I hadn’t expected to see him and most certainly never anticipated the surge of lust that accompanied the surprise. I swallowed it down and let the unease creep slowly in. Being here with Jordan, in the middle of all these people, wasn’t appealing. Especially not after the last time I’d seen him. This wasn’t exactly the place a guy like Jordan would say any of the things I needed him to say.
And there was the simple fact, that I just wasn’t ready to see him yet. I wasn’t strong enough.
Felt grew smaller and smaller by the second, the walls closing in on me.
Hadley stood at the swinging door that separated the pool room from the rest of the bar. She was staring at me with fearful hope. My brother, who stood next to Jordan, wouldn’t look at me at all.
The two of them, Hadley and Aiden, had set us up.
Jordan’s eyes narrowed as the door swung shut behind me. I didn’t have to look to know Hunter had walked in. The beat of my heart increased with anxiety. I doubted Hunter would have wanted Jordan to find him walking in behind me. Not when he’d spent so
much time with me in the parking lot pushing me toward Jordan.
For one long, painful second Hunter and Jordan stared each other down. I was, not for the first time, caught in the middle of these two large, testosterone packed guys. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t scary. The first time, I had no doubt one or both would back down when I stood between them. Now, something different crackled in the air.
Nobody was backing down.
Jordan’s face hardened in what I could only assume was a mask of jealousy and rage. He downed the shot in front of him.
Hunter didn’t move, he stood his ground directly behind me. Positioned to take the shot for me, whether it be verbal or physical.
I was frozen to the spot. Time stood still as Jordan crossed the bar to where we stood. The music that had once been loud and throbbing was now dulled to barely a hum. I trembled as the bartender watched us carefully, her hand under the bar to reach for something I didn’t want to think about.
The air grew so thick and palpable I choked on it, unable to breathe as the two giants sized each other up.
Hunter straightened behind me, pushing me gently to the side with a nudge on my shoulder. Fear or pain, I couldn’t tell which, claimed me. I was looking right at Jordan, but he was looking past me.
I no longer mattered, he had an outlet for his anger now.
“Take it outside, guys!” The bartender shouted from behind us. Jordan’s head cocked sideways and a slow sneer stretched across his face.
I understood that sneer, I’d seen it before. Hunter understood it too. He gave an ironic laugh and shook his head. It was apparent Jordan thought Hunter was poaching me like he had been that first race back. He wasn’t though, I tried to find the words to say that, but Hunter silenced me by stepping around me. He put himself squarely between Jordan and me, giving no sign that he would back down.
Hunter knew what we’d talked about, what he’d tried to fix, and it no longer mattered. The sleeping bear he’d spent so much time poking had finally woken up.
Men would always be stupid.
“Poking the bear?” I whispered, my mouth tight. “Something like that.” Hunter grinned as he kicked
the door open behind him and slid out. Jordan followed, without so much as a word to me.
I hadn’t realized that many people were there until the mass exodus from the building. A fight was a fight. In a small town like this, if there wasn’t a race, a fight was the best form of entertainment.
“Hunter, really?” My brother growled as he pulled me out the door behind them. “You know we worked our asses off to get you both here tonight and you sneak off with Hunter like you were sixteen again? Jesus, Rae!”
“Whoa!” I jerked my arm from Aiden’s grasp and shoved him hard in the chest. “Before you get all stupid like your friend, Hunter and I were outside talking about Jordan. Hell, Hunter was team Jordan. And maybe, just maybe, you might have saved us all some trouble if you had told us what was going on?”
Behind him, Hadley ducked her head and rushed in between us. “I’m sorry, this is all my fault. It was my idea.”
Aiden opened his mouth, then seeming to read the expression on my face shut it again.
I glanced at the parking lot, bleakly lit and covered in gravel. On busy nights, it would have been full of cars, but now it was filling up with a crowd of people to watch the action.
“Then I suggest you both fix this.” I spun on my heel and made my way quickly through the crowd.
I was late for the party, the fight had already started. I never saw who landed the first punch. The two guys, both bigger than most, were exchanging blows at a rate that belied their size. I was surprised, really, that Hunter was taking Jordan’s shots with such ease.
It was obvious almost immediately that Hunter was having fun. With each punch thrown, his smile seemed to grow. Hunter enjoyed this crap more than Aiden or his friends.
I shot an angry look to Aiden and he met my eyes without remorse. I wished then I had Breanna’s piercing two finger whistle or even her height. I had neither, so I dove headlong in.
I would never advise rushing into an all-out brawl with two men over six feet tall, who regularly lifted weights. I, however, trusted one of the two implicitly. I trusted Jordan with every breath I took, every part of my being, even if he wouldn’t so much as look at me.
Jordan took a shot across the face from Hunter before grabbing him around his middle and laying him out in a hit that would make any football coach proud. While the crowd shouted its approval, I screamed his name. “Jordan!”
He clocked Hunter once, sending blood splattering across the gravel before he jumped up and backed away, letting Hunter roll over and push onto his feet.
Jordan heard me. I could tell by the tension in his shoulders and the pointed way he refused to look at me, that he’d known I was calling his name.
I ran to him, slipping in the gravel in my haste. Jordan reached out as I flailed and caught me in one strong hand. His breathing was heavy, his lip swollen, and his dark eyes looked past me to Hunter.
“Stop,” I whispered so quietly that only he could hear me.
“What, don’t want me pounding the crap out of your…friend?” He cocked his head to one side and a slow hateful grin spread across his face. “I guess Devin was right then, wasn’t he?”
Hurt blossomed in my heart and biting tears stung at my eyes as I jerked away from him. I no longer cared if he and Hunter beat each other stupid. Jordan had wielded the verbal straw that broke the camel’s back.
Nothing mattered anymore.