Page 23 of Something Spontaneous

“You’re no fun,” my sister says dryly. “Why did I invite you again?”

I shoot her a look that says I know exactly why she invited me and conveniently left out that Josie would be here.

Josie narrows her eyes on me. “Yeah, he’s really kind of a buzzkill. When did he get like this?” She continues as if I’m not sitting right here. “Couch-rotting chic is definitely not his best look.”

I roll my eyes and raise my hand, pointing back at myself. “I can hear both of you.”

I consider giving them a double-barreled middle finger salute, but a fresh bowl of popcorn appears on our table and distracts me.

“Wow! Look who came out tonight.” The three of us turn our attention toward the unfortunately familiar female voice. “I don’t know the last time I’ve seen you here, Sly. You look good,” Meredith says, her tone overly flirty.

I’ve managed to avoid Meredith until now. That’s largely due to Sisi and Josie, who took turns going up to the bar to order drinks, but I figured she’d eventually come and find me. It’s ironic that she would say something about me not coming here often when she’s one of the reasons why I don’t.

Calling what we were doing ‘dating’ would have been generous, at best. We hung out a couple of times after I’d mostly recovered from my accident. It was the sole occasion that I had been involved with anyone local in my adult life. I was finally coming out of the lowest point in my life—and tequila was involved—but I still made it abundantly clear that it was just casual. She either missed that message or ignored it. She immediately started fussing over me like I was something broken that needed to be fixed, which ended things almost as soon as they started. Since then, I’ve rarely ventured into The Hatch.

“Are we looking at the same person?” My sister raises a brow skeptically and whispers to Josie, but I still hear her.

Josie snickers at her comment, before giving Meredith a cautious glance. “Hello, Meredith.”

I scowl back at my sister as Meredith casts an uninterested glance at Josie. For some reason, that redirects my displeasure and makes my jaw tense, and my fingertips dig into my thigh.

“Oh my gosh, Josie? Is that really you? I hardly recognized you with that haircut.” I can tell by her expression and tone that she absolutely knew it was her. Even back in high school, she would always make passes at me, but only when Josie was around. I don’t think it was ever about me, but that look tells me she still hasn’t forgotten who owned my world then.

My shoulder rises in a one-sided shrug. “I like it.”

I take a sip of my beer after making the simple compliment. I try not to read too much into it, just like I try to pretend like I haven’t noticed every detail about Josie tonight. I’m only kidding myself because I’ve quietly absorbed everything about her.

She was always stunning and had the type of body I was obsessed with as a teenage boy. Now, we’re ten years older, and she’s a woman—one that I’m unfortunately still obsessed with. She’s still petite and her tits look unreal on her small frame in the low-cut V-neck tee she’s wearing tonight. Her jeans are worn and threadbare in all the right places, leaving nothing to the imagination when it comes to what the globes of her ass would feel like in my palms. The frayed holes right below her front pockets and near her knees show a hint of her skin and glimpses of the tattoos I noticed the other night. I find myself wanting to know what was important enough to her that she inked it into her skin.

Then there’s that hair. I always loved it, but the short pixie cut she has now is almost enough to distract me from her freckled cheeks or her whiskey-colored eyes. Everything about her still haunts the recesses of my mind every time I have a quiet moment to myself.

So yeah, I noticed everything. She’s still fucking hotter than hell.

I look up from my beer to find three sets of eyes on me. My sister has a shit-eating grin on her face, while Josie’s expression is almost unreadable. Then there’s Meredith, whose eyes are still roaming over me like I’m the daily special at the diner.

“Well, I need to get back to the bar. It was good seeing you,” she says, looking at Sisi and then at me, continuing to ignore Josie. “And Sly, if you need anything, just say the word.”

She reaches out and rubs my shoulder, letting her fingertips trail down my bicep and linger for far longer than I’m comfortable with. I shift in my seat, away from the contact. She doesn’t pick up on it because she winks at me and waggles her fingers in a little wave before heading back to the bar.

I turn back to the table in time to see the way Josie glares at her while she walks away. My lips curl into a grin from the inkling of pride that lights in my chest; maybe after all these years, she’s still jealous another woman is flirting with me, even if I wish Meredith would just leave me the fuck alone. I try not to take too much solace in that because the second Josie notices my eyes on her, she shakes her head with a huff.

“Oh, I think Cat’s here,” Sisi interjects, pointing toward the back of the bar. Sure enough, I turn to see the tall blonde flirting with some guy back by the pool table. It’s rare to see Sisi and our cousin, Cat, together because they both work at the motel, but Mom does occasionally cover the front desk at night on the weekends so Sisi can get out.

Sisi slips off her stool. “I’m going to see if she’s too busy to join us or not. Either of you need another round?”

“Dealer’s choice,” I say, holding up my nearly empty beer.

“I’m always good for another round of shots,” Josie adds.

Sisi heads toward the pool table, and I find myself alone with Josie—exactly where I’ve managed to avoid being all week.

Instead of trying to make small talk, I fill my mouth with a fistful of popcorn to help absorb some of the excessive amount of alcohol I’ve had tonight.

“You didn’t have to lie,” Josie says quietly, catching me by surprise. I almost think I imagined it.

“When did I lie?” I mumble, my gruff voice muffled by the dry popcorn coating the inside of my mouth.

She runs a hand through her hair and taps the top of her head. “About my hair.” She must see the confusion in my reaction because she continues. “You always said you liked it when it was long.”