Page 45 of The Chances We Take

“We go to school at SGU. Going to be seniors.” She tilted her head confidently, as though she was proud of the fact she was old enough to be in the bar. “Well, June is graduating in the fall, but Brady and I aren’t as smart as her.” She giggled as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“She can’t be older than twenty-one, can she?” Hayden whispered to me as I zoned out the rest of their conversation.

I rolled my eyes. “Probably not, but you know Mikey.”

Age hadn’t stopped him before. A nine-year difference was nothing to him. They were all flings anyway, a one-night rodeo, you could say.

A few moments later, Mikey pulled Ava out onto the dance floor, one of those top-twenty pop hits playing through the speakers. Jake followed him, joining the crowd of people dancing and singing at the top of their lungs.

I took a big swig, not wanting to move from my seat. We’d already played a few games of pool, but, given it was a college bar we were at and not Rudy’s, once we left to get another round of beers, the table was immediately taken by a group of college kids.

We thought coming back to our college town for the bachelor party would be fun. Relive old times, you know? But after five years of being away, the town had changed, and so did the appeal of the bars. Even Clay, Colter’s olderbrother, passed on coming. But I couldn’t blame him completely. He was thirty-three and had kids of his own. Just because Mikey was thirty going on twenty-one didn’t mean everyone his age still acted like they were in college.

“Why aren’t you out there on the dance floor?” I teased Hayden, elbowing him in the ribs. Even Colter had eventually followed Jake out into the crowd, no doubt an effect of the alcohol. “Aren’t these your old stomping grounds?” While we all went to college here, Goldfinch was Hayden’s hometown.

“Why aren’t you?” he shot back with a grin.

“Touché.” I pursed my lips and gave him a nod of respect. “But, hey, I haven’t even seen you talk to any of the girls here tonight.”

Now that I thought of it, I wasn’t sure if Hayden had ever really dated anyone, at least not in the past few years. He certainly never talked about girls as much as Mikey did. I chalked it all up to him being shy, though. He had always been quiet, even in college. Not much had changed since I met him all those years ago.

He shrugged. “I don’t really want anything casual like that.” He paused, as though deep in thought. “You know, I could ask you the same thing. I feel like I already know the answer, though.”

“What do you mean?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I could have sworn there was something going on between you and Isabelle at the branding.”

If you could call me getting jealous of Landon and making a fool of myselfsomething going on between us, then yeah. But there was a key component to that.Us.What if it was one-sided?

“We’re just friends. It’s nothing. We have been since that first NFR.” I dismissed his comment. Although, itwasn’t entirely false, was it? We’d been friends, really good friends, for the past year. It wasn’t like I still had feelings for her.Pfft. Yeah, right. Right?

Hayden didn’t say anything else to push the subject, just gave me a small nod and turned his head to look forward again.

I peered around the bar to see what the other guys were doing. Jake and Mikey were still out on the dance floor, and Colter had left to take a phone call. As my eyes scanned the room, they met a pair of brown ones.

Isa?

My heart started beating faster, but I shook away the thought.No, that’s not her.

The girl who I had made eye contact with, though, was already making her way over to the bar. She was cute, with dark-blonde hair falling to her shoulders, but I didn’t have any interest in her. The only blonde I wanted was two hundred miles away.

“Excuse me?” She tilted her head as she batted her eyelashes at me. “I saw you looking at me across the room. Figured I’d come say hi.”

Hayden gave me a curious glance as I took off my hat and stood to shake her hand, but I was just being polite.

“Hi. I’m Reid.”

“Hi, Reid. I’m Reece.” She smiled as she took my hand. Her touch was soft, but there weren’t any sparks. Not like the ones I felt with Isa.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I sat back down, not looking in her direction. I didn’t want to be rude, but I really wasn’t trying to talk to this girl. It wouldn’t be fair to her anyway. Not when someone else was taking up every bit of space in my head.

“May I sit?” She gestured to the stool beside me. Inodded, and she slid in next to me. “So, what brings you to Goldfinch?” Her eyes bore into me like a hunter looking at its prey.

“I’m here for my best friend’s bachelor party.” I took a drink of my beer, trying to seem uninterested.

“Ah, I see. Not from here, then, I take it?”

“I went to college here.” I shrugged, hoping by saying I was out of college she would deem me too old, even though she looked to be around the same age as Isabelle.

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