Page 60 of Ruin

Walk away, Cam.

“Okay then”—I take a step back—“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He gives me a brief nod before turning his attention to the bar. When the bartender approaches, Zeus gives his drink order—coffee.

He came to the bar to drink coffee?

No, he came to watch the game, stalker Cam.

I turn and skulk away, like a groupie who was just given the brush-off.

I reach our table and slip into my seat.

Rich, whose eyes were on his cell, looks up at me, putting his phone away in his pants pocket. “Everything okay?” he checks.

“Yeah, fine.” I smile, way too big for it to be real. I pull my lips back together and try to relax my face. “I was just asking Zeus if he could come a little earlier tomorrow, so I can discuss the big talk with him.”

“That’s good.” He nods.

“Yeah,” I agree, picking up my half-drunk beer and taking a long swig.

Rich glances over his shoulder, looking toward the bar. “Hey, that’s Zeus’s brother, right?”

“Where?” I turn my head, half-expecting to see another Kincaid standing at the bar.

“On the TV. Playing for the Giants.”

I lift my eyes to the television and see Ares’s profile on-screen before he comes back into play. The sight of his face makes me smile. I always liked Ares.

Zeus told me that he hadn’t told his siblings and his dad about Gigi yet. He wanted to spend time getting to know her first, and then he’d tell them after Gigi was told.

That will be tomorrow. Because I can’t see Zeus disagreeing with telling her.

“He probably has box seats,” Rich muses. “Wonder why he’s in here, watching the game, and not actually there.”

“He wanted to take Gigi”—and me—“out for dinner,” I tell him, my eyes drifting to Zeus, unbidden.

He’s talking to the bartender, and another guy at the bar has drifted over to talk to him.

“Ah. Right. That makes sense,” Rich says. “So, did you hear about Larson?”

“No,” I say, moving my eyes back to Rich.

“He’s moving to Virginia,” he tells me. “His mom lives there, and she’s sick. He’d put in for a transfer on the DL, and it was approved today.”

“That’s good for him,” I say, “being closer to his mom.”

“Yeah. It’s going to be weird for me without him though. We went through the academy together…”

Voices lifting with excitement distract my attention from Rich, and I look back to the bar…to Zeus…where I now see that a group of women has swooped in on him, and they are falling all over themselves to talk to him.

“You’re so big.” One of them giggles as she wraps her hand around his biceps.

“That’s what all the women say,” Zeus replies.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I give a mental eye roll.

“You’re so bad!” She laughs loudly.