Page 15 of Happily Ever Maybe

When the owner of the ax-throwing place stormed out, he tookone look at us and rolled his eyes.

“I should have known you’d take care of it. I’m sorry. Ithought they left. They moved their cars around to the side where I couldn’tsee.”

“You want us to call the authorities?” Noah asked. When theowner sighed and nodded, I knew it would be a long night.

“I don’t want them out there drinking and driving. Orhurting somebody because they’re pissed off.”

“Fuck you. They’re the ones hurtingus,” the guy I was holding snapped.

“We both know that’s not the case, Chris.” The owner sighedagain and ran his hands over his hair for the umpteenth time.

It had been a good night until this. We’d played, and I’dhung out with my brother, which I rarely did these days, And I had totally liedabout only wanting Jennifer to be my friend.

Things were going great.

When the cops arrived, I let the guy go. I pulled out myphone to check the time, definitely not looking for atext. Or a call. We didn’t really do that. We used to text, flirt, joke. Butthings had changed. That fire had sizzled out. At least, that’s what I toldmyself. It’s what I had to tell myself.

I hadn’t realized how quickly I’d fallen for Jennifer. Myfriend.

But she wasn’t mine, and I had to remember that.

Even if it was getting harder to do each day.

Chapter 5

Gus

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

I turned to Kane and frowned. “Are you quoting Star Warsnow?” I asked, my voice slow and sarcastic. Although he wasn’t wrong. I had abad feeling about it, too.

We were nearing the end of an event for around six hundredpeople with a few guest speakers and lots of wining and dining. Elbows rubbed, palms smoothed. All that crap.

I didn’t mind what people did at these things, but this onefelt off. As if there was something I wasn’t getting. That worried me.

We were security for the event as a whole, not for any individual person. Making surepeople were safe and any threats were taken care of. We had contract workerswith us because it was a big enough event that we wanted to ensure we hadcoverage.

“So, why do we all have a bad feeling about this?” Jenniferasked as she walked over.

I turned toward her, keeping my voice low. “I don’t know.Something feels off.”

Alert, she gave me a tight nod before looking out over thecrowd. She moved on slowly, keeping on patrol with Daisy. My job was to stay inplace near the doors unless there was an emergency.

The interaction between Jennifer and I had been easy, whichI was grateful for. Because, frankly, things had been awkward lately. We had been fine these past twomonths. Yes, there was still heat, that connection, but I thought perhaps ithad been toned down because we’d finally let it burn for a night. It wasn’teverything. It wasn’t what it could be, but we’d had each other.

Yet it felt as if we had screwed up.

Because something had changed the past few days. There was arigidity to her, and she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.

Something was wrong, and I didn’t know what I had done. Butwe needed to fix it. Especially because we fucking workedtogether. That was the whole point of us having the talk about our relationshipto begin with.

People depended on us.

“I am glad this part of the day is almost over,” Kanemumbled as he moved back to his position, eyes on the crowd. I nodded, thoughhe couldn’t see me, that itch still underneath my shoulder blades.

“Too bad it’s a two-day event,” I mumbled.

“Keep the lines clear,” Noah said into the mic, but I couldhear the frustration in his tone. He felt it, too. Whatever this was.