Page 29 of Coming Home to You
“Dude, I think you met your match,” Beck laughs out and Ryan glares back at him.
We order some appetizers and the conversation begins to flow.Ryan and Beck fill us in on how they met and have been friends since their days in the Academy.Each one trying to one-up the other with stupid stories of all the dumb things they’ve both done.It makes Erin and me laugh and we egg them on as each story gets funnier.
It all feels very natural and something about it makes me feel guilty, like I should have just left Rockport and gone with Beck in the first place.He has a life there and friends that don’t include me, but it could have, if I hadn’t been so stubborn.
I shake off the thoughts and order us another round of beers as Erin begins to give Ryan the cold shoulder after some conversation about gun control.I was too busy talking with Beck about the quote I got to fix a hole in the hull of one of the charter boats at The Rockport Beach Inn to hear their full conversation.
Erin is a heated debater and judging by what just went down, so is Ryan.I don’t think it’s just Ryan who’s met his match; Erin better watch herself.
After letting out a loud huff, Erin gives Ryan the death stare and then looks at me across the table and shouts over the music that has just picked up, “Let’s do some shots and then dance, okay?”
“Sure,” I answer back, kissing Beck on the cheek and leaving him with his friend.
After a couple of shots of tequila and a car bomb, Erin and I are dancing in the middle of the bar with a bunch of drunken tourists.
Erin has found herself a guy who appears to be at least twice her age and probably has a frigid wife asleep at home in their million-dollar beach cottage.She’s grinding up against him and he has his hands on her ass.Everything about it is inappropriate, but then I catch her glance over at Ryan.I see the fury in his eyes and I know exactly what she’s doing.
I pull her away from the oldie, shaking my head at her.“No,” is all I say and she laughs.
“No, to what?”she shouts over the bar noise and the music while giving me an innocent look.
Before I can answer her, she locks her mouth with mine in a kiss that is designed to draw attention and then she swats me on the ass.
“I gotta go pee,” she says and bails off to the bathroom leaving me with an entire bar of horny men staring at me.
I make my way back to the table where Beck and Ryan are sitting.Pulling my hair off my sweaty neck, I sit down and realize Ryan is missing.
“Where’s Ryan?”I ask, not even thinking about Erin until Beck speaks.
“He went to the bathroom,” Beck says, his eyes focusing only on my heaving chest.
Oh, shit.I can only imagine what’s going down right now.My only thoughts are that Erin has that poor boy cornered in the men’s restroom of O’Loughlin’s.
I take a long drink of my beer and fan myself with my hand.
“It’s hot as hell in here,” I yell to Beck as I hike my skirt up a little trying to cool off, but it just distracts him and his eyes are now glued to my sticky thighs.
“You having fun?”he asks, his hand sliding up my leg.
“Yeah.How about you?”
“I am.It’s been fun catching up with Ryan.We usually spend every day together and don’t tell him I said this, but I kinda miss him.”
I laugh just as Ryan walks up to the table in a hurry.His face is flushed and his hair is messy.
“What happened?”Beck asks as he takes in Ryan’s appearance.
“Nothing,” he quips.“That girl is fucking infuriating.”
“Where’s Erin?”I ask, knowing exactly what has just gone down.
“She left.That fucking girl,” Ryan says as he runs his fingers through his hair, the frustration written all over his face.
Beck stares him down, obviously knowing his friend far too well; without the two of them speaking another word, he gives Ryan Erin’s address and tells him to go fix it.
“Don’t blame him,” I say after Ryan has left the bar.“Erin is a piece of work.”
“Trust me, I remember her from all those summers she spent here with her family, but Ryan’s not innocent either.”
