Page 39 of Back To You

“Good, I’d say. Things have been pretty smooth with Ava and the other two guys,” Luke says as he scoops ice into a few cups below the bar. “I’ve been trying my best to hold down the fort,” he adds, grinning at Emmett who gives him a nod.

“Hey, Luke?” Ava calls to him, and she gives us a little wave as she walks over. “Um, my boyfriend just got here. He’s down at the other end of the bar. Do you mind if I take my break?

“Sure,” he answers with a shrug of the shoulders. “Back at it in fifteen?”

“Of course,” she answers, a slight blush forming under her freckles. She gives us all a smile before heading to sit at the bar with her boyfriend.

“He’s a dick,” Luke says under his breath.

“What? Who?” Mia asks, all of us leaning in.

“Ava’s boyfriend,” Luke answers. “Ava is a super sweet girl, and he is just always so mean to her. Last time he came when we were working, I overheard him accusing her of cheating on him and then asked her to cover his drinks.”

“Ew,” Drew says, a sour look on her face. “Why do such nice girls always end up with assholes?”

Emmett snorts. “You would know,” he teases, alluding to when he and Drew first started dating and her asshole ex-boyfriend showed up here only for Emmett to throw him out on his ass.

“She’ll realize it sooner rather than later,” Mia adds as we watch Ava’s boyfriend point at Ava’s chest with a scowl and say something I can’t quite make out.

“Hopefully,” Luke adds. “I’ve heard the guy say more nice things about his fancy white truck than he has about Ava.” He lets out a humorless chuckle. “Anyway, do you guys want anything before I go make my rounds?”

We all say we’re good, and Luke spends the next fifteen minutes waiting on tables and getting drinks for everyone, but I can’t keep my eyes off the couple in the corner—my thoughts about the conversation Luke and I need to have floating to the back of my mind.

I have a bad feeling.

Chapter 16

Luke

Another night, another crack in my chest from having to pretend that everything is fine for the sake of Annie and our friends.

On the outside, I’m giving her space, and everything is fine.

On the inside, I’m fighting every urge to lock us both in the apartment and make her tell me what she meant about me not being there when she needed me most.

I’ve racked my brain for the whole month of August trying to figure out what I did that would make her say that I wasn’t there when she needed me, and there are years of memories to think through.

And there’s been no time for me to think of what the fuck I’m going to do once Emmett comes back. The time I gained from the excuse I gave to my dad about not being able to leave Lenny’s yet won’t last forever.

I’ve been avoiding his phone calls like the plague—he barely said a word to me when I told him I wouldn’t be able to start at the firm in September. Caleb has been calling me too, wanting to find out what my plan is after Bennett told him about our conversation at breakfast.

In all honesty, I know what I want to do.

And I know it’s not going to be what my dad wants to hear.

So I’m putting it off.

Even though I’m not training at the bar anymore, and the three new bartenders know what they’re doing, I’ve been here enough over the past three weeks that I can give Annie her space.

The nights I’m not here, I go to the hockey rink with my buddies from law school to blow off steam.

I set down some drinks for the baseball team taking up the whole back corner of the bar, trying not to trip over their bat bags they brought in with them.

I pull my phone from my pocket, glancing at the time and seeing it’s been about fifteen minutes since Ava went on her break.

Usually, I wouldn’t be too much of a stickler about it, but the bar is pretty packed, and I could use the help.

As I approach where Ava and her boyfriend are sitting at the bar, a few feet away from Annie and the rest of our friends, I hear what’s-his-face say something about what Ava is wearing.

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