissed.
“Well, you know, because you werepiningfor him for so long.”
“I wasn’t pining for him. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
