Chapter 24: Chapter 24

MILES It’s so fucking hot. Sweat drips down my back as I stand around shooting the shit with the guys, lifting my beer can to press the cold aluminum to the back of my neck. This summer has been oppressively hot, and while the vibe of this parking lot party is great and all, I’d kill for some AC right about now.

My gaze drifts to Levi, who has been chatting up beer tub girl for the past fifteen minutes. He’s trying to win our little wager, but what he doesn’t know is that I hit on that same waitress on Serena’s birthday a while back and was shot down because she said she was already taken. Hey, it’s not my fault he took me up on the bet before getting all the facts.

I take a swig of my beer as I watch Levi turn around and skulk back in our direction, dragging his feet.

That’s not the look of a guy who’s about to seal the deal, and from the sheepish expression on his face, I already know I’ve won.

“Struck out?” I ask as he approaches, hiding my knowing smirk behind my beer can.

He blows out a huffing breath. “She claims she’s got a boyfriend.”

I clap him on the shoulder, chuckling at his expense. “Guess drinks are on you tonight, then.”

“But I thought you had it in the bag?” Dare teases, giving Levi a playful shove.

Levi rolls his eyes, shoving him back. “Just because there’s a goalie doesn’t mean you can’t score. The night’s not over yet.”

Dare snorts. “Good luck, buddy. If her boyfriend shows up, you’d better be ready to …” he trails off as I take another sip from my can, his gaze drifting over Levi’s shoulder. A wide grin spreads across his face and he throws up a hand. “Cal!”

I choke on my beer, whipping my head around to see Cal striding in our direction, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans and his trademark scowl firmly in place. Then, almost instinctively, I swing my gaze around in search of Nessa. She’s nowhere to be found.

Shit.

I knew this day would come. Cal’s back, and while I’m thrilled to see my friend after so long, I’m immediately on edge, unsure of what it’ll mean for me and Nessa. Unsure of how he’ll react to the fact that I’m now dating his ex. We may be buddies, but even I know that scooping up the only girl he ever cared about is a major violation of bro code.

I just couldn’t help myself.

I saw her first. That night that she and Vienna came to their first party at the packhouse, I noticed her right away. She’s impossible not to notice- on a scale of one to ten, the girl’s a fucking eleven. I would’ve gone right over to introduce myself, but by the time I was able to shake the chick who’d glommed onto me since the beginning of the party, Nessa and Vee were already posted up on the sectional with the rest of my boys. And for the first time in recent memory, Cal actually took an interest in a girl. My girl.

I wanted her, but I saw the writing on the wall from that first night. She was clearly into Cal. Fate knows he wasn’t dealt a fair hand in life, so I basically stepped aside, even sweetening the deal by making that bet with him so he could finally get that junky old car of his running. He’s so damn stubborn that he refused help from me and Chase every time we’d offered to buy him the parts he needed, so I saw an opportunity to help him out on the sly and I seized it. It worked out for him, too, until it didn’t.

I’ll admit that the whole fated mates thing was a curveball I didn’t see coming.

He left Nessa alone and heartbroken, and even though I knew it was wrong to move in on his girl, I couldn’t stay away. She’s perfect. It’s not my fault he didn’t see that. The guy is basically programmed to self- destruct, and he did that spectacularly by up and leaving.

Now he’s back, and I can see it all slipping through my fingers before I could even fully grasp it. I’ve been working so hard to crack Nessa’s shell, imagining a future with a girl like her on my arm. The future he willingly walked away from, damnit.

Chase is the first to greet him, stepping in front of the rest of us, wrapping his knuckles around Cal’s, and pulling him in to slap his back in a bro-hug. Before he can even move away, Alec and Dare crowd in, giving Cal the same treatment with warm greetings. I reach forward to give him an awkward fist-

bump, and when our eyes meet, I can’t help but smile. As complicated as things are about to get with Nessa, I’m glad to see his ugly mug. I’ve missed him more than I realized.

“Glad to have you back, man,” Chase says as Cal knocks his knuckles against mine. “It hasn’t been the same without you.”

“Tell me about it,” Levi groans. He shoulders past me to come up beside Cal, tossing an arm around his neck and ing from ear to ear. “Heard you guys were able to take all those bastards out!”

Cal elbows Levi away, landing a playful punch on his bicep. The guy has never been very touchy-feely, so I imagine this is a lot for him. “Someone had to step up and do it,” he drawls, smirking.

“And you even had the balls to show up with the enemy tonight,” Alec muses, flicking a glance past Cal toward where Logan’s posted up with a few other guys.

Cal rolls his eyes. “Logan’s cool. He was our team leader for the mission.”

Alec side-eyes Chase as if to gauge his reaction, but Chase just shakes his head and shrugs it off. “I’ve got no beef with Logan. He treated Vee well when they were together, and if he hadn’t let her go, she wouldn’t have found her way to me.”

My brows shoot up. Chase’s newfound maturity still shocks me sometimes. Angry used to be his default setting.

“So how was it?” Dare asks, looking to Cal uestioningly.

He shrugs. “Fine. It was nice to get away. Weird to be back.” He shuffles his feet uncomfortably, shoving his hands back into his pockets and staring down at the asphalt. “I’m gonna grab a beer.”

Cal saunters off without another word, and as if on cue, that’s when Vienna and Nessa reappear. Vee winds her arms around Chase’s torso, attaching herself to his side, and I drift toward Nessa.

“Hey,” I say quietly, leaning in close to her. ” Don’t know if you heard, but Cal’s back.”

Her eyes snap to meet mine and she gives me a curt nod, her lips pressed in a tight line. “I know.”

My jaw goes slack.

She knows?

Have they already talked?

That question’s answered when Cal makes his way back over, cracking his beer as he approaches with his eyes downcast. He lifts freezes in his tracks when h notices Nessa and Vee have joined our group.

He visibly tenses, his muscles lockin up and his stare immediately fixing on the girl he left behind.

She’s staring right back, and the tension between them is so thick that you could cu it with a knife. The side conversations between the other guys quiet. It’s like we’re all collectively holding our breath, anxious to see how this is about to play out.

“Hi,” Cal murmurs, his intense stare unblinking.

“Hi,” she whispers back.

Jealousy knots in my gut and I scooch closer to Nessa, sliding an arm around her waist.

I feel her flinch at the contact.

Cal’s eyes ping down to my arm, then back up to meet Nessa’s again. He clears his throat, the muscle in his jaw ticking like he’s trying to control his reaction. “How’ve your been?”

“I’m fine.” She shudders out a harsh breath, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back into my arm. “Better than fine, actually,” she snaps. “I’m great.” Her long hair whips the side of my face as she spins toward me, a fake as fuck smile stretching her lips. “Wanna dance?”

“Uh, yeah,” I reply, and the words have barely left my mouth before I feel her fingertips digging into my arm, tugging me away from our group in the direction of the makeshift stage the band is playing on.

I don’t recognize the song they’re playing- some emo bullshit from a decade ago, if I had to venture a guess- but Nessa seems into it. I follow as she threads her way through the crowd, stopping a few yards away from the stage and throwing up her arms, singing along to the chorus and swaying her hips. I press in closer behind her, resting my hands on her hips and finding the beat to sway along with her.

I’m not an idiot. I know she’s putting on a show for Cal right now. I can’t find it in me her ass is rubbing against my crotch, though. This is the most action I’ve gotten from Nessa since we started seeing each other, so I don’t really give a shit what her motivations are. Not sure if that makes me an asshole, but a month of blue balls takes its toll on a guy.

I’ve had the patience of a saint when it comes to this girl. The first time I tried to kiss her, she turned her cheek, and it was so fucking humiliating that I haven’t tried again since. She seems to be giving me all the signals right now, though, so maybe her freeze-out is about to end. A guy can dream. I was nervous about Cal coming back, but shit, maybe I should be thanking him.

It’s hot as fuck in this crowd. There’s not even the hint of a breeze, and the body heat radiating off of everyone else around us has me feeling like I’m in fucking hell. We dance for a few more songs, and right when I’m about to beg Nessa for a break, she spins around to face me, tiny beads of sweat clinging to her bronze skin.

“Wanna grab some beers?” she asks, lifting back of her neck with one hand and fanning herself with the other.

My eyes track a bead of sweat rolling down the column of her neck. Fuck, I want to lick that neck. I want to wrap my hand around it while pinning her up against the wall, pounding into her until she screams my name over and over and…

“Miles?”

Nessa’s voice yanks me from my dirty fantasy and I jerk my gaze up to meet hers. ” Huh?”

“Beers?”

“Oh, yeah.” I slyly reach down to adjust myself in my jeans, turning to search for an opening to escape the crowd. Nessa shoulders past me, leading the way, and I keep my eyes trained on her perfect ass in those little cutoff jean shorts as I follow her.

Even after we break away from the masses gathered around the stage, there’s no real reprieve from the heat. There’s now a line of people in front of the beer tub, so we post up at the back of it to wait our turn to buy drinks as I continue to sweat my ass off. “I really wanna get in some fuckin’ AC,” I grumble, wiping sweat from my brow. “I’ve got beers at my place…”

Yeah, totally shooting my shot here.

Nessa slides me a side-eyed glance, hesitation lingering in her gaze.

Then she shocks the shit out of me when she shrugs and says, “Okay.”