Page 20 of When The Mountains Held Us

I make my way over to the guys and take a seat, shoving Brandon over to make room for my large frame. Someone pushes a beer in front of me, and I take a swig, grimacing at the room temperature liquid as it slides down my throat. I make a note to myself to ask the waitress for a bourbon when she comes back over to the table.

“So glad you deigned to join us!”

Justin’s teasing tone doesn’t irritate me like I expect it to, and maybe that has something to do with the bourbon I indulged in before leaving the house. Either way, I am in no position to question it, knowing that his particular brand of friendship comes complete with mocking jokes and teasing words. I know him well enough by now to know that he rarely, if ever, means any offense by it. It’s his way of showing he likes you.

“I haven’t been out in a while. Figured it was about time I make an appearance.” I take another swig of the warm beer.

“We’re glad you’re here, bud,” Isaac says, slurring his words slightly as his glassy eyes peer at me over the rim of his beer bottle. Looks like someone is going all out tonight.

“What happened, Isaac? The wife finally let you out of the cage for the night?” My lips twitch, and a round of raucous laughter circles the table. I lean back in the booth, feeling more like myself with each passing second.

“Oh, fuck you, man.” Isaac punches my shoulder half-heartedly, which earns us another round of laughter before he runs his fingers through his midnight-black curls. “Tammy took Josie with her to visit her parents for the weekend.” His explanation is accompanied by a shrug, but I don’t miss the tension in his shoulders.

Isaac is the proudest dad, and he loves that little girl with his whole heart. He keeps a picture of her posted inside the backhoe, her toothy baby face grinning back at him while he works. His relationship with his wife, though…

Look, it’s not my place to judge, but I know it’s only a matter of time before they call it quits. They’ve known each other since high school, but didn’t get involved until years later. A drunken one-night stand following their fifteenth reunion led to Tammy pregnant and Isaac shitting his pants. Josie is two and the absolute light of his life. She’s had him wrapped around her tiny little finger since the moment he laid eyes on her. He and Tammy wound up getting married, and it was good for a while, but things went south quickly. Instead of them growing together, they grew apart.

When Tammy’s not roping Isaac into yet another one of her home projects on the weekends, she spends her time with Josie at her parents’ house three hours away, not bothering to offer for Isaac to come with.

Honestly, it’s fucked. She knows weekends are the only days he gets to see his daughter. I guess he hasn’t found it in him yet to fight her on it. Ever the peacekeeper.

“Flyin’ solo this weekend!” Brandon exclaims, leaning over the table to clink his beer bottle against the side of Isaac’s. God, this guy really is dumber than a box of rocks sometimes. Read the room.

“Yeah,” Isaac mutters before busying himself with the label on the bottle.

A curvy brunette with her tits spilling out the top of her tied-up flannel shirt approaches our table with a small pad of paper and a pen in hand. She flashes me a red-lined smile. Layla. We dated briefly in high school, but that came to an abrupt halt when I caught her sucking off a basketball player behind the bleachers after practice. I made myself perfectly clear that I wanted nothing more to do with her, but it hasn’t stopped her from still trying, even to this day.

“Can I get you boys another round?” Her voice drips with seductive suggestion, but all it does is turn me off—even more than catching her cheating did all those years ago. She’s gorgeous, there’s no doubt about it, but she knows she is, which, for her, means she thinks she can get away with just about anything.

Her long legs on display in those tight, blue cut-off shorts only remind me of a different pair of legs bent over the center console as Oakley grabbed her bag out of her car last night. The shape of her firm ass and slim waist, with hips I want to dig my fingertips into and worship on my knees, flashes through my mind. I quickly banish the image before I start sporting a chubby in the middle of boys’ night. They’d never let me live it down, and honestly, I wouldn’t either if the roles were reversed.

When did this girl completely ruin my appreciation for anyone that isn’t her? I glance around Layla in search of Oakley again, but my view is cut off by a sea of blue jeans and swaying bodies.

“Yeah, we’ll take another round, gorgeous,” Brandon says, winking at the woman. She ignores him, instead turning her attention to me.

“What about you, handsome? Is there anything else I can get you?” Her subtle emphasis on the word anything offers a night of blissful but forgettable pleasure.

We were good together. It would be easy to fall back into her bed for the night, but I won’t let myself go there.

Beneath this strange desperation for Oakley, there’s the need to figure out who she is at the core of her being. She strikes me as the type of woman who wouldn’t put up with the typical guy shit, and though she hasn’t given me the slightest indication that she’s interested in me, I don’t want to fuck up my chances to know her. I ignore Layla’s innuendo.

“Bourbon. Neat.”

Her face falls a fraction at my dismissive tone, but she recovers quickly, giving a curt nod of her head and spinning on her heels before hustling off to the bar.

“Sheesh, if you won’t take her home, I will,” Brandon speaks up, grabbing his beer and draining it in one gulp.

“She’s run through over half the guys in town since high school, Brandon. If you still want to shoot your shot, then be my guest. Don’t come crying to me when you catch something.”

“Maybe we should set her up with Isaac instead. Pal looks like he could use a good time,” Justin says.

Isaac waves his left hand in front of Justin’s face. “I’m married, moron.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like she’s putting out anymore,” Brandon whines, apparently more interested in Isaac’s sex life than his own and once again completely missing the point. I smack him upside the head and he winces, rubbing the back of his head.

“Ow! What the hell, man?”

“Did you miss the part about the contractable STDs? What would your momma think?”