Page 61 of Wren's Winter

Jordan’s eyes now lit on me. “You too, Adrian. Don’t make me eighty-six you for the night.”

“Loud and clear, Jo.” My hands came up in surrender. Jordan narrowed her eyes at me and shook her head to let me know she meant business. Before she turned back to the bar to help another patron at the end, she put up two fingers, motioning between me and herself with the universal I’m watching you signal. I nodded back.

“You can’t blame me for Wren’s decisions.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “Why shouldn’t I? We were fine. Still texting all the time before she took this trip and then she got up here. All my calls go to voicemail. She isn’t responding to the TikTok videos I send her. I drive the three hours it takes because, obviously, she’s punishing me or something, and what do I find? You. According to her, you’re five times the man I am. We were fine before she came here. You think you can swoop in with your ten-inch cock and magic tongue and take my place?”

I had to hold back a laugh at the description. Is that how Wren described me? Somehow, I doubted it, but I wasn’t going to tell him to stop shouting it.

“I was going to surprise her with a vacation, a ten-night cruise in the Caribbean. All-you-can-eat-and-drink package, pool, water slides, the whole thing.”

“Wren gets seasick,” I reminded him, a crease furrowing my brow. Did he not know that? He had to, right?

Buck waved a hand at the comment as if to bat it away. “She would have been fine.”

I snorted at his comment. What kind of man buys a vacation that only one person would actually enjoy?

“It’s not funny. I love her.” He slammed the empty glass down on the bar top. Jordan shouted for him to knock it off, hurrying over, but the die had been cast. This was edging into dangerous territory.

“Then, why did you dump her in the first place?” I was taunting him now. I wasn’t sure if Wren truly wanted me, but at least she did not want to be with this guy anymore. To leave someone miles away from their car in an impending snowstorm was a brutal move.

“You sure know a whole lot about me.” He stood up and walked toward me, trying to tower over me, but he was at least six inches shorter.

I leaned closer. “And why do you think that is? You’d be amazed at what a person hears during pillow talk. Can you picture it Wren in my bed, the things she said to me? The things I did to her...”

I should have seen the punch coming. I was goading him enough that it was a foregone conclusion to the night. On a normal night, I would have been able to dodge the hit, but after several drinks, my reflexes were dulled enough that his fist struck my cheek. Pain exploded in my eye as I stumbled back. Using the bar top as support, I stumbled back, barely able to stay on my feet from the blow. I’d give him this. He was a little bitch, but his swing was mighty.

Unfortunately, for him, he wasn’t getting a second one. I took him down, tackling him to the floor, where I grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed his head into the floor. I landed one punch on his chin, and I heard the crack of his head hit the ground. Through my one good eye, I see the blood on his lip. Behind me, Jordan was yelling for both of us to get out of her bar. Buck laced an arm around my neck and pulled me down into a headlock. We rolled around on the floor, clumsy punches and stools falling down. At one point, my head hit a corner of a wall. My elbow hit his eye, it swelling up immediately into what would be a nasty black eye. After a minute of tussling, I got the upper hand, pulling my fist back to punch him when someone wrapped a forearm around my middle, pulling me up. I fought for a moment before a familiar voice in my ear told me to stop fighting.

I turned my head to see Tam holding me back.

“What the fuck, man?” I shouted as Buck was crab-crawling back until he could pull himself up and away from me.

“Knock it off. He’s not worth it.”

From a few feet away, Buck was wiping the blood off his lip, his face screwed up in anger. “Fuck you, man. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

“For what?” Jordan asked. “I saw the whole thing. You threw the first punch. He was defending himself.”

Buck’s eyes darted around the bar at the few patrons who were watching. They all nodded at him, agreeing with Jordan. Snagging his coat off the ground, he pushed past me and Tam, who still had me locked in place.

At the door, he turned to glare back at me. “Fuck you, and fuck this town. I hope the lousy pussy’s worth it.”

I struggled against Tam again, this time wanting to blacken the other eye. Tam held tight. “He’s not worth it.”

The door slammed shut, and the bar was quiet. Once he was gone, the fight left me.

“Thanks, Jordan.” I collapsed on the stool and buried my head in my hands.

“Don’t thank me. You’re the one who’s paying for everything you broke, dumbass.”

A small price to pay for knowing the town had my back. “Add it to my tab.”

“Already done.” She poured a beer for Tam and refilled my water glass. When I opened my mouth to ask for another beer, she shook her head and handed me a sandwich bag of ice. “Don’t even think about it.”

As the ice pack hit my cheek, I winced at the pain but held it there. “Where did you come from?” I asked Tam.

He took a long sip of his beer before setting it back on the coaster and rotating it until the decal faced him. “Jordan called me when you ordered your second shot. She said she had a bad feeling and that it would be a good idea for me to come get you.”

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