Page 53 of Against the Autumn Pines
“So what’s the plan of action?” Rowan asked.
“Action for what?” Theo questioned as he sat down with a massive plate of chicken wings and a frosty glass of beer.
“Wyatt’s plan to win over the girl.”
“What girl?”
Rowan stared at him, brow raised. “Where the fuck have you been lately? You missed dinner last weekend too.”
Theo’s eyes widened as he shoved a chicken wing in his mouth and shrugged. “Workin’. What girl?” he asked, doing his best to appear nonchalant as he inhaled his wings.
“Workin’ where?” Rowan shot back.
Theo smirked. “Here and there.”
“Ember Brady,” I finally responded to his question, partially so he was in the loop and partially so Rowan would take a breath. We both knew I could find out by the end of the night if he wanted.
“The bakery owner?”
Rowan and I both nodded.
“When did that start?” he asked.
Shaking my head, I looked over at Rowan, who rolled his eyes. “If you were around more often, you’d know the whole damn story, Theo. Since when are you the secretive one? Normally, it’s Oliver we have to drag information out of.”
“No info to drag out,” Theo said with a shrug. “Anyway,looks like your girl is giggling with our favorite bartender.” He pointed over to the bar, and I followed his gaze.
I watched as she laughed with Aspen and Ivy, the three of them at the bar getting drinks from Damien. He smiled at something she said, and I wanted to ring his neck, but before I could stand, an ass landed in my lap.
My gaze jumped up to a face I’d been doing my utmost to ignore lately as she tried with all her might to crawl back into my bed—literally. Trying not to crack a molar over how hard my teeth were grinding together, I glared at her.
“What do you want, Mia?”
26
SMOOTH WOOD
Ember
“There isa certain someone over there giving you eyeballs right now,” Ivy said as we grabbed our drinks.
Damien chuckled. “She isn’t wrong.”
I rolled my eyes at the bartender. Damien was a good guy—tall, dark skinned, pretty eyes, and a smile that spelled out trouble for any girl he looked at too long. From what I’d heard from Aspen and Ivy though, there was onlyonegirl he looked at too long, and she wasn’t here just yet.
“Oh fuck,” Damien grumbled. “Uh, how about another shot? On the house ladies,” he added quickly.
Ivy looked over before I did, her mouth dropped open, and that was when I saw it. It felt like a scene from a horror movie, and not a good one, where you jumped and spilled popcorn on your date, and you both laughed about it as your eyes met over the spilled mess—no. The horror movies thatleft you sick to your stomach, shaking all over, and sometimes, like now, angry to your very core.
The little blond skank had plastered herself onto his lap, her cackle filling the bar as if she belonged there. It was high school all over again. The photos in my email, my locker, and on the internet all flooded my mind. Her plastering the photos with little smiley faces on my nipples at seventeen as if that made any of it okay. She’d laughed and said it was a joke.
But then I found out she’d been fucking my boyfriend, and that was what made the photos leak. I’d sent them to the idiot, thinking I could “fix” our relationship as he pulled away. Told myself I was spicing things up. I was a fucking idiot teenager, sure. But she was a back-stabbing best friend who used everything I’d confided in her about, against me.
I’d been crazy then too. Taking out all my rage on her, but I was better now. More together. Responsible. Reasonable even.
Turning back around, I looked over the bar, my eyes scanning for anything that would help my brain be calm and centered.
Vodka. Tequila. Bourbon. Gin. Scotch.
