I mean, come on.
Unbothered, Haze reaches for his wallet. The face she makes when he doesn’t acknowledge her show is priceless. Haze uses his card to pay, and the waitress responds by grabbing his bill right out of the machine, writing something down on it—obviously her number—and sliding it over to him. Haze looks at it, looks up at her, and throws the piece of paper in a nearby trash can as he walks away.
Ouch.
Our eyes meet as he’s trailing back to the table, and he smiles. He has no idea I just saw that.
“Finally, we were growing old here.” Allie claps her hands when Haze braces the jug down on the table. I scoot over and he glides in the booth next to me, stretching before he circles my shoulders with his arm.
“Maybe if the staff actually worked instead of flirting with the customers,” I mutter to myself.
“You saw that?” Haze puts the pieces together.
“All of it.”
“How’d I do?” he teases, and I slouch against his muscular body, my mouth finding his ear.
“Keep being this perfect and I might just have to take you up on that bathroom sex offer.” I refer to the joke he made on the plane. I meant for it to be funny, but as soon as I say it, the tension between us shifts.
A smirk spreads across his face, and his hand drops to my thigh. “Is that so?”
“I said I might. I might need a bit more convincing, Adams.”
“I’ll convince you all right.” My breath hitches in my throat when he leans forward until our lips are almost touching.
“Hey! Still here!” Allie shrieks. I lift my hands to Haze’s chest with a laugh and push him away. “Is this what it’s going to be like with you two? I mean, holy fuck, way to make me feel single.”
“We’ll behave, promise.” I cross my heart.
“Maybe,” Haze adds, and I smile, resting my head on his shoulder.
“So, Haze, let’s get to know you, shall we?” Allie says.
“Sure.” Haze shifts uncomfortably. We all know how much he loves answering personal questions. Allie slaps her serious face on, glaring at him as though she wishes to intimidate him, which only makes me chuckle. He gives her surface answers at best, telling her as little as possible and keeping all the juicy details to himself. Not that I’m surprised. He used to do the same with me.
“Sorry, it took longer than I thought.” Caleb comes up to our booth, his phone in his hand. As soon as he reveals himself to us, Haze stops laughing.
So… safe to say their relationship isn’t off to a great start?
HAZE
Slamming down the empty shot on the table, I watch Allie and Winter gag. I know Winter’s had enough from her tendency to laugh for no reason. My baby’s getting tipsy, but I love seeing her so happy. It’s been a while since she was this carefree.
Allie, Winter’s friend, seems nice, genuinely interested in others—an overall decent friend. I like her so far. But the dipshit who’s been making eyes at Winter since the second I met him? Not so much.
“Remember when you forced me to come to your Tinder date at McDonald’s and crash it?” Winter reminisces.
Allie throws her head back with a laugh. “Wait. What was my excuse again?”
“Are you serious? You don’t remember? You made me get up in panic and say I started my period,” Winter fake-scolds her.
“Poor dude. Was he really that bad?” Caleb asks.
No, but you are.
“Don’t even try, Cale. You’re worse. Remember the time you made me pretend I was your girlfriend to scare away a cougar who was flirting with you at work?”
“Of course I do.”