Page 43 of Boyfriend
Abbi gives her head a shake. “I’m sorry. There’s probably somewhere else you’d rather be right now.”
Not true. “Hey, Happy New Year. Fuck that guy.”
“Fuck him,” she says with conviction. “Fuck him sideways.”
It’s so cute that I can’t help but laugh. And then I grab her into a quick, comforting hug.
It’s not the New Year’s moment that I’d hoped for. But it’s pretty good nonetheless.
Fifteen
Something Came Up
Weston
The boys all look at me expectantly when I get back to the table. “Well?” Tate demands. “How’d it go?”
“Something came up,” I say.
“Was it your dick?” Hudson asks with a snicker, and I throw a napkin at him. “Stop, asshole. Abbi needs me to walk her home after her shift. There’s a guy who’s been bothering her.”
“Ah,” Tate says. “Could it be a ruse, maybe? Like—walk me home and take off my clothes?”
Sadly, I shake my head. “I’ve met this troublemaker already. Unfortunately, he’s real.”
“Bummer,” Vonne says.
“But it’s probably for the best,” Tate points out. “We won’t lose our table at the Biscuit.”
“You have such little faith in me,” I grumble. “I wasn’t going to break Abbi’s heart.”
“That’s what you always say, though,” Cooper points out. “It’s all sunshine until it’s not.”
I take a sip of my beer and ignore him. I wasn’t planning on asking Abbi to marry me, for fuck’s sake. I know better than to go down the path of forever. But two college students can have a fling without turning it into an epic story of love and betrayal.
Or, at the very least, they can have a lot of sex and then move several hundred miles apart.
As the new year takes its first tentative baby steps, I sip a beer and wait for Abbi’s shift to end. One by one my teammates depart. Tate is the first to go. Then Lex, his phone pressed to his ear, a grin on his face.
The men of the Moo U hockey team don’t share my caution around falling in love. Well, maybe Patrick does. But he doesn’t leave the bar alone, either. He’s found a hookup for the night, as he often does.
Eventually, I’m the last man at table seventeen. Abbi shoots me apologetic looks as she hustles around, finishing her shift. But I’m not going anywhere. Not if Abbi needs me.
“Sorry,” she says, appearing without her apron around two a.m. “That took forever.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I insist. “Let’s go.” I pull on my jacket, because it’s going to be a chilly walk up the hill toward her apartment.
We head outside, and I put on my game face. Protection isn’t the point of this exercise, I realize. Abbi could surely figure out how to avoid being alone with Price tonight. Rather, intimidation is the purpose of my involvement right now. When we walk outside together, I put a protective arm around her. Luckily Price is standing right outside.
“Hey, remember me?” I ask him, stopping to make my point.
“Nah,” the oaf says, scowling.
“Yeah, I bet you’d rather forget.” I give him a Mr. Smooth smile. “My offer still stands, though. Bother her, and you’re signing yourself up for a dental bill much higher than whatever they’re paying you to stand here and watch the door. It’s your call.”
Then I walk her home, leaving her on her front porch, where Abbi thanks me profusely. “It’s ridiculous that you had to do that. But Price and subtlety don’t mix.”
“I got that impression.”
