Darby’s head whips back to me still with the scowl on his face. “Excuse me?” he asks louder than I would have liked.
“I said, you’re rude. You didn’t need to speak to me like that, all I was doing was offering you a drink.”
His chocolate eyes bore into mine. “And… I… said… no. What out of that answer made you think I was being rude.”
I straighten my back and turn my legs so I’m facing him more. His eyes flick to my knee, which brushes up against his, before they land back on mine. “You have a stick up your ass whenever I’m near you. Would you like me to pull that out and relieve your pain?”
Someone coughs, someone laughs. I don’t care right now, I like the way he’s staring at me—anger mixed with something else. It makes my smirk touch my lips and my eyes twinkle in delight.
Tonight might be fun after all.9DarbyThe nerve of her, the way she speaks to me as if I’m no one—she can’t talk to me in that manner. Olympia puts the glass to her lips, drinking the vodka. Who the fuck invited her anyway, and when the fuck can I leave? I want to leave. Right now. But I’ve been roped into attending, and I’m happy for him. Whoever thought Falcon would propose? Sure as shit not me. He was the manwhore, plain and simple, and now all he can do is talk about Ariel. It’s sometimes sickening.
“Olympia, we should dance.” Ariel reaches for Olympia’s hand. Olympia looks back to me before she accepts it. I forget she knows all of them, not as well as I do, but Olympia’s been working while I wasn’t.
“Dancing, I can do,” she says as she finishes her drink, placing it down right in front of me and winking before she gets up to leave. My eyes track her all the way out to the dance floor. I’m unable to look away like the fucking train wreck I am. Ariel leans over and whispers something in her ear, and Olympia’s head falls back and her mouth opens as she laughs.
“You plan to hit that? I can tell you want to.”
I cringe at his choice of words, but that’s Falcon for you. He’s a no-holds-barred type of person.
“Oh, I’m getting the silent treatment, am I? What would you say if I went down there right now and placed myself between the girls, my hands running up and down Ariel’s ass while your little blue number over there grinds herself against me.” He rubs his hands together as he looks at the dance floor where both girls are dancing holding hands. “No reaction, hey? Well, maybe you aren’t deep enough, yet.”
“Nothing to be deep about.”
He laughs, dropping his head back. “It’s like the start of a wreck, it creeps up slowly, ever so slowly… then boom! There’s power in it and you better watch the fuck out. I remember what it’s like. Have fun with that and try to handle it better than I did. I almost missed my most important stop. Will you?” He gets up and walks to where the girls are, pushes himself between them and gazes back over his shoulder to me then winks. He reaches for Olympia’s hand, Ariel smiling as he does, but Olympia shakes her head and walks off in another direction.
I sit back in my seat. Creed sits there, his leg bouncing as he watches El who’s next to him.
“My father gets here in a few days,” I tell Creed. The girls and Echo seems to be in a discussion, and even though Creed doesn’t speak much, he understands me better than most.
“You told him,” he says.
“It was time.”
He nods ever so slightly. “It’s time he sees where you live.”
He’s right, he’s never come out here, and it will be weird when he does. He will hate it, it isn’t his type of place at all.
“Who sees what?” Echo leans over asking us.
Creed doesn’t say a word as he turns back to El, his hand back on her leg. She covers his hand with hers.
“Who, D?” he asks again.
“My father will be here soon.”
Echo sits back, his eyes wide. “Wowser, the farmer in the city. I’m sure there’s some sort of reality show called that.” He shakes his head. “Seriously, the big man Mr. Knox is coming? He coming to meet Charles?” I nod my head. “So, you told him about your son? I wasn’t sure if you were going to.”
“It’s his grandson, he has a right to know.”
“Are you even sure he’s yours, though?”
Fuck! That comment… that comment makes me so fucking mad it takes everything in me not to strangle him where he sits. My fist clenches next to me, and I have to look away. “Get the fuck away from me, right now.”