Page 29 of Ocotillo Kisses
“I mean, yes, I knew. And I don’t want to say never, but not right now. It’s been a rough few months.” He didn’t want to use his dad’s illness and death as an excuse, but his whole life had turned upside down in the past few months, and Britt’s return hadn’t helped.
“She’s my friend and I don’t want to see her hurt, okay? That’s all I wanted to say.”
She stepped out of his arms mid-song and walked back to the table.
Unsure of what to do now, in the middle of the song, Con headed for the bar and got a bucket of beer for the group. He returned to set it in the middle of the table, snagging one and returning to his seat.
He wasn’t going to dance with anyone for a bit. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.
Chapter Twelve
Okay, this wasn’t fun, feeling resentful among his friends. He needed to figure something else out. He might like to go play pool, but most of his friends wanted to dance with their wives and girlfriends. He walked down the table to Javi.
“Hey, man, want to go grab a pool table?”
Javi looked from Con to the dance floor, to the bar. “Nah, man, I want to meet some girls.”
Con got that. Everyone pairing up lately had him thinking along the same lines, thus the increased interactions with Poppy.
“I’ll play,” Britt said, looking up at him sideways.
He could back out of it. She was giving him that option, though she held his gaze steady as if she was daring him to renege. He could always use the excuse that he didn’t want to leave his mother alone.
“Yeah, all right,” he said instead, and when she stood, motioned her to precede him to the pool area off to the side of the hall.
“I haven’t played since college,” she said over her shoulder, though she walked with confidence toward the rack of pool cues.
She was wearing those damn high heels again, and dress pants instead of jeans. Did she always wear heels? And why was he noticing?
He selected a cue as well, and they stood against the wall, moving forward only when it looked like a table was opening up. He was surprised when Caleb and Sofia joined them.
Not too long ago, those two had been the talk of the town. Caleb had humiliated Sofia their senior year of high school, and when Caleb had come back to town earlier this year, Sofia had loathed him. She’d never forgiven him for what he’d done.
Well, apparently now she had. They were together, and from what Con could see, pretty happy.
Con would not extrapolate that into his own situation. What Caleb had done was awful, probably worse than what Britt had done, but Con had never felt so betrayed.
