Page 12 of Wild Ever After
“Joint parties seem like a good idea.” Tyler tips the neck of his beer toward the dance floor. “Those guys are creeping.”
“What is it about bachelorette parties that makes me want to show the bride a night she’ll never forget?” Ash grins. “Not Jade, just, you know, generally speaking.”
Tyler’s brows lift and then he juts his chin to Leo. “Yeah, I think joint parties are a good call, man.” He pushes his chair back and stands. “I’m going in.”
“Me too,” Leo and Maverick chime in at the same time.
“Ah, what the hell,” Ash says with a grin as he dances his way to the group.
“What about you?” I say when it’s just me and Jack.
“What about me?” His stare remains on the girls as he takes another sip of the whiskey in front of him.
“Think you’ll get married someday?”
Jack huffs a short laugh. He tips his head in the slightest motion and I follow his gaze to find a girl across the room staring at him. She lifts one hand in a wave. I don’t know how he does it. The man doesn’t even need to speak to pick up girls.
“Someday, maybe.” He drains his glass and then sets it on the table as he stands. “But not today.”
I don’t feel much like dancing, so I stay put, finish my drink, and then order another round for the group.
Leaning back in my chair, I don’t have anything to do but people watch. It’s a busy bar and our friends have garnered a crowd around them. Everyone’s gravitating toward the fun. For some reason, Dakota is wearing a veil, but she takes it off now and puts it on the top of Jade’s red hair.
She’s something to look at in that little dress and veil falling over her shoulders. Her smile is ear-to-ear. Seems like things worked out between her and Sam. I don’t know why, but that doesn’t fill me with the relief I expected.
My phone vibrates in my pants. I shift and slide it from my pocket, gaze still locked on the happy bride-to-be. Reluctantly, I look at the screen in my hand and then wish I hadn’t. Three texts within minutes of each other.Where are you?andI need to talk to you,andI’m standing outside your place.
Damn. She went to my house? I shouldn’t hit her back, but the urgency of her texts has me worried. I stand and move through the bar to a quiet corner as I call her.
Crissy answers almost immediately.
“Hey,” she says breathlessly. “Where are you? The lady across the hall is giving me a weird look.”
She doesn’t know I moved, and I start to tell her, but then think better of it.
“I’m out of town. Is everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay. I miss you.”
Annoyance claws at my chest. “We can’t keep doing this. I’m not the guy for you.”
“I want you any way I can have you.”
Well, that feels…desperate and wrong, and like I’m a giant asshole that has reduced this girl to shucking her pride to give me what she thinks I want.
“I can do casual,” she adds when I don’t respond.
“We’re done, Crissy.”
“You don’t mean that.”
I hate that a tiny part of me suspects she’s right. I have enough alcohol in my system that catching a ride back home for a hookup with Crissy sounds almost like a good idea. How long will my attempts to keep her away for her sake last? I can almost see the way it’ll happen. A month will go by, she’ll hit me up and say all the right things to convince me she can handle it, and then the next day, I’ll hate myself again.
Jack would tell me there are too many girls out there to keep going back to Crissy, but I’m not Jack. Girls don’t wave me over in a bar. I stay under the radar for the most part. Especially during the season. If she doesn’t fall into my lap, it’s too much effort. And the girls that fall into a hockey player’s lap during the season are usually the kind that earn you a spot in the tabloids. No thanks.
“I do mean it. Don’t call me again.” I ball my fist at my side, hating myself a little for being such an asshole, but knowing it’s necessary. “And stop knocking on my door. I don’t live there anymore.”
I hang up without waiting for her response, tip my head back, and growl deep in my throat. Fuck me. I stalk back to the table ready to toss back all the liquor I can find.
