Page 19 of Reckless Liar

He smiled big at me. “I’ll be damned. So how have you been?” he asked, ignoring his date next to him.

“Fine. I’ve been okay, you know, considering.”

He nodded, his face becoming more solemn. “Yeah, that’s good. I was thinking about you a lot after it happened.”

I wasn’t sure if that was his way of giving condolences, or what, but I nodded anyway. “Thanks.”

“So, what are you doing here?”

“It’s Scarlett’s birthday. We all got together for dinner.”

“And who are we?” he smirked.

“Scarlett, her girlfriend Emma, Xander and I. It was Xander’s idea.”

Peter smiled, looking over my shoulder. “Is that so? That’s nice of him. Are you two…”

I shook my head at him. “No, nothing like that. I can’t imagine dating.”

“I bet.” Peter’s eyes skated over my body, giving me chills.

I could feel the frosted air rush in as the door opened behind me. Xander came to stand behind me. “Peter. How you doing, man?”

They did one of those odd fist-bump, handshake things I never understood. Xander was pleasant enough as he talked to Peter, but I could sense his tension.

“After dinner, I was going to take Gail to the Skol House for a drink. You should join us,” Peter invited.

“I’m sorry,” I said, as genuinely as I could muster. “We’ll have to take a rain check. I have an early shift at the hospital tomorrow and need to get home and in my pajamas.”

“Yeah, I have to be up early too. It was good seeing you, though,” Xander lied. He put a hand on my back, leading me away from Peter and his date. We walked to where he parked his truck at the curb, and Xander opened the passenger door for me to climb in. As he shut the door, I saw Peter jog outside to stand next to Xander.

“Dude, I got to ask—what the fuck are you doing?” his tone was playful, but a chill ran up my spine at the underlying menace.

Xander scrunched his eyebrows together. “What?”

Peter pointed at me sitting in the passenger side of the truck. “You and Ana.”

“Me and Ana, what?”

“Are you guys fucking?”

“No, we’re friends. It’s Scarlett’s birthday. A group of us took her out to dinner.”

“So, it was you, Ana, Scarlett, and her...” he smirked, lasciviously, wiggling his eyebrows. I felt my lip curl at his expression. Had he always been this disgusting? “Girlfriend? I’d heard that Scarlett batted for both teams. Interesting.” Peter shook his head at us. “I gotta say it sounds more like a double date type thing, if you ask me.”

“Good thing I didn’t ask you.” Xander flexed his hand into a fist then relaxed it.

“It’s shady looking, is all I’m saying, Xander.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Peter.” Xander flexed his hand into a fist then relaxed it.

“Max was our friend. It’s wrong to pilfer his girl. Have a little respect for the dead.”

“I have plenty of respect.” Xander shook his head at Peter.

“I’m just sayin’ is Max wouldn’t like it.”

“Max isn’t around, okay? Nothing is happening. We’re just friends.”

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