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Well, Tanner wouldn’t.
Emily smirked. “Wanna go?”
Did she? “I dunno if I can stay awake through another stupid football game.”
“But it’s the playoffs.” Emily waggled her eyebrows. “C’mon. They’re either at Eleanor’s or Pinky G’s. We can surprise ’em.”
Tanner did ask her to go, now didn’t he? Biting her lip, she nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Kellan’s red truck in the parking lot was hard to miss. Emily pulled into the spot beside his, and now that they were here, Arien was almost afraid to go in. What if he was practicing on some snow bunny? After kissing her, touching her the way he did, she’d die. I’ll kick him right in his Wranglers. Perhaps she shouldn’t feel that way, but she did.
The place was so packed, she and Emily barely made it through the door. The game played on TVs affixed to exposed-brick walls, not that anyone could possibly hear it over the music blaring from the speakers. Squished into the corner of the bar, Arien spotted their cowboys in a booth on the far wall.
Nervous tension draining from her shoulders, she released a breath. No bunnies in sight. Nursing on pints of beer, the boys were alone.
Pointing across the crowded bar, Emily waved. “There they are.”
“Jesus, I feel like such a stalker.”
“Don’t be silly.” She nudged her shoulder. “Look, they’re happy to see us.”
With that ever-present smirk on his face, Kellan locked eyes with her, raising his beer to his lips. After taking a long, slow swallow, he stood.
“How come Wyoming girls are just so damn pretty?”
Arien turned her head in the direction of the slurred voice. A group of guys wearing UC jerseys, a couple of them on barstools, the others standing, wedged together like sardines in a tin, were leering at her and Emily.
“Fuck’s sake,” Arien muttered under her breath.
Leaning into her ear, Emily giggled. “Are all the boys like that where you come from?”
“Sit right here and have a drink with me, baby.” The dude squeezed the dick in his pants while patting his thigh.
Ewww.
“Does that usually work for you, Chad?”
“My name’s not Chad.”
Should be.
“C’mon, baby girl. I don’t bite.” He grinned. “Much.”
A hand gripped her arm, yanking her away. “She ain’t your baby.” Kellan got right up in the dude’s face. “She’s mine. You so much as say another word to her, look at her, even breathe in her direction, and they’ll be wipin’ up your innards from the floor. Got that?”
“She really banging that cowboy?” Sneering, barstool dude looked at Emily.
Kellan grabbed his cousin by the hand. “Let’s go.”
Stumbling into him, she glanced back. “Well, you do know what they say, Chad. Save a horse, ride a—”
“Emily!”
Leading them away from the bar, Kellan busted out a belly laugh at the drunk, dejected voice behind them that said, “And the name’s not Chad.”
Arien slid into the booth next to Tanner, Kellan taking his seat beside her, while Emily took her place between Billy and Jake. Peanut shells were strewn about the table, along with a pitcher of beer, half-eaten nachos, and the remains of buffalo chicken wings. Reaching into the bucket, she grabbed a heaping handful of the salty nuts.
Tanner pulled her closer. “Hungry, darlin’?”
