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Jenna exchanged a smile with Cadence, then tapped the bottom of the shot glass on the table to ward off bad luck and tossed the shot back with her. She set the empty glass on the table and watched as Kru and Lucas cheers-ed their tiny glasses and tossed their shots back. She laughed at the disgusted faces they pulled at the sweet shots.
Lucas set his empty shot glass inside her empty and then automatically draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in, and she melted at the unexpected PDA. Kru threw an axe and hit the dead-center bullseye. Of course.
Lucas patted her butt and murmured, “You’re up,” before he handed her the handle of the axe.
She pointed to the axe hanging from Kru’s grasp and told him, “Can you hand that to Cadence?” Which he did.
And then she proceeded to teach Cadence how to hold the axe, and how to throw from behind the line. She ran her through a dozen practice throws and then challenged the boys to 21.
Guys versus girls.
The night got even more fun. They played boys versus girls for three games and then split up when Cadence’s skills started catching up—Cadence and Kru against Jenna and Lucas. That was her favorite time of the entire night. Lucas was attentive and communicated well. He was positive, and even when she missed her target, he was supportive and made her feel like a queen.
She would never, as long as she lived, forget when one of the human women came up to her at the end of the night of throwing axes with people who felt like friends. She slurred because she was a few drinks deep, but she pulled Jenna in and looked her in the eyes and said, “You two are very cute. That man hasn’t taken his attention off you all night. I know. I’ve watched.”
She didn’t know why, but it meant a lot to her that this slightly tipsy, a-little-bit-stalkery human woman was telling her how lucky she was.
When she turned to look at Lucas, he was smiling privately as he neatly stacked the beer glasses they’d emptied throughout the night. Oh, he’d heard the woman. He could hear everything in this bar. He glanced up at her and his eyes were that soft brown of his human side, and he twitched his head. Come here.
She said her goodbyes to the tipsy trio of humans and meandered to him, melted into his side as his arm went around her. Jenna looked up at him and couldn’t help her smile. “Tonight was fun.”
“For me too.”
“Home?” she asked.
The smile faltered on his lips and he dragged his gaze from her, busied himself with grabbing her purse from the table.
“I-I’m sorry,” she uttered quick. “I meant my home. Not yours.”
“I know what you meant.” His smile returned when he looked at her again, but it was missing some of the warmth it had before. “Let’s go to your home.”
It hurt a little—just a little bee sting against her heart, but she felt it. She wished Lucas understood ‘home,’ but some men were built to wander. Of course her silly little soul had chosen one of them to fall for.
Cadence followed them out while Kru settled the tab, and told them, “I’ll get Kru home.”
“I’ll get his keys,” Lucas said, but Cadence held up a key ring and grinned brightly. “Already done.”
“You’re a good friend,” Jenna told her, and Cadence looked surprised. She parted her lips to say something, but the words seemed to escape her, and that was okay. Sometimes compliments surprised the words out of Jenna too.
Lucas pulled open the passenger’s side door for her and she climbed up into his truck. She watched Lucas settle in behind the wheel and shut his door, and she had to tell him. Had to say the words. “Tonight was my favorite night.”
The flash of his white teeth gave her butterflies. With the bar parking lot lights illuminating his chiseled facial features, she could see a slight dimple under his short scruff. He was so handsome.
He turned his head and his lightened eyes bore straight into her soul. “Tonight was my favorite night too. You’re going to be hard to leave, Brown.”
She slid her hand around his strong bicep as he rested his arm on the console and smiled as she looked forward. She liked the way he’d said her last name. “Good.”
He hesitated for a few seconds before he turned the truck on, and when she moved to release his arm, he caught her hand and pulled it back. She could feel his pulse tripping at his inner elbow, and she wondered whose heart was racing fastest right now—hers, or his.
She loved touching him.
As they pulled out of the parking lot and hit the winding roads that would lead them back up into the mountains and back to Smashland, a light reflected in the side mirror, and she could see Cadence settling in behind them. Kru was in the passenger’s seat.
It shouldn’t have been an important moment, but Jenna was happy. She was riding with the man who had all her attention, and she was beginning to really like the two following them, and she wished this could go on and on. She wished they could have more nights caravanning home.
She rolled her window down and let her fingertips catch the wind as the trees blurred by.
She could feel Lucas’s attention on her, over and over, and she squeezed his bicep gently. I’m okay.
