Gabe shakes his head and takes a hearty swig of beer. “It wasn’t a big deal, Annie.”
“See, it seems like it kinda is. Because you gave her a nickname, Gabe.”
“It was just for show,” I add. “In front of my ex.”
“Wait, this is the mystery girl from the bar you’ve been talking about for months?” Mace says, pointing his bottle of craft beer toward me. His lips quirk.
Gabe’s eyes narrow. “You’re a dick.”
“You’ve been talking about her? Wait, we’ve been together for a year, so are you telling me that you pretended to be her boyfriend while we were dating?”
“Christ.” Gabe pinches the bridge of his nose. “We’re really going to do this here? Now? I told you nothing happened.”
I shoot a panicked glance at Clem, but she’s already slinking away toward the canapés, pretending not to hear any of this.Thanks for the help, bestie.
Mace steps in front of me and says, “You want another drink?”
I glance down at my cup. “This one is still half full.”
He takes the Solo cup from me and tips the liquor in the nearby pot plant, then he grabs my hand. “Come on. They’ll be at this all day.”
He leads me through the parlor to the garden terrace complete with couches, and a ramshackle dining table and chairs. A keg and four guys occupy the space. One is significantly older than the other three, with a rotund belly and a long gray beard, and I recognize him from the night I met Gabe. I mayhave had a lot to drink that night, but I think I’d called him a badass Santa.
“Who’s your friend, Mace?”
Mace grabs us both a beer and hands me one. “Everyone, this is Lo. Lo meet everyone.”
I give them a nervous wave. “Hey, everyone.”
A guy in a backward baseball cap covered in manga tattoos tilts his chin toward me. “I’m Tommy, what’s up?”
“Hey.”
Bad Santa tosses a throw pillow at Tommy and pats the couch cushion. I sit, because he’s clearly a ballsy fucker, and despite the tats and biker beard, I like his vibe. He’s not creepy like some other old dudes, but I think I recognize a kindred spirit in that cheeky smile. I settle back into the cushions and the guy to my right, a blond Cali kid who doesn’t look a day over eighteen thrusts his hand toward me. “Hey, I’m Logan.”
“Hi.” I shake his hand and glance at Mace who sits opposite me.
“So, you two fucking or what?” Tommy asks.
I choke on my beer. “Um ... we just met.”
“And?”
“See, that’s the problem with your generation,” the old guy points to the bunch of ridiculously hot guys around us. “You don’t take time to woo a woman. It’s like ‘Hi, here’s an unsolicited dick pic’ and you think she’s going to fall to her knees and suck it.”
“Oh, I like you so much already,” I say and offer my fist.
He bumps my knuckles. “The feeling’s mutual, darlin’.” Then he turns to the others and directs his next words to them, “See, boys? Nothing wrong with treating a woman like a human being and not just a vagina.”
I chuckle. “Amen.”
“Okay,” Tommy says. “I’ll give you that, old man. Lo, are you and Mace planning to copulate?”
“What is wrong with you?” Mace says.
“Hmm,” I glance heavenward and pretend I’m giving that question some serious thought. “As welcoming as Mace has been in the few minutes that I’ve known him, I’m trying not to sleep with men I just met.”
“Well, that’s us out then,” Tommy says. They all take a sip of their beers.