Page 49 of Sunshine

I drop my hands to my sides. “Trying to distract myself,” Isay honestly. I haven’t seen Wells since Jason and I broke up, but I know he knows about it. How could he not?

He rolls his lips and reaches for the bottle. “Maybe we should get you home,” he tries.

I pull it away. “What? I don’t want to go home, we just got here.”

“We?”

I nod. “I came with Regan. Which reminds me . . .” I start toward the back door again.

Wells juts an arm out in front of me and anchors himself along the side of my body, dipping his mouth close to my ear. “Layla, how much have you had to drink?”

I turn to face him, noting the flecks of gold in the brown of his eyes from the nearby kitchen light.Beautiful, I think. “I don’t know,” I answer. “What does it matter?”

“Wells!” Connor shouts from the kitchen. “Glad you came through, my man. Want a beer?”

A thought suddenly occurs to me. “Is Jason here, too?” I ask shakily.

He shakes his head. “No . . . he was at the ranch earlier though. He’s pretty messed up.”

“About me or about football?” I ask, arching a brow.

Wells sighs, and I feel the cool wintergreen of his breath dance along my cheek. “I don’t like this,” he says, eyes dropping to the bottle.

I simply shrug and push past him, making my way out the door into the warm, sticky night air.

I finally spot Regan over by the pool with Lizzie, Erin, and Brad and make a beeline toward them. “There you are,” Regan says when she sees me. She eyes the whiskey warily. “Where’d you get that?”

“Kitchen.” I grin. “Want some?” I hold it out for her to take, but she shakes her head.

“I’ll take it,” Lizzie says, and I hand it to her, watching as she takes a drink from it like it’s nothing. She hands it off to Erin who does the same.

“Brad’s driving.” Erin smirks as she hands it back to me, and I take another long pull.

“Who’s drivingyou?” Lizzie zeros in on me, and then her eyes widen at something over my shoulder.

“Yeah, sunshine, who’s driving you?”

I turn around to find Wells behind me, glaring at us. This time, I take a good look at him, cataloging the black T-shirt that stretches across his broad chest, the dark jeans adorned with a bright silver buckle, and the dirty brown boots on his feet. His usual Wild Coyote hat sits backward on his head, the backstrap resting just above his brow. His lips are pressed together tight, and he doesn’t look the slightest bit amused. “I don’t know,” I say. “Don’t people just usually end up staying the night?” I remember it was Jason’s plan at Margot’s last year.

His jaw rolls. “You arenotsleeping here.”

“Why do you care?” I ask before taking another swig of the whiskey. By now, my mouth is almost fully numb from the alcohol, so the liquor goes down easily.

“Jesus,” he mutters, shifting on his feet. “Can you please put that down?”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve already had half the damn bottle!” he snaps.

I look down at the bottle in my hand and sure enough, the amber liquid only reaches the middle of the black label on thefront. “Seriously, what does it matter, Wells? God knows you know what it’s like to want to let loose.”

“Oh, let loose?” He repeats in an incredulous tone. “Is that what you’re doing?” I shrug again, and he huffs out a breath. “Look, I know you’re going through some shit right now, but trust me when I say that numbing it out with alcohol will make it worse.”

I stare at him blankly, not understanding why he’s so hell-bent on ruining this for me. Doesn’t he understand that my heart is shattered? Is it so wrong for me to enjoy the effects of some fucking whiskey?

“Hey, Wells!” Connor calls from across the yard, and Wells’s jaw tightens with impatience. But he doesn’t look away from me.

“Please just let me?—”

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