Page 22 of Icing the Enemy

Before she can respond, Shane appears by my side. “You didn’t tell me you knew the best duo in town.”

So many introductions tonight. “This is Lettie, Dane, Corbin, and…”

“Becca. This is Becca,” Corbin interrupts, without even a pinch of a smile.

Immediately, I recollect the media that surrounds him. Well, the papers may think he’s alone when he leaves but obviously, he has women on the inside.

Shane gets in full fan mode, not for Dane and Lettie but for Corbin.

The Notes this. Hockey that. Can’t wait for the season to start.

“Shane, hold onto your car keys with this one.” Corbin smirks as he walks away with his lady friend, Becca.

After talking to Dane and Lettie a little longer, I rejoin Preeta who is only on her second spaceship. She’s kicking Galaga ass.

“Please welcome our headliners tonight, Dane and Lettie.”

They step onto the stage to thunderous applause. They don’t say anything, just roll into their first song, acapella. No instruments or background music—just two people in perfect harmony.

Preeta finally gets blown up, so we head back to our table in the back. It’s a good place for me to scan the room for Corbin and his cute-as-a-button date. Bitch is freaking gorgeous. A little thing.

Dane and Lettie croon a soulful song about a breakup, and that’s when I spot Corbin leaning against the wall not too far from me, and his date is nowhere in sight. I excuse myself from the table and with liquid courage invading my brain, I saunter in the direction of Corbin Shearer.

He’s tapping his leg to the beat of the slow song when suddenly, I feel a burning in my gut. His stare is impenetrable, a fierce combination of don’t you dare talk to me and something I can’t decipher.

But I do what I do to diffuse situations… be funny. “Does Ford F-150 miss me?”

He lifts an eyebrow and ignores me though he keeps staring.

“I’m the one who should be upset. You had me put in jail,” I quip.

He pushes off the wall, invading my space, glaring at me. “I should have pressed charges.”

“Then we couldn’t be friends.”

He leans in so close, I can hear his heart beating. We’re being watched by dozens of people in the bar, but I don’t care. All I want at this moment is to kiss him. His lips ghost over mine.He’s going to kiss me again, then he smirks, as if he knows exactly what's going on in my mind. And in that instant, I hate him even more for having such power over me.

“Oakley James, we’re not friends. We’ll never be friends after the stunt you pulled. It’s too bad because I’m sure I could have taught you a few things.”

I scoff, “From the articles I read, I would be the one teaching you.”

“Baby, don’t believe everything you read. I promise you couldn’t keep up,” he counters, voice dripping with mock indignation.

“Don’t call me baby.”

“If you would have stayed, I’m certain you would have been begging me to call you baby. By the way, your name suits you. Annie Oakley and Jesse James. No wonder you’re a thief,” he says with pure venom in his voice.

“For your information, I’m a descendant of Jesse James, and he stole from the rich to help the poor.”

“A thief is a thief.”

Becca says, “So you’re the one who stole his truck.” If looks could kill, I would be three feet under in the Vegas desert without a headstone.

Just as Dane and Lettie finish a song, the whole bar hears me shout, “For the last time, I borrowed it and left your keys so that you would have it.”

Whispers rumble through the bar, as people connect the dots between the gossip columns and our interaction. There’s a mysterious pull between us underneath his simmering anger. Dane and Lettie sing one of the songs we danced to at the wedding, and our eyes collide once again. I remember how it felt to be held in his arms and judging by the torn look on his face, he does too.

He holds my gaze a beat too long, then says, “Let’s go, Becca. I’ll text Dane and let him know something in the bar made me sick.”

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