Cap’N Crunch: I’ll dance naked in public.
Violet Queen: Can you dance?
Cap’N Crunch: I have some moves. You’d probably enjoy them.
Violet Queen: Is that so?
Cap’N Crunch: It’s all in the hips.
Violet Queen: Rude!
Cap’N Crunch: What about you? Are you stripping off and doing the chicken dance?
Violet Queen: I could, but frat boys would still whistle at me.
I chuckle. I love her sense of humor, and hate it too. Because she reminds me of Lily. And that would be cool, if I wasn’t completely obsessed with the fact that Lily still isn’t talking to me.
It’s been two weeks since she left without saying goodbye. I don’t blame her for giving me a wide berth. What I said to her… it was mean. Uncalled for, but I needed her to understand that nothing can happen between us. When what I really wanted to say was, “Fuck yes, I’m into you.” And that the only thing I regretted was not kissing her back when I had the chance. Now the only thing I regret is being another person in her life who she thinks doesn’t want her around.
Hud did ask me to go to the airport with them, but I figured she was embarrassed and wanted to keep her distance on purpose. So I made up an excuse about having to work out kinks on the app and decided to give her some space. But how much time am I supposed to give her?
“Hey man, can I get a beer?”
Someone waves their hand in my face, and I drag my attention from my phone and from Lily back to my surroundings. People are used to me losing time when I’m hyper focused. But it doesn’t usually happen at work. And it doesn’t happen because of my best friend’s little sister. She’s blurred the lines I so carefully constructed and no amount of mental sharpie can solidify them again.
“Sorry.” I grab a glass and pour a perfect pint before putting it in front of the guy.
He hands over cash and moves on and I throw myself into serving. I make gin and tonics for a cougar and her much younger date. Good for her. Pour more beers for a couple of guys who are built like wrestlers. Serve a bunch of cocktails to our fan club. Girls in Line ‘Em Up T-shirts and short skirts.
Pez smirks at me. He’s only been with us a few weeks, and all the attention is making him cocky. He’s like a damn Pez dispenser, allotting advice and flirtations in equal measure, which is why Hud dubbed him Pez within days of him starting at Line ‘Em Up. Arrow shakes his head at Pez. The popularity does get old sometimes. All these girls.
Who aren’t Lily.
Any one of them would have responded to my text messages by now. But not her. She can hold a grudge. As much as I want to leave her alone, I can’t. I have to find a way to get her to talk to me so we can get back to normal. For Hud’s sake. She needs to forget that she has a thing for me. I need to stop imagining what it might feel like to be with her. It’s a glitch. That’s all. We need to move past it.
Yep, it would be fan-fucking-tastic if I could forget that I saw those photos of her in her lace panties and her sheer bra. I’ve seen my best friend’s little sister naked. I’ve memorized the size of her areolas and the shape of her nipples. And I am never going to forget it. I don’t think I could shake those images loose if I went and banged my head against the bartop hard enough to rattle my brain.
It’s fine though. I can ignore the hell out of the fact that I’ve seen them. And that I lay in bed at night fantasizing about peeling that peek-a-boo lace down so I can wrap my tongue around each one. Until she’s writhing beneath me. Moaning. Calling my name like she’s about ready to lose her damn mind with lust.
Her violet locks spread out on my pillows. Her taut belly quivering as I draw my lips down the center to the edge of her panties.
Her sweet scent in my linen. Her thighs rubbing together to try to ease her need. My tongue against the gusset of her panties until she’s begging me to peel them off. Her legs draped around me as I settle between them. Her knees hooked on my hips as I fuck her.
“Christ. Fuck. You jackass.” I scrub the wet rings off the wood like I’m sanding the damn thing, working out some of the tension that has my jaw as rigid as my cock. I need to get this shit under control. Pretending I didn’t like Lily was much easier when I didn’t know she was still carrying a torch for me. Being aware that she likes me back makes it all so much fucking worse. Wanting her. Knowing I’d only hurt her…
“Hi.”
I glance up from the wood grain to the woman who has bellied up to the bar in front of me. She leans on the bar, her fingers toying with a tendril of her auburn hair while she runs her gaze up and down my body. She raises her voice so I can hear her over the music, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“That’s okay.” I offer her a friendly smile. She looks a little like someone I used to know a long time ago. “What can I get you?”
“I was hoping you could make me a Red Headed Slut.”
“Sure.” Turning up a glass on the counter, I add Jägermeister, schnapps, Red Bull, and cranberry juice. Give it a quick stir and place it in front of her. “There you go.”
“Thanks.” She hands over cash. Lifts the glass to her glossed lips and downs the cocktail before setting it back on the counter. A wet ring pools around it as she reaches across the divider to touch my arm.
She’s flirting with me. It happens a lot. I ignore it. “Another?”
“I meant the other kind of Red Headed Slut.” She flutters her eyelashes and bites her lip. All it does is make me think about Lily and the way she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth the night she was wasted out of her mind. It wasn’t sexy. It was ridiculous. And cute. Damn adorable. Until she kissed me. Then it was sexy. Then it was all I could do to keep my hands and mouth to myself. Then it took everything to leave without kissing her back.
I glance at Hud who is working the other end of the bar with Pez. Arrow is on the floor, collecting empties. Hud waggles his eyebrows at me. Gives me that look that suggests he’s ready to serve my end of the bar if I want to step away for a few minutes to get better acquainted with my new friend.
I grimace as I clean away her glass. I’m such a cliché. The guy who flirts with all the pretty redheads, takes them home and spends a mostly forgettable night in their company. But what am I supposed to do about it? It’s what I know. It’s who I am.
Better that than the guy who fucks over the people he cares about.
She waits for me to respond. Her eyes ask me to say yes. Her lips part in anticipation.
I’m a wolf. It’s in my nature to get what I want. Right now what I want and what I need is to put Lily Kelly out of my head.
My phone vibrates against my leg.
It has to be Lily. We’ve had arguments before. At some point we’ll kiss and make up. Well, we’ll make up. We always do. We’ll go back to being friends. She’ll kick my ass at every video game and call me an old man, and I’ll tease her about her scrawny elbows and her icy toes.
I snatch it out of my pocket. My pulse pounds in my ears. The same way it has every time I’ve gotten a text message these last two weeks. It has to be Lily.
“Seriously?” the woman asks. “You’re not even going to answer me?”
“I’m waiting on a text.” It’s not Lily. My heart deep dives into my stomach. It’s my mom, asking me to reconsider my decision not to go to the wedding.