“Ssh.” My eyes darted around the hall. The last thing I needed was the wrong person overhearing our conversation—or any person for that matter.
“Okay, that’s it.” A look of determination flashed across her face. “I was ready to drag you out of here screaming and kicking but I can see it’s worse than I thought. So one night. You get one night.”
“One night?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Less talking,” Mya grabbed my hand, “And more drinking. We’ve got work to do.”
Chapter Twenty
Jason
“Bro, if you clench any harder, your jaw is going to break.” Asher chuckled, taking a long pull of his beer.
“She drives me fucking insane,” I ground out, watching on as Felicity and some douchebag from the soccer team laughed like they were old friends.
“She’s a girl. It’s what they do. So you and her—”
“Never going to happen.”
Felicity disarmed me. Every moment I spent with her, I felt my walls chip away a little more. I couldn’t afford to be defenseless, not in a world that would chew me up and spit me out quicker than you could say, ‘Go Raiders’.
I glanced over at him and noticed his eyes fixed in another direction... where Mya was also talking to some guy.
“New girl, huh?”
“What?” His head whipped around.
“You and the new girl?”
“I heard you the first time. I just have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t.” I scrubbed my jaw. He was right. If I clenched any harder there was a good chance I’d need emergency dental work. But ever since she returned from the restroom, Felicity had been talking to anyone and anything with a dick that wasn’t me.
“Well, aren’t we a pair?” Asher just wouldn’t shut the hell up. “You won’t admit you want Fee and I can’t admit I like the new girl.”
“So you do like her? Knew it.” I smirked.
“She’s... different.”
“You’re not wrong there.” I downed the rest of my beer.
“So you and Fee?”
“There is no me and Fee.” What kind of fucking nickname was that anyway?
“You know I only pushed you before because I wanted you to pull your head out of your ass, right?”
“I know,” I grumbled. When Cam and Asher had suggested we all come to Bell’s to take Hailee’s mind off the mess at the studio, I hadn’t anticipated on it turning into a session with Dr Phil. All I wanted to do was drink and forget about Thatcher. Numb the burning desire to ram my fist straight into his face.
I would never forget the look on my step-sister’s face when she saw the devastation he’d caused. Part of me didn’t want to care, didn’t want to feel responsible for it.
But I did care.
I was responsible.
And it was a hard truth to swallow.
Asher slung his arm over my shoulder as we watched the girls flirt shamelessly with the two douchecanoes. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to just sit here and watch this shit.” He gave me a pointed look, one that should have had me following him as he cut across the bar to them. But I didn’t go.
I couldn’t.
Because going would be admitting something I wasn’t ready for.
So I sat there like a fucking statue watching the girl who had completely flipped my world on its head as she batted her eyes and twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
My hand curled around the table. Walk away, I silently willed the douche to excuse himself. Because while I couldn’t go over there and stake my claim, I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to stand by and watch someone else make a move on Felicity. Not when I could still taste her on my lips, remember how good she felt bouncing on my dick, how fucking easy it was to lose myself in her.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Hailee came up beside me.
“Just chillin’.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this before,” she said, guilt ripping through me. “Did something happen between the two of you?”
“Hailee—”
“I know, I know. But I know Felicity and this isn’t her.”
“I can’t be who she needs.”
“I want to agree. I want to tell you to walk away and save her the heartache. But something tells me you’re both already in too deep for that.” My step-sister looked at me as if she could see right through me.
I hated it.
“You have to make a choice, Jason,” she went on. “Take a chance on her or let her go. Because this—whatever this is that you’re doing right now—it’s hurting her. And I won’t stand by and let you hurt her, I just won’t.”
Pressing my lips together, I gave her the silent treatment. I wasn’t having this conversation. Not here. Not now. And most definitely not with her. My step-sister. Hailee fucking Raine; the girl I’d hated for so long I didn’t know how to deal with my newfound concern for her.
“Hey,” she laid her hand on my arm when I didn’t reply, “I’m not your enemy, Jason.”
Slowly, I slid my hard gaze to hers. She was right. The lines had been redrawn and somehow, we were on the same side now, but it didn’t mean I had to like it, or even accept it.
“Yeah, whatever.” I shrugged her off, finding Felicity in the crowd again.
Maybe I couldn’t go claim her, but I could sit here and watch. I could make sure that douchecanoe kept his hands firmly to himself.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Hailee let out a heavy sigh. “I’m going to find Cameron.”
“You do that,” I grunted. “I need another beer.” Catching Jerry’s eye, I tipped my empty bottle toward him. He gave me a terse nod, disappointment glittering in his eyes. He could judge all he wanted. Jerry didn’t know what it was like to shoulder the expectation of an entire town... your classmates... teammates. He didn’t know what it was like to want something so bad you had to give up everything else.
No one did.
“Are you going to handle that?” Asher asked me sometime later, “Or am I?”
Inhaling a deep breath, I watched Felicity sway on her feet as she attempted to make Hailee and Mya dance with her. It had been the same for the last hour; Felicity trying to coerce the girls into dancing, them telling her no.
“Shit, she’s going to—”
Mya caught her fall.
“Someone should have taken her home an hour ago,” I said.
“Hailee tried. Mya too. She’s on a mission, man.”
Hailee caught my eye across the bar, her expression full of challenge. Are you going to step up?
I rubbed my temples, exhaling a shaky breath, holding her steely gaze. It was a bad idea—the fucking worst. But I couldn’t take another second of Felicity flashing her bedroom eyes at some random guy or dodging advances from some dickwad who didn’t deserve to touch her.
“Here.” I thrust my bottle of water at Asher. I’d stopped drinking a while ago, right around the time Felicity began to try—and fail—to turn Bell’s into a club.