“Ah.” She bends over, grabbing a La Croix. I have no idea how she drinks the nasty stuff. “Enjoy your night boys.”
I catch Jude checking out my sister as she leaves the kitchen and slap the back of his head. “Dude, you can put your dick anywhere you want but not in my sister. Don’t look at her like that.”
Daire laughs, nearly falling out of his chair. “Don’t ask for trouble by fucking your friend’s sister. It’s in the bro code, dumb ass.”
Jude rubs the back of his head, mumbling something under his breath about how he was just looking. Asshole. I’m really regretting the decision to let him move in. When I asked him if he’d want to room here, I didn’t think about him being around Millie. I’m not typically the overprotective type, but when it comes to Jude, I’ll do whatever the hell it takes to keep him away from her. He’s not the sort of guy she needs to get tangled up in. Too much baggage he needs to deal with.
Jude’s phone vibrates. “Car’s here.”
Harvey’s is packed with students, but as soon as we enter, the crowd parts like we’re a bunch of Gods. Daire and Jude eat it up, but I keep my head down as we head back to our usual horseshoe-shaped booth in the back. Some guys are already there and quickly make room for us.
“Hey.” I clap hands with Caesar when I settle beside him. He’s a cool guy, on the football team with Jude, and we hangout some.
“How was your summer, Creature?” He chortles at the nickname the guys on the hockey team gave me.
“Not bad. Spent a lot of time on the water.”
“Lucky bastard.” He picks up his glass of beer, downing a long gulp. “My parents shipped me off to my grandparents farm to help out. Manual labor is a bitch, but those country girls sure are nice.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Oh, it’s true.” He waggles his brows. “What do you want to drink?” He lifts his hand, signaling the waitress.
“Just a Sprite.”
He blinks at me and down at the other end of table Jude slams his hands onto the wood surface. “This is why I got an Uber. Eat, drink, be merry!”
I sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I’ll have a Guinness.” Yeah, I’m giving in to peer pressure, but one drink would be kind of nice. I’m feeling stressed about this year and the decisions I need to make. Not to mention, it’s been a year since my run in with the mysterious Daisy. I still find myself thinking about her. Even though I haven’t meant to, I’ve already been searching for red hair in the bar on the off chance she’s here.
It’s pathetic and I need to get over it.
I know what my friends would say if I told them about this. After they recovered from laughing their asses off, they’d tell me to get laid and get over it.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind.” Daire sits on my other side, looking over the menu even though we have it memorized after three years. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Nah. The beer should help.” And like a beacon in the dark, the waitress appears with drinks for us and refills for some of the others.
“Things already seem quieter this year,” he says only to me. “It’s weird having Mascen, Cole, Teddy, and Murray gone.”
“Yeah, it does feel weird. Teddy and Murray always made things interesting.”
I sip slowly at my beer, and the next time the waitress comes by I order tacos.
“Tacos? At a bar? Sacrilegious.” Caesar chortles, emptying his drink.
“I like tacos.”
There’s a commotion at the end of the table and then Rory, Mascen’s girlfriend, and her two friends join us.
“Where’s Mascen? He’s not on guard duty tonight?” Jude calls out, already on his second beer. There’s a girl beside him getting cozy, her lips suctioned to his neck.
Rory rolls her eyes behind her glasses. “I can go places without him. He’s in Malibu right now staying with his cousin and his wife. They had a baby not long ago, and he wanted to meet her.”
“Ooh, do you have pictures?” The girl who was sucking on Jude’s neck extracts herself to ask. “I love babies.”
She eyes Jude eagerly like he’ll whip his dick out and say, “All right, let me give you one.”
Instead, he gets a haunted look and scoots away from her.
“Sure,” Rory chimes, oblivious to Jude’s discomfort and gets her phone out, showing off photos of the baby.
“Aw, wow. She is precious. Look at all that dark hair. Don’t you think she’s cute?” The chick tries to show Jude, but he stares blatantly at the table ignoring her. Rolling her eyes, she gives the phone back to Rory. “Thanks for showing me. She’s adorable. What’s her name?”
“Her first name is Annie, and her middle name is Hope.”
The girl clutches her chest. “I love that.”
“So, when are you and Mascen popping out some kiddos?” Daire jokes, trying not to laugh.
Rory pretends to gag. “Not for a good long time. Let me get through this and law school. And he better put a ring on it before he knocks me up too.”
Jude pushes against his chick of the night. “Move. I gotta piss.”
She quickly gets out of his way to let him out of the booth. He bolts like he can’t get away from us fast enough, and I really don’t think it’s entirely about having to pee.
“Let me out, too.” Something tells me to go check on him. Feelings and shit aren’t really my thing, but if there’s anything I learned last year when Teddy told us about all the crap he’d been dealing with, it’s that even if it makes you uncomfortable, you need to be there for your friends. “Don’t eat my tacos,” I warn, Daire as he and the girls sit back down.
“No promises.” He smirks, stretching his arm along the back of the booth.
I check the restroom and find it empty of Jude.
Shaking my head, I know it could take me a while to find him if he’s disappeared into the crowd in the middle of the room, but something urges me to go outside.
Using the side exit, I step out and look around. I spot his form pacing up and down in the gravel lot, hands clasped behind his head.
“Hey,” I call out. His body visibly tenses at the sound of my voice.
He ceases his pacing, letting his hands drop. “What?” His jaw is granite. For a second, I think he might punch me for no reason.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I toe the front of my sneaker into the dirt and rocks. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He puts his hands on his hips, angling his head back. “Just got shit I need to sort through. That’s all.”
“You know you can always talk to me if you want. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
He snorts. “Let’s not try to act like a bunch of Girl Scouts that are going to sit around in a circle and spill our feelings or whatever it is that they do.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not what Girl Scouts do. I’m not saying you have to. Just that I’m here.”
“Go back in, Cree. Be merry. Have some fun for once in your life.”
“And what are you going to do?”
Jaw pulsing, he looks to the side. “I called an Uber. I’m going home.”