Page 70 of Done with You

Jace, the beefy best-friend of Jordan was on his phone when they joined the men, but he quickly ended his call and stowed his cell in the back pocket of his dark jeans, which hugged his very nice butt to perfection. “Got us a VIP table at Dark River.”

“How’d you swing that?” Jordan asked as they all walked through the studio hallway toward the front door.

Pasha stayed behind to thank the girl at the front desk.

“The owner is my sister’s brother in-law. I just called up Florian and told him what we needed. He said he’d make it happen.”

“Cool,” Jordan said, smacking Jace on the back. “Always good to have friends with connections.”

Everyone piled into the bus, which was being driven by a handsome older gentleman with more salt than pepper in his hair, stormy gray eyes and a very nice smile. Oona knew this was Grant, Joy’s husband, but despite the fact he was probably old enough to be Oona’s father, it was impossible not to appreciate how attractive he was. She also knew that Rayma teased Grant relentlessly about how good looking he was. Called him a Zaddy and other things that apparently made Grant roll his eyes and go pink in the cheeks.

“Where to?” Grant asked, once they were all seated.

“Dark River which is off Humboldt,” Jace said, sliding in beside Peyton on the bus. She glanced up at him and blushed as she smiled, her grays eyes taking in his big arms. The man was not wearing a jacket, and the cords in his forearms stuck out as if someone had wrapped his limbs in twine. She licked her lips at the same time Jace glanced down at her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said breathlessly, tucking a strand of her wavy brick-red hair behind her ear.

He offered her his hand. She took it. “Jace.”

“Peyton.”

His eyes went wide. “Oh! You’re Peyton? I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Apparently, we are walking down the aisle together.”

“Wh-what?” she stammered.

“I’m a groomsman, and you’re a bridesmaid, right?”

“Oh! Haha. Yeah. Sorry. I thought …”

His grin was sexy and full of sin. “I’m surprised we haven’t met already, since you’re Rayma’s best friend and Jordan is mine.”

“Yeah …” Peyton said. Oona could practically hear the woman’s heart hammering against her ribcage.

“Then again, I’m training for ERT, so I haven’t been around much.”

“Right …” Peyton scraped her top teeth over her bottom lip and nodded. “Y-your arms are huge,” she blurted out.

Jace was all smiles.

A snort behind Oona had her spinning around to find Aiden rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “What the fuck is your problem?” she hissed under her breath. She was sitting in a seat by herself, and so was he. Everyone else on the bus was paired up.

“No problem,” he said.

“Liar.”

“What did you just call me, Luna?”

“Nothing, Caden. Oh wait, I did. I called you a liar. Because you obviously have a problem, but like everything else in your life, you’re in fucking denial about it.”

Anger flared in his eyes, which wasn’t easy to see given how dark the bus was now that they were driving. “Are we discussing each others faults right now? Is that what we’re doing? Should we discuss your little performance last night at dinner? Laying cash on the table to pay for their fucking hot water bill? Could you be anymore pathetic?”

“Me? What about you? Rubbing it in that you were just pulling your weight and not being a freeloader? Insinuating that I was being one because I didn’t cook some elaborate five-course meal.”

“I insinuated nothing. You obviously inferred it because you’re so insecure.”

Her jaw dropped and she spun around more to face him, her voice rising. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Not kidding anything. Just making an observation.”

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