Page 8 of If You Need Me

These days, I’m a badass. Here in Toronto, I’m appreciated by the team because I don’t tolerate crap. Here I’m the person who gets shit done. But back in Huntsville, population 19,000, I’m the nerd whose best friend went to prom with the guy I liked. And now she’s marrying him.

Shilpa taps her coffee mug with her nails. They’re painted team colors. “This is your ten-year, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“So they’ve been together for an entire decade, and he just put a ring on her fingernow?” Shilps asks.

“Who just put a ring on whose finger?” Ashish appears, making a beeline for Shilpa. He bends to kiss her cheek. “I missed you, my love.”

He’s followed by Dallas and Hollis.

“What’s this about a ring?” Dallas elbows Hollis. “Did you propose to Hammer?”

“Hollis has not asked me to marry him,” Hammer clarifies immediately. “My dad needs more than a couple of months to adjust to this, and I’m twenty-one, so we don’t need to jump on the married bandwagon anytime soon.”

Hollis narrows his eyes. “Thirty-five is coming for me.”

Hammer arches a brow. “Whatever, old man. That’s a couple years away.”

“Oh, I love that this is happening right now.” Shilpa’s eyes light up.

“We could have a long engagement,” Hollis suggests.

“I think we need to let Rix and Tristan have first crack at the engagement game.” Hammer gives Hollis a meaningful look.

“It’s only a matter of time,” Dallas agrees. “So who’s engaged?”

“Just some people from high school,” I mutter. “It’s not important.”

Shilpa arches a brow.

“It’s still weird that you two went to school together.” Ashish motions between me and Dallas.

“I call it fate.” Dallas leans against the doorjamb.

“Are you going to the reunion this summer?” Shilpa asks.

I fire daggers at her with my eyeballs. She deflects them with her impenetrable lawyer shield.

“Yeah. Why not, right? It’ll be fun to see everyone.”

“That’s because you were Mr. Popular and everyone loved you,” I scoff.

“Not everyone.” He pulls his phone from his pocket. “Is this for real? Brooklyn and Dr. Sean Sheep’s Ass are engaged?”

I bite back a smile. Sean’s last name is Ramsbottom. “It’s for real.”

“I can’t stand those two.” Dallas shakes his head. “They were a couple of douchebag attention whores back in the day, and nothing has changed. Good luck to her with that unfortunate last name,” he adds.

Ashish looks between us. “So you’re both going to this reunion?”

Hollis has taken one of the seats at the small conference table.

“Yeah,” Dallas and I say in unison.

“Together?” Ash asks.

Why does he have to be so oblivious?

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