Remy rolls her eyes again and I wonder--not for the hundredth time--how they don't get stuck up there with how often she does it.
"Dude, it'sHailey.She doesn't do one-night-stands to begin with. Relax." She turns to look at her sister again, just in time to see her throw her head back and laugh at something the guy must've whispered in her ear.
My hackles literally rise.
"I think she just wanted to dance," Remy murmurs thoughtfully. "I think she misses dancing, even if she doesn't realize it." Her gaze hardens. "It's yet another thing that piece of shit talked her into quitting."
That's the thought that finally tames my rage. I know Hailey likes dancing, and I also know Remy's right: she misses it even if she doesn't realize it. And the last thing I want to be is another asshole that tells her what she can or can't do.
I sigh and turn back to Tristan and Remy. She's fully perched in his lap now, and his hands are wandering way too close to her hemline for my comfort.
"You two seriously need to get a room," I wince. "If I knew you'd be this disgusting with the PDA, I never would've approved this shit."
Even as Remy actually blushes, Tristan just sends me a wolfish grin. And now I'm the one rolling my eyes.
But Hailey picks that moment to break away from the guy on the dancefloor and make her way over to where we're sitting. She plops down on the cushion next to me with a contented sigh.
I resist the urge to pull her against me to stake my nonexistent claim on her for any other man to see. "Have fun dancing?" I force myself to ask instead.
She shines her typical megawatt smile at me and nods. "I forgot how much I enjoy it. We danced almost the entire night last week when we were out with Lucy."
Remy smiles at her little sister, even as she curls closer to Tristan. But in typical blunt Tristan fashion, he decides to push the topic a little further.
"Why don't you start dancing again?" he asks, his fingers still tracing patterns on his girlfriend's thigh. "Remy said you used to love it. Why'd you stop?"
When Hailey blushes and looks down at her lap, I aim a glare at his head. He just gives me a blank look like,what?
"I didn't have much time because of school," she finally admits. And while that's a partial truth, Remy and I know it's also a lie. Making her quit dancing was yet another tactic by Steve to alienate her from people and places she loved.
But then she looks out at the dancefloor. "I probably have more time now, though," she says thoughtfully. "Maybe I should pick it up again."
At this point I can't resist finally wrapping an arm around her. I pull her against my side, the tension in my body easing when she melts into me.
“You should do whatever makes you happy,” I tell her simply. “Dancing, school, a new hobby, whatever it is, do it.”
She looks around at our surroundings, from Remy sitting across from her down to the dancefloor where she was just enjoying herself.
Then she turns her attention back to me. “I’m happy now,” she says softly, smiling up at me.
Andfuckif that doesn’t hit me in the gut.
* * *
Only an hour later, the four of us are walking through the hotel, already over the party scene.
Remy is ahead of me, Tristan’s arm wrapped around her like he can’t bear to have even an inch of space between them. "Hailey, are you good staying with Jax tonight? I figured Tristan and I would take our room and you could stay with Jax." She has the decency to look sheepish. "Or I can just send Tristan back to his room and you and I can do a sleepover like old times. I don't really mind—"
Hailey just flaps her hand at Remy as if it's the most ridiculous non-issue she's ever heard. "I'm not staying with you when you're this hard up. You and Tristan can take the room and do whatever God-awful things you've been whispering about all night." She actually shivers at the thought. "I would really prefer if we split up right now and I didn't have to spend another second thinking any more about this conversation."
I chuckle and throw an arm around her shoulders. "I second that idea. Let's get the fuck away from them before they start making out again. We're on the other end of the floor and hopefully far enough away that we don't hear anything."
Tristan needs no further urging because the second the words are out of my mouth, he simply bends down to throw Remy over his shoulder and begins stalking down the hallway.
"Night, all," he shouts cheerfully over the sounds of Remy's protests.
I laugh again and steer Hailey in the opposite direction. When we get to the hotel room that Tristan and I shared this week, I gently nudge her into the recently cleaned room with a hand on her lower back.
"There's only one bed," she says with surprise.