Page 17 of Ridin' Free
When they took their first break, so did I. I left the guys to eat the meal I brought from home. I was gone no more than fifteen minutes, and when I returned to the bar, Twister was there. I had so much trying to crowd my mind since Georgia’s phone call, I didn’t have to battle thoughts of him all day. I was barely fazed by his presence now. Furthermore, I suspected he’d play it cool like he did the night before.
I noticed he was empty handed, and both Rodeo and Buck were otherwise occupied. I didn’t hesitate before I approached him where he sat, near the end of the bar.
“What’ll it be?” I asked, setting a cardboard coaster in front of him.
“Corona,” he replied over the band, who had started up again.
I nodded and poured him a glass from the tap, fitting a lime over the rim as I delivered it.
“Thanks, sparky.”
I froze and narrowed my eyes at him. It wasn’t the first time he’d called me that, but I couldn’t figure outwhyhe did it. We weren’t friends. We weren’t fuck buddies. We weren’t anything other than two people who knew and respected each other and had sex twice.
We certainly weren’t on any sort of pet name level.
Not that the reasonwhymattered.
It wasn’t a name I intended to answer to.
“Don’t call me that,” I demanded.
The corner of his mustache rose as a crooked smile pulled at his lips, and those brown eyes lit up with amusement. Suddenly, I wasn’t so unfazed. He was starting to piss me off.
This is why you don’t fuck ‘em twice, Phoenix, I thought to myself.
He was flirting like he thought he’d earned the privilege to do so.
He hadn’t.
Instead of arguing with him, which I was sure he wanted, I decided to ignore him instead. That was—afterI flipped him off.
When I turned my back on him, I swear I heard him laugh.
I rolled my eyes and found an excuse to busy my hands. Not ten minutes later, his beer only half gone, Twister was no longer sitting on his own. Lyla, with her straight brunette hair, and her barely there top, was squeezed into the space between him and the empty seat next to him. I watched as he turned to address her. It was more than a little obvious how familiar they were with each other.
Everyone who gave a damn knew Lyla had been chasing the VP since the moment she laid eyes on him. I’d seen them together before plenty of times, but the pang of irritation which pinched at my belly now was a new sensation.
Frowning, I shifted my attention elsewhere. I honestly didn’t know if I was irritated with Lyla, for throwing herself at the man, with Twister, for taking the bait, or at myself, for feeling anything at all.
In the end, I decided it was the latter. I had absolutely no reason to give a shit about who Twister decided to fuck. If it was Lyla who rode his dick tonight, that was all the better. Maybe then he’d remember to stop flirting with me.
Except, as the night wore on, rather than buy her a couple drinks and take her to bed, Twister watched as Lyla got plastered. By midnight, she was starting to piss me off forentirely different reasons. When she knocked over his beer in an attempt to get in his face, my patience was spent.
“Hey,” I barked, snatching up the toppled glass.
She fell against Twister’s chest as he glared at me.
I couldn’t say for sure which one of us he was angry at, but I didn’t care. I pointed toward the door and ordered, “Get her the fuck out of here. If she pukes, I’m not cleanin’ that shit up.”
Twister huffed out an annoyed sigh then bent to scoop her against his chest. He was not gentle, but that didn’t stop her from giggling as she draped herself around him. I glowered at them as they went.
Safe to say, my mood had plummeted.
It didn’t improve as the night wore on.
Two hours later, I was not shy about kicking out any stragglers. I’d had enough shit for one day. I was ready to go home. Buck and Rodeo, picking up on my state of mind, completed their closing tasks in record time, barely exchanging a word as they did so.
Appreciative of their efforts, I forced myself to lighten up enough to express my gratitude when we were finished. “Thanks, guys. Let’s get out of here, yeah?”
