Knowing I’d given Gary plenty to keep him busy, I decided to take a few minutes to check on all the work Marlowe had done while I was gone. I was pleased to see that she’d gone above and beyond to make sure all the receipts had been checked and logged, and she’d taken care of all the inventory as well. Since there wasn’t anything else that needed my immediate attention, I decided to go out and check on Par—Aubrey and the girls. When I reached their table, I wasn’t surprised to find Hawk and Rafe sitting with them. Aubrey gave me a warm smile and said, “I was wondering if you were ever going to make it out of your office tonight.”
“I had some work to catch up on.” I sat down next to her. “If it hadn’t been for Marlowe, I might’ve been stuck in there all night.”
“Did everything look okay?” Marlowe asked with concern.
“Couldn’t have done it better myself. I genuinely appreciate it.”
“I was glad to help.” Marlowe glanced over at Aubrey as she said, “But I’m happy you and Aubrey are back. We missed having you guys around.”
“Thanks, Lowe. It’s good to be back.” I turned to Aubrey and asked, “You girls having a good time?”
“A very good time.” She lifted her glass and took a sip. “I was just telling the girls about the day we went fishing.”
“Oh yeah? You telling ’em how I caught the biggest bass you’ve ever seen.”
"Not sure I’d say it was the biggest bass I’d ever seen.” She giggled. “It was average at best.”
“What? It was at least ten pounds... maybe even eleven,” I argued.
“It might’ve been five, but I’m thinking it was more like four,” she said, taunting me. “But you did good. It was a great catch.”
“Maybe you should’ve tried her hotdog trick,” Rafe piped in. “Might’ve gotten ya a better catch.”
“I did fine without the fucking hotdog, brother,” I barked. “And just so you know, if you’d been there and seen that fucking ten-pound bass, you would’ve told me to mount the damn thing.”
“Mm-hmm. Whatever you say, brother.”
In hopes of changing the subject, Delilah announced, “We were talking earlier about having a cookout over at our place next weekend. Maybe have a few hotdogs and hamburgers while we watch the game.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Just let us know what we can bring.”
“Just an appetite.” Hawk leaned over to me and whispered, “You had a chance to talk to Viper?”
“Yeah, I went by the clubhouse earlier, and he told me what was up.” I turned my head away from the girls. “I think I got it handled, but let’s keep the prospects on them just to be sure.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Hawk motioned his head over in Aubrey’s direction. “You get her sorted?”
“We did, thanks to Billy.” I glanced over at Aubrey, watching as she took another sip of her drink, and it was all I could do to keep myself from reaching over and pulling her into my lap. “It’s looking like she’ll be able to stick around.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“So, who’s going to be playing this weekend?” Aubrey asked with a slight slur. “Are you guys Alabama fans?”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, so I asked, “You do realize Nashville is in Tennessee, right?”
“Yeah, but doesn’t Alabama win everything?” She lifted her glass and swirled it around in the air. “Roll Tide Roll and all that.”
“Those are fightin’ words, babe. You don’t mess with the Vols.”
“Is that right?” she asked, laughing. “Seems like Alabama messes with the Vols a lot. Haven’t they beat them for like the last ten or fifteen years?”
“You really wanna go there, babe? Do ya really?”
That only made her laugh even harder. When I glanced over at Hawk and Rafe, I found them both smirking at Aubrey’s little show. I could’ve just let her carry on but didn’t see the fun in that, so I stood up and immediately reached for her. Aubrey was totally caught off guard as I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. I started storming towards the front door, and she shouted, “Wait! What are you doing?”
When I didn’t answer, she started pounding her fists on my back. “I didn’t mean what I said about your precious Vols... They’re amazing… They’ll probably win the National Championship this year!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, I reached up and gave her ass a firm whack. Stunned by my actions, Aubrey shouted, “Jared! What’s with you always smacking me on the ass?”
“Best stop talking, Bree. There’s more where that came from,” I warned with a snicker. She continued to thrash about, trying to get out of my grasp as we made our way out to the parking lot. Once I’d reached the SUV, I opened the door and lowered her as she unfolded herself into the seat. Aubrey sat there staring at me with an astonished look on her face as if she was wondering what I’d do next. “We’ll finish this conversation at your place.”
I was about to close the door when she reached for me and smiled. “Hey... Can we take a time out for two seconds?”
“Time out for what?”
“They didn’t recognize me. None of them. It was like it never happened, and I’m just me.”
“You are just you, Bree. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Okay.” She giggled. “Timeout’s over.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I closed the door, then walked over and got in next to her. Neither of us spoke as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road, but the silence didn’t last long. We’d only driven a couple of miles when Aubrey whispered, "You know I was just messing around earlier. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“You didn’t hurt my feelings, babe.”
“I gotta say, I didn’t realize the Vols meant soooo much to you, but now that I do, I won’t trash talk them.” A smirk crossed her face. “At least not when you’re around.”
“Oh, you really wanna keep this up?”
“Maybe.”
“You know there’ll be consequences.”
She eased over closer to me and placed her hand on my thigh. “Oh? I like the sound of that.”
“Is that right?”
With my eyes focused on the road ahead, I lowered my hand to her knee and slowly trailed along her inner thigh. As I got closer to the hem of her skirt, Aubrey’s knees fell open, and her breath quickened as the tips of my fingers grazed the lining of her panties. She shifted her hips forward and rested her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes as I continued to caress and tease her slowly. Damn, she had me all tangled up, and it took plenty of restraint not to stop the truck and take her right then and there.
When I finally pulled up to her apartment, her breath was ragged with need. I quickly parked, then we both rushed up to her apartment. As soon as we got the door open, I reached for Aubrey, kissing her as we made our way into the kitchen. Her fingers dove into my hair as she hungrily attached herself to me.
I lifted her up onto the kitchen counter and slid my hand under her skirt, reaching for her panties. With one sudden tug, I ripped them from her hips, and her eyebrows immediately furrowed with disapproval. “Sorry, babe, but these have to go. I’ll make it up to you.”