Since he didn’t care to get drunk alone—something he’d stopped doing a long time ago when he’d acknowledged he was on a downward slide—he decided to head down to Moonshiners. Saturday nights were the busiest for the bar, so there was a good chance he would see someone he knew. At least this way, he could play pool and carry on a conversation with someone other than himself and have a beer or two.
When he arrived a little after nine, the parking lot was full, the bar bustling. Several people on the makeshift dance floor were attempting to line dance to “Achy Breaky Heart” while onlookers cheered them on. All the stools at the bar were occupied, and there were groups crowded around the pool tables. Looked like he’d made the right decision tonight.
Trey made his way to the bar, skimming all the faces to find someone he knew, and that’s when he saw them. Evan Vaughn, Slade Elliott, and the new guy, Atticus James, were sitting at a table near the back wall, engaged in conversation. Slade was grinning ear to ear while Atticus was talking. Evan looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, so Trey decided to head over, figuring he could give his old partner an out if he wanted one.
“Thanks, Rafe. Start a tab for me, will ya?” Trey told the bartender as he took the cold bottle and sauntered toward the back.
Evan’s gaze landed on him first, his surprise there one second, gone the next. Trey grinned, lifting his bottle in greeting.
“Well, look who it is,” Slade said with a shit-eating grin. “How the hell’ve you been, man?”
“Good.” It was a harmless lie. “You?”
“Same ol’ same ol’.” Slade nodded to Atticus. “You remember the new kid.”
“Kid, my ass.” Atticus snorted, his eyes shifting to Trey. “I figure twenty-five’s old enough to know better, young enough to do him anyway.”
Ah, hell. Atticus had looked right at Trey when he saidhim. And since that’s not how the saying went, Trey got the impression that Atticus was flirting. It wouldn’t have been more obvious if he’d usedyouinstead ofhim. He’d heard Reese grumble about Atticus a few times in recent weeks, claiming the guy had no problem openly flirting with Brantley. Reese had said the kid wasn’t a real threat because he understood Brantley was spoken for, and Trey had believed him. More so when Reese relayed how his mother had hit Atticus over the head with a baseball bat the first time she saw him. Reese told him he used that to warn Atticus off anytime he started crossing the line.
The kid was obviously a natural flirt, especially since that gleam in his eyes said he was looking to throw caution to the wind tonight.
Trey took a pull on his beer and quickly assessed him. He was damn easy on the eyes with dark hair—floppy on top, tapered at the sides and back—and those mischievous green eyes. A couple of years ago, Trey would’ve found him just perfect for a night of sin and debauchery. These days, he didn’t find even the prospect appealing. He preferred dark hair and hazel eyes with a body built to take everything Trey could dish out. This kid looked like he’d blow away in a stiff breeze.
“Magnus with you?” Evan asked, dragging Trey’s attention back.
“Pull up a chair,” Slade insisted before Trey could answer.
He started to reach for one at the next table, but Atticus beat him to it, pulling it over and gesturing for him to sit. If he thought that gesture was gonna get him laid tonight, the kid had better think again.
“I honestly don’t know,” Trey told Evan. “Probably at home.”
“How’re things at Camp K-9?”
Trey shrugged and bided some time by drinking his beer. “I quit workin’ there last week.” When Evan’s muddy brown eyes turned curiously concerned, Trey tacked on, “Ava’s all healed up, so Magnus came back to work. I was only helpin’ out temporarily.”
It was the same thing he’d told his brother, and while it wasn’t the whole truth, it wasn’t a lie either. Perhaps he’d hoped things might progress with them to the point he could become a permanent fixture. But then he’d basically sat back and watched Ava and Magnus fall in love with each other right before his eyes. Taking his leave seemed like the better option.
Then how the fuck do you explain that kiss?
Trey downed half his beer to drown out that fucking voice. The last thing he wanted to do was think about how Ava’s kiss had knocked him for a fucking loop. It’d been unexpected, but his reaction to it more so. Since then, he’d found himself daydreaming about shit he had no business even thinking about.
“How’re things at the office?” Trey asked, quickly changing the subject.
“Same ol’ shit, different day,” Slade answered.
“Is that your answer for everything?” Evan grumbled.
“What?”
“Same ol’ shit,” Evan drawled, mimicking Slade’s laid-back country twang.
“It’s true, ain’t it?”
Trey smirked as he watched the interaction between the two. He’d heard that Slade and Evan had partnered up on the task force after Trey left. Evan was the silent, brooding type, and Slade the outgoing, never-met-a-stranger kind. The two mixed about as well as oil and water except when it came to solving cases. They had a knack for uncovering things no one else thought to look for.
The four of them spent the next couple of hours shooting the shit while Trey sucked down one beer after another. His limit of three had gone out the window when he saw a petite blond who reminded him of Ava wearing those damn cowboy boots. Since she strolled into the bar, Trey’s thoughts had gone off the rails. He was doing his best to drown out the noises in his head, the ones telling him he should check in with Magnus, see how Ava was doing. He hated how he’d left things with her, brushing off her text message like it didn’t matter. Truth was, he’d been as conflicted about that kiss as he was with how things ended with Magnus.
And while he was getting three sheets to the wind, Trey avoided Atticus’s blatant advances. If he’d thought for one second the kid wasn’t playing with him, he would’ve quickly put him in his place. But something told Trey that Atticus enjoyed the banter far more than he would enjoy anything else. Brantley had mentioned he was a lone wolf, but he didn’t go into details. Since Trey had no desire to get cozy with anyone right now, he settled for pretending not to notice.
