Page 4 of Wicked and Claimed

Tonight was going to be a shit show.

While Madison joined Haisley and her posse, Matt approached him, settling his cowboy hat on his head and wearing the perpetual grin he’d been sporting since rescuing Madison from her evil ex a few years ago. “Hey, man.”

“Did you know she was coming back?” Nash growled, skipping the niceties.

Matt looked over at his wife and her gaggle of girls. “Haisley? She rolled into town the day after Christmas.”

So she’d had a week to call…and she hadn’t. Hadn’t sought him out, either. Hadn’t given a shit to see how he’d been since she’d walked out on him. “How long is she staying?”

His buddy winced. “This isn’t how I wanted to break the news to you, but she’s not going back to Cali. Her aunt passed away, and she’s decided to move home again.”

Elation filled him, followed instantly by dread. How much would it fuck him up to have the woman he’d never fallen out of love with less than a handful of miles away? Then again, two miles or two thousand—it didn’t matter. She’d severed all ties.

Madison waved Matt over. His friend nodded, then looked back at Nash. “You coming?”

To talk to Haisley? She clearly had zero intention of reconnecting with him… A gander across the bar once more proved she couldn’t even be bothered to glance his way. “No.”

“Suit yourself.” Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “Looks like your brother got you a beer.”

Meaning he should go drink it before everyone decided he was a heartbroken sap who didn’t understand that even a silent no was still no. “I’m going to need something stronger.”

His buddy leaned in and dropped his voice. “There’s no rule that says you have to stay. This is a party. If you’re not feeling it…”

Screw that. He wasn’t letting her derail his night. “Laila has been planning this for weeks. She never gets an evening away from the kids. Haisley’s return was a surprise, but I’m fine.”

Matt shook his head. “You’re full of shit.”

“Fuck off and go be with your wife.”

“All right. But…maybe it would be good if you and Haisley talked things out.”

Not here. And not unless she showed a willingness to take a verbal deep-dive into their past. “Eating fucking beets every day is supposed to be good for me, too. You don’t see me scarfing down that crap.”

Matt laughed. “Ten-four.”

As he watched his buddy adjust his cowboy hat and retreat to the far side of the bar, Nash scowled and headed toward Trees and Laila, who had miraculously found a table. A cocktail waitress recited drink orders back to them as he approached. “Give me half a dozen tequila shots.”

The woman craned her neck up, up, up to look at him. Since he was six-foot-seven, he got that a lot.

“You want six tequila shots?”

He nodded. “With salt and lime. There’s an extra twenty bucks for you if I have them in the next five minutes.”

“Done.” She jotted his order on her notepad, snapped it closed, and made a mad dash for the bartender.

“You looking to start the new year with a hangover?” his brother asked.

“Looking to have a good time. It’s a party, isn’t it?” Nash ignored Trees’s skeptical glance.

“How you doing?” Zy asked, his arm loosely around his wife, Tessa, who despite having two kids, looked amazing.

The pair of them were sublimely fucking happy. So were his brother and Laila. Matt and Madison, too, for that matter. Nash knew none of them had reached their bliss without serious strife, and more than once it looked as if happily ever after wouldn’t be in their cards. But they’d fought for their women and emerged victorious against all odds. Then again, each of those women had been madly in love with the man they now called husband.

Which meant he had zero hope with Haisley.

“Peachy,” he quipped. “You?”

Zy raised a brow. “You’re a shitty liar.”

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