Page 93 of Drifting

Sam glances at me then back toward the redhead. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Your loss.” Mav gets out of the booth and heads over to the redhead.

“Fuck,” Dom says, shaking his head.

Wow, it’s like I’m not even there. Stunned, I lean back in the booth.

Cam squeezes my shoulders, but I shrug him off. I’m pissed and don’t feel like being all touchy-feely right now.

“Beautiful, he’s on an adrenaline high. You know what that’s like. He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Cam whispers.

I glance over Luke’s shoulder at the booth. The girl is all over Mav, and he’s loving it. My stomach turns sour. I know what an adrenaline high is, and this isn’t it.

Your way over your head with these guys. There’s no way you can keep four guys happy, whispers the voice in my head. If he wants to let girls crawl all over him, fine, they can have him. I won’t let him ruin my night.

When our food comes, the guys talk about their parties.

“Cam, do you remember the time we put an airbag under Big Ben,” Sam mentions pointing to the guy who sits across from our booth.

The guy in question grabs his ass. “I remember, and it still hurts.”

Cam lets out a loud laugh. “I can never forget that one. We had a party at my house, and Big Ben sits in the same seat every time. He calls it his throne. One party, we put an airbag from a truck under the chair, then waited for him to sit on his throne. When he did, it went off!” Cam busts out, laughing so hard tears run down his face.

Mav, who strolled over to grab some of his food, finishes the story without sitting down, “His body flew up in the air, and no shit, his head hit the ceiling. He crashed back down to the floor with no idea what happened to him. He looked at us with a straight face and said, ‘I know my farts have been lethal before, but that’s never happened.’”

Everyone roars with laughter.

“Yeah, Cam and Mav, I’ll never forgive you for that, because Big Ben busted his tail bone, and he was out the next couple of games. I never got sacked so much,” Luke points out.

Paige's eyes shift between the two. “You guys didn’t really do that, right? You have to be joking.”

“Oh, yeah, they did, and they made me believe for a whole year that it was my fart that did it.” Big Ben shoves a bunch of fries into his mouth.

Picturing the big guy flying up in the air all because he thought he farted, I chuckle.

“You two are diabolical.” I peer over to Big Ben, who’s been laughing, too. “I’m sorry, Big Ben, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just funny.”

“Oh, don’t worry, girl, it was all done in fun.” Then, he points at Mav and Cam. “But you two better never do that to me again.” He goes back to shoving fries in his mouth.

These guys have such a tight bond; they’re there for each other.

Instead of rejoining our table, Mav wanders away again, and my laughter dies.

Trying to distract myself, I pick up my burger and take a bite. It’s damn good, just like Luke said it would be, but the sour ball in my stomach won’t let me enjoy it.

Huffing, I drop my burger and push my plate away. I ate little, only a few bites and some fries.

“Not hungry?” Luke asks.

“No, just a lot on my mind,” I say.

Across the diner, I spot the redhead strolling to the bathroom. As I seriously consider excusing myself to go beat the shit out of her, I pretend to listen to what everyone else is talking about.

Mav comes back over, grabs his drink, and wags his eyebrows at Sam. “I’ll be back. I need to use the bathroom.”

As he heads down the same hall as the redhead, it dawns on me that he more than likely just went back there for a quickie.

I sink back against the seat. I’m done. I just want to go home.

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