“Well, if you change your mind, I can give you a ride.”
She lifted her drink in cheers.
On his way across the bar his eyes scanned over to where Olive was speaking to her ex and what appeared to be his date. The guy was not what he would have thought Olive would go for. Not that he wasn’t attractive. He was in a trust fund, frat boy sort of way. The guy’s haircut probably cost more than most people paid for rent.
For some reason, Grady wanted to walk over and kiss Olive. It was a totally inappropriate impulse but a strong one.
He wanted to believe that his inclination was born out of a pure altruistic motive, he wanted to show her ex that she was moving on and fine without him. But if he was being honest with himself, it might be pure primal possessiveness. He wanted to brand her with his kiss, telling every man in this bar, hell in a ten-mile radius that she was his.
The caveman urge was completely foreign to Grady. He’d never felt this sort of Cro-Magnon response to anyone he’d ever been with. Which made the reaction even more of a head-scratcher since he and Olive had only had one interaction and zero intimacy.
He forced himself to keep his feet pointed in the direction of Romero and Anderson and did not allow himself to take a self-indulgent detour that could easily end in harassment charges, against him.
“Hey man!” Romero pulled him into a one-armed man hug. “Glad you could finally make it out.”
Anderson handed him a beer and his eyes once again scanned the room and landed on Olive. She was walking back to join Chrissy.
Romero slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Is that the girl from interview room one last night?”
Shit. Grady hadn’t meant to draw attention to the fact that she was here. He nodded casually and turned back toward the dart board as he sipped his beer.
“How does she know Chrissy?” Anderson asked as he stared past Grady at the two women.
“Don’t know.”
Romero nudged him with his elbow. “So what’s the deal with her and your brother? Is she single now or what?”
Protective feelings of an entirely different nature were awakened at Romero’s question. “She’s a grown woman, you can ask her yourself.”
Grady wasn’t trying to be a dick, but he needed to set a precedent that the way to Chrissy was not through him.
Anderson lifted his chin toward the table where Chrissy and Olive were sitting. “What about Grand Theft Auto?”
“She didn’t steal the car.” Grady knew that Anderson was just fucking around, but he still felt the need to defend Olive.
“What’s her situation?” Anderson asked.
He did his best to maintain a neutral expression even though he wanted to tell Anderson to back off. If either of his colleagues sniffed out his feelings toward Olive he’d never hear the end of it.
“No idea,” Grady answered honestly. But he wanted to know. He wanted to know everything.