Page 24 of Break Away
He lifted both hands. “Understood.”
I looked back at the screen and hit send harder than necessary.
Gage leaned one shoulder against the wall beside the service station, not crowding me, only lingering enough to be noticed by the man across the bar who had no right to notice anything. “For what it’s worth, he looks like he wants to commit a crime every time I talk to you.”
“For what it’s worth, most men look like that after two hours in a sports bar.”
“He also looks like he knows exactly how you take your drink.”
My fingers froze over the receipt printer.
Gage’s voice gentled. “That wasn’t a line.”
“Good, because it would be a terrible one.”
“It was an observation.”
“I hate observations.”
“Noted.”
I tore the receipt free and finally looked at him. “You flirting with me, Gage?”
“I’ve been flirting with you for ten months. I was starting to worry you were busy bleeding out and missed it.”
A laugh slipped out before I could stop it, sharp around the edges but real enough to catch Bliss’s attention. Charm noticed her looking, Ryan noticed Charm, and Cade caught the whole exchange because hockey boys were apparently pack animals with abs.
Easton didn’t need anyone’s help. His eyes were already on me.
The laugh died somewhere behind my teeth.
Gage noticed because apparently every man in The Sin Bin had decided to become observant as a group activity. “I’m not trying to step into anything.”
“There is nothing to step into.”
His expression said he had doubts but liked living too much to share them. “Then maybe let me buy you that lemonade sometime.”
I should have said no. The word was ready, simple, clean, and safe, but Easton was watching me like he still had any claim to what I refused or accepted, and something petty and wounded lifted its head inside me.
“Maybe,” I said.
Gage’s smile returned slowly. “That’s not no.”
“That is not yes either, so don’t sprain anything celebrating.”
“I’ll stretch first.”
I rolled my eyes and moved past him with two baskets of wings, my body hot with the horrible awareness of Easton across the bar. I made it three steps before his voice stopped me.
“Finally moving on, Clarke?”
The whole world narrowed around his voice even though he had not raised it. The words cut through the space between us because every person who mattered had already been listening anyway.
I turned with the baskets still balanced in my hands. “Say that again.”
Bliss murmured, “Aura, don’t.”
No one else spoke.
