AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck. Oh my fucking God, I am in trouble.
The girls come over, and Cash sweeps June into a hug and plants a kiss on her lips. Hannah stands nearby with Marci, chatting amiably. Marci ignores me completely.
“I love this place,” June says. “So many memories.”
“Can you believe this place almost burnt down?” Marci asks.
“Not on Missy’s watch,” Cash says. “Wonder where she is? Haven’t seen her in a while.”
“She’s getting old. It can’t be easy being the owner of a bar at that age,” Jayjay says, giving Cash a sickeningly sweet gaze.
“Would you two stop devouring each other?” I grumble.
June laughs. The girls order drinks, then leave together and go sit over at one of the tables ringing the dance floor. Marci catches my eye for a second and holds it before looking away.
Wanting her is pointless. She’ll never stop hating me, because I can’t be the sweet, friendly guy she wants. I can’t be the guy who stands by while she lets people take advantage of her. I can’t shut up about that, and I won’t.
Cash and Savage chat idly, doing their best to involve me in their conversation but eventually leave me to my moody solitude. I sip my beer and watch Marci, but she doesn’t look up.
The music changes pace to a slow song, and Marci rises from the table, laughing at something Jayjay says, and comes over. She crowds between the others at the bar and flags down Luke, the bartender.
Even watching her with a god damn bartender annoys me. I don’t like Marci getting under my skin. It’s supposed to be the other way around.
Luke takes her order, but I summon him over before he can fulfill it. Marci’s distracted on her phone, so she doesn’t notice.
“I’m paying for her round of drinks,” I murmur. “But don’t tell her it was me. Got it?”
Luke flicks his earring and arches an eyebrow at me.
“No offense, Jesse, but I don’t think even you can pull this one off. She doesn’t do one-night stands.”
“I appreciate the input, buddy, but I’m paying for the drinks, not buying condoms.”
Luke takes my money and gets the booze.
It’s a pointless gesture. I don’t care, because she’s smiling and happy when she takes the beers. She glances around, trying to find the person who bought the round, and her gaze meets mine at the last second. She takes a step toward me, but a woman slides past her.
“A birdie told me that you were fixing to do something real stupid, Jesse darlin’.”
The voice is both familiar and unwelcome.
My ex, or rather my ex-friend with benefits, Annaleigh Devan, leans across the bar in front of me. She twirls a long strand of blonde hair around her finger and releases it. She’s wearing a crop top that shows off her body and enough cleavage to draw eyes, but I lean to one side, searching for Marci.
She’s standing there with the beers in hand, lips pursed.
Annaleigh waves a hand in front of my face.
“Are you registering, Jesse? Like, do you see me standing in front of you?”
“What do you want?”
“Just checking in,” Annaleigh says, and holds her nails out to examine them. “They recently promoted me to editor of the magazine.”
“Congratulations. That’s great news.” When we broke up, Annaleigh threatened to write a piece about me in the gossip column. She never followed through, thankfully.
“Yeah,greatnews. I heard you want to run for sheriff, Jesse, and I wanted to encourage younotto do that,” she says. “Because people don’t want a player who only cares about getting his dick wet as their sheriff. They want a family man. Maybe you should have thought twice about breaking up with me.” She’s smug as hell. “Especially since Irunthe magazine.”
“We were never dating. We were friends with benefits. I made that clear from the start.”
