Page 42 of Unfinished

“I could pick you up and take off running for my car so we can get good food, like I used to do,” Oscar joked and I laughed but shook my head.

“Grab her!” Ashley yelled and Oscar picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

“Dammit!” I yelled through laughter.

Oscar marched off with me and Ashley jogged a bit ahead but stopped to laugh at me. Oscar scooped her up and threw her over the other shoulder and kept walking off.

“Motherfucker!” Ashley yelled and I cracked up laughing at her.

Oscar kept walking but Ashley glanced up before she turned to me and gave me a quick eyebrow raise. When I glanced behind us, Liam and his cousins were following us and none of them looked all that happy.

“Oscar, I hope you’re ready,” I said softly, so only he and Ashley heard me.

“Please, neither of you would let anyone harm me,” Oscar remarked but I could feel him pick up the pace a bit.

“How do you want to handle this?” Ashley asked me.

“He’s ignored me most of the night and didn’t stop some girl from flirting with him for who knows how long, he doesn’t have a right to be mad.”

Once we got to the parking lot, Oscar put us down on our feet. We both turned and followed him towards his Nissan Altima. I heard the pounding of feet as Liam and his cousins ran up to us. Liam grabbed my arm and spun me.

“What the fuck is this?”

“Oh, I thought you were busy. Liam, this is Oscar. He’s a friend of mine from high school.”

“And you’re leaving without saying goodbye?” Liam growled out.

“I would have sent you a text.”

“Don’t play games with me.”

“What game do you think I’m playing?” I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head at Liam while crossing my arms.

“Some guy is obviously flirting with you and you aren’t stopping it to make me jealous,” Liam accused, and I blinked at him.

“Oh, if that’s a game, then were you also playing a game and I missed it? Was I supposed to be jealous when whoever you were talking to was obviously flirting with you? Or is it okay for someone to flirt with you but not okay for me? If that’s the case, what kind of a double fucking standard is that?”

“She wasn’t flirting with me,” Liam scoffed.

“Okay, Oscar isn’t flirting with me.”

“He was touching you.”

“So touching is flirting?” I retorted and he narrowed his eyes on me.

“Liam, you don’t get to ignore her all night, let some girl flirt with you, and then be mad when she decides to leave with friends. Whatever you have going on right now that is causing you to be an ass, figure it out, then call her and apologize,” Ashley defended, grabbing my arm and pulling me back.

Ashley had always been protective of me and right now she was pissed at Liam for his behavior. I looked at Liam and shook my head, because Ashley was right. I wasn’t the type of woman to cause a scene. I walked away from situations because I’d be damned if I gave anything to the gossips in this town.

Chapter 18

Liam

Hannah literally leapt into this guy’s arms when he arrived and looked incredibly happy she was to see him. Jealousy poured through my gut at the sight. I had no clue who he was, but he was huge. My guess was he was a college football player. I was strong but this guy was slightly taller than me and wasn’t affected at all by carrying both Hannah and Ashley.

This, of course, was after I spotted Derek following Hannah around the party as her and Ashley talked. Bas hadn’t found out anything about Derek yet and the guy was pissing me off with the way he watched Hannah.

Bas was fuming almost as badly as I was, but Ashley wasn’t his girlfriend. So he was trying to remain level headed.

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