I squeezed the bridge of my nose between my thumb and my index finger and closed my eyes, hoping Madison won’t put me through some shit like that when she decides to get married. If she managed to find a guy willing to tie himself to her.
“Yo, Hartley.” I lifted my gaze up to find Chase staring at me. “I heard you stopped playing when you went to college.”
“I did,” I confirmed without offering any additional information.
“Why?”
“I didn’t like it anymore.”
“But you were good at it.”
“I was.”
Not that I cared enough to tell him, but I was probably better right now than he was in high school. I had never watched him play, but I knew my jersey was still hanging in the school hallway. As far as I knew, his was not.
“I have a ball in the trunk,” he provoked me. “We should play. Try to redo some of your moves.”
“No.” I accompanied the word with a death glare, that usually made people uncomfortable. That was not the case with Chase.
“Scared to ruin your reputation?”
I grinned as if I wasn’t pissed off. This guy and I would definitely have a problem. Lucas sensed the tension building between us two and changed the subject.
When we finally left the diner, I was the last one to approach the cars. My hands were in my pockets, so when a football hit my chest, I didn’t even have the chance to catch it.
I glanced up and I saw Chase looking at me, the ball lying on the ground right where it fell after bouncing off my body. Approaching him slowly, I stopped when my face was just inches away from his. He didn’t flinch. He was probably used to people getting in his face, giving the fact he was looking for trouble with his cocky attitude.
“That’s enough,” Lucas tried to step between us, but we didn’t move. He pushed Chase back. “Let’s just get in the cars. Tyler, move your stuff to my car.”
“I’ll pass.”
“You’re not riding in his car,” Lucas pointed at Chase. “I need a best man and I’m sure Clem would like to still have a brother by the time we get married.”
“Good point, Cole,” I moved my gaze to him and slapped him on the shoulder. Then I rounded them both, opened Chase’s trunk and got my shit out. But instead of moving them to the other car, I started walking back to the diner.
I glanced at my phone. It was almost nine o’clock already. Not too early to make a phone call.
“Where the hell are you going?” Lucas shouted at my back.
I didn’t even look at him, let alone give him an answer.
***
I sat at the counter of that diner laughing with the waitresses, when two hours after I ditched the guys, someone opened the door, then slammed it shut with a bang. It gave everyone around me pause. Then their eyes focused on the door. I had my back to it. I didn’t hear anyone shifting behind me and I figured it was my ride.
I slowly turned around and there she was. Hannah Spencer. Golden hair. Red face. Blue eyes narrowed into slits. She looked so pissed it made me smile.
“There she is. My princess charming,” I made a show of looking through the windows to spot her rented red Corolla. “I’m disappointed, little Spencer. Shouldn’t you be on a horse?” I leaned closer to one of the waitresses and continued. “I look great on a horse by the way.” The girl blushed from my proximity and the rest of the staff giggled. The place was almost empty, so they had nothing better to do than to watch this scene unfold.
“What in the ever-loving hell is going on?” Hannah raised her voice and people started to spread around, pretending they weren’t paying any attention to her. No one wanted to get in the way of an angry woman. Least of all me, but I called that one myself, so I didn’t really have a choice.
“I need a ride back,” I shrugged, acting like it wasn’t a big deal. As if we did that on the reg. Asking favors from one another.
“I am not giving you a ride!” Her outrage was captivating. I had seen her lose it only once before and I was captivated then too.
I cocked my head sideways and shot her a condescending look.
“Yeah, you drove all the way here to tell me that you’re not going to give me a ride.”
I pointed at the stool right next to me and turned my back to her, waving at one of the waitresses. Hannah wasn’t capable of leaving me here, the people pleaser that she was.
“I don’t have time for this,” her voice sounded closer than I expected. I didn’t hear her approaching me. I glanced over my shoulder.
“You move around like a ninja.”
Her eyes got huge for a moment, then she burst out laughing.
“You are ridiculous. You know that, right?”
“Of course I know that. It works like a charm with the ladies.” I winked at her. Hannah took a deep breath and finally sat down next to me.
“Please, hurry up. I really need to go back.”
The waitress placed a plate in front of Hannah. The look on her face was a mixture of surprise and something else I decided not to spend time analyzing, because well, I wasn’t a chick.
“I know you love them,” I mumbled. “I thought I might at least buy you a waffle for the trouble of coming here to get me.”
“You ordered me a waffle? Before I arrived?” I nodded. “What if I hadn’t come?” I shot her another condescending look. It didn’t even cross my mind that she could leave me here. It wasn’t in her nature.
She stared at her plate for a few seconds than devoured the waffle and every drop of chocolate in under two minutes. All I did was stare at her.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, her tone sharper than I wanted it to be.
I’m looking at your hair. It still looks like sunshine.
I wasn’t dumb enough to utter aloud every thought that passed through my head, so I ignored that particular one and moved on to the next.
“You eat like a caveman,” I tried but couldn’t tear my eyes away from the chocolate in the corner of her mouth that begged to be licked off her face. I reached over and wiped the chocolate off her mouth with my thumb. The air left her lungs the moment I touched her smooth skin. I cleared my throat, left cash on the counter, and stood up. She didn’t. “Shall we?”
“Why don’t you stay here and wait for a horse?”
“You probably smell better.”
“Probably?” she asked with amusement in her eyes.
“I should sniff. Then I could tell for sure,” I tried to lean closer to her, but she leaned back on her stool avoiding me getting into her personal space. When she was about to lose balance, she pressed her warm palm to my chest and pushed me back. I complied immediately.
“Save it for someone who doesn’t know you, Hartley. That doesn’t work on me,” she supplied.
“What doesn’t?” I asked staring into her blue eyes.
“The flirting.”
I smiled down at her.
“It works on everyone, little Spencer.”
Chapter Ten
Tyler
Hannah drove me back to my mother’s house, trying to hold my attention with meaningless conversation about weddings and babies. Or should I say monologue, giving the fact I barely answered back. I knew nothing about weddings, and I knew even less about babies. In fact, the only baby I knew was Liam. And fortunately for me, he was no longer one.