Page 40 of In a Pinch

“Please stop touching me.” Fear drips from her voice, as she squares her body off and her shoulders stiffen, every bit of her trying to close off this douche fuck.

Caden cocks his head to the side. “What, you think you can be a little tease and just leave me hanging?” He grabs onto her upper arms with both of his hands. Her face loses its hard creases, and panic fills her eyes. And now, all I see is red.

My walk becomes a run. Pushing against his chest, my words come out in a snarl. “Get your fucking hands off her.”

“Mind your own business, Sam.” He recoils from my shove and grounds his feet further into the cold pavement.

Addie stays huddled next to the building, watching us face off.

“She is my business. Now get your hands off her and get the fuck out of here.”

Puffing his chest, Caden gets in my face. Apparently, he thinks he’s intimidating. That’s cute.

“Or what? We all know your family is nothing but pretty boys.” A puff of breath leaves his mouth, before he reaches for Addie. “Come on, Addie.” He tries to drag her by her forearms. A flash of panic crosses her face, and that does it for me. I've had enough.

My fist meets his face before he even registers what happens. He grunts as he hits the ground with a satisfyingthunk.

“That’s what. Get the fuck out of here and don’t bother coming back.” My hand points to the street, just in case his dumbass didn’t get the message.

“I know they say not to kick a man while he's down, but…” Addie walks over and drills him right in the balls. That’ll hurt. “Don’t ever fucking touch me again. You are pathetic.”

“And you thought getting your ass kicked by a pretty boy sucked. Be sure to tell them that the pretty girl did the most damage.” I spit the words out as he rolls to his side in pain.

I walk Addie in the opposite direction, my hand instinctively going to her lower back. “Do you want to go back inside?” I ask, unable to read her.

“I don’t want to go in there and deal with them all freaking out. I’ll probably just Uber or something and shoot them a text. What an ass. Tonight was supposed to be my first night out on the town.”

A little desperate to make her feel better, I say, “Well, I didn’t drink anything, and I drove here. How about we drive around town?”

She looks at me for a while, and I am half expecting her to say no.

“You sure your lady friend would be okay with that?”

It takes me a second to register what she means, but then I realize my dumbass never told her that my coworker made it seem like we were a thing when we most definitely are not.

“She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s just a coworker.”

“Sure seemed like more.” She turns to walk away from me, as if not believing a single thing coming out of my mouth. But after the night she’s had, I don’t blame her.

“Addie, I’m not lying.” Reaching out, I grab her hand. She whips back around, her eyes meeting mine, and I feel her searching through mine for the truth. “She’s had a thing for me, but it was completely one-sided. I swear.” Dropping her hand, I put my hands up in surrender. There’s only one girl I have a thing for, and she’s looking right at me.

After staring at me through critical eyes, she tilts her head back and lets out a sigh, her defenses finally dropping. “Okay. I’m in.” A smile stretches across my face in response. “Only ifyou buy me a milkshake.” I’d probably buy her anything she wants at this point.

Her arms erupt in goosebumps from the chilled air. I didn’t even think about how cold it is outside right now.

“Here.” I shrug off my leather coat and sling it over her shoulders. I can’t help but notice how good she looks in it.

She looks up to me, her eyes swimming with emotion. “Thanks, Sam. And not just for the coat.”

“He had it coming. I’ve been itching to deck that fucker since high school. You just gave me a good reason. The kick to the balls was a nice touch.” Gravel and dirt crunch underneath our feet as we walk up the dimly lit street to my car.

“He’s lucky I didn’t hack it off. I should have listened to the alarm bells and creeper flags that were flying. This is what I get for trying to be a nice person and for wearing my ‘buy me drinks’ dress.” She looks down at herself, and I can’t believe she thinks this was her fault.

“You being a nice person was definitely not the problem here. You looking smoking hot is also not the problem.” Someone needs to come shut me the fuck up right now. I know she’s going to run with that.

“So, you think I'm smoking hot, huh?” She flips her hair and shoots me a wink.

My eyes roll. However, the denial gets stuck on the tip of my tongue, because she is undeniably beautiful.

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