Page 49 of Accidental Abduction

“Um...do you not see him watching you every night you’re on shift?”

Her eyes widened, her mouth almost comically dropping open into the perfect o shape. “What? No, he doesn’t.”

“And I’m the one who needs to pay attention to their surroundings,” I muttered, remembering Hudson’s first words to me on the dance floor.

“He doesn’t really do that, does he? I look like shit half the time after a shift when it gets crazy down there. What if he caught me picking my nose? Oh my God.”

“I mean, notallthe time, but I’ve definitely caught him watching you lately. I think he’s trying to figure out why you won’t talk to him... And why you run away whenever he enters the room.”

“You know why I’m hiding,” she hissed, covering her face with her hands. Her voice dropped to a scandalized whisper. “I’ve seen his penis.”

“I think a lot of people have seen Reid’s penis,” I giggled.

“You’re not helping,” she pouted. “You think I like having a crush on my brother’s philandering best friend?”

“He hasn’t been that bad lately.”

Reid had spent just as much timeas he ever had in the bar, but most nights he was here helping until closing time, not over in his shop banging random women.

“He’s had more sex in the last month than I’ve had like ever.”

“That just means you know he’d show you a good time if you’d stop running from him.”

“Yeah right,” she scoffed. “Or he’d laugh in my face if he knew I liked him. I’m not exactly his type.”

“Well, I didn’t think I was Hudson’s. But that didn’t stop him from fuc…”

“I hate you,” she laughed, slapping her hand across my mouth.

“No, you don’t. You love me.”

She grinned before she reached over to open her cell phone, thrusting it in my face with the text conversation from this morning up on the screen. “And so does my brother.”

Charley

Hazel encouraged me toget cleaned up and ready for my shift while she continued to work on her lewd sketches before she had an appointment later today. If she thought Hudson was protective now, I knew he could never learn about the turn her illustration commissions had taken.

Apparently if the characters had their clothes off, then she got paid twice as much. I admired the entrepreneurial spirit, but it was kind of comical knowing my virginal best friend was drawing naughty illustrations to pay her bills.

I kind of wanted to commission a naughty UNO inspired deck from her, but that might be crossing way too many boundaries with all parties involved. Hudson would be into the cards but mortified that his sister knew we’d defiled her favorite childhood game. Hazel would be grossed out by all the above. And I’d have to describe sexual positions to my best friend so she could illustrate them because she didn’t have any first-hand knowledge.

Maybe she had some other naughty artist friends I could hit up with my idea.

By the time I got downstairs, the bar had opened but we only had a few patrons seated in their usual spots. Once they were served, they usually kept to themselves, so I sat down at the other end to chat with Annie. I wanted to make sure there hadn’t been any more drama over the weekend.

“So, you are alive,” she teased, sliding a glass of water in front of me. I took a long drink, knowing I was probably dehydrated from all the fluids I’d expelled over the weekend. “Hazel said she’d heardfrom you, but when Hudson wasn’t anywhere to be found and you were both gone all weekend, the gossip started.”

“How bad is it?” I cringed, hating that we’d been a topic of discussion among my co-workers. But they were bound to figure it out fairly quickly when they saw Hudson and I interact.

“The cooks have a bet going that Hudson will mysteriously disappear because you disposed of his body in the woods after being snowed in with him for three days.”

“He is alive and well. Or at least he was a few hours ago.”

“That’s what I figured. The waitstaff has an over under on how many times you guys fucked over the weekend. Apparently, they’ve been getting sexual tension vibes off you two for months. They were just waiting for him to kick Viv to the curb and realize you were a better suited match.”

“How exactly did they plan on verifying that?” I laughed, knowing that neither of us had really kept a count, but I wasn’t planning to tell them anyway. Maybe the slight limp when I walked would clue them in that we didn’t spend the entire weekend playing checkers.

“I think they were hoping for one of you to slip. Hell, just make up a random number and have Hazel bet, then you can clear them all out for being nosy bastards.”

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