Page 92 of Lyrical

“Got a girlfriend, Daniel?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s her name?”

“Cassie.”

He rubbed his chin. “Hmm. Short for Cassandra?”

“Yes.”

“Knew a Cassandra once.” He waved his hand in front of his mouth. “Whew. Should’ve seen the legs on that one. Fucking A.” He leaned forward a bit. “Speaking of legs, you’ve got to hear this, Daniel. You’ll get a kick out of it.”

I got up, ready to go anywhere else but around that jackass. Whatever shit he was going to say, I didn’t want to hear it. I’d come back to talk to Daniel later.

“No, no, Chase. Don’t leave. This is about you too, buddy. Daniel’ll love it.”

I caught Stephen’s eye, who was watching from the room over. He didn’t look so hot. Definitely had one shot too many, and I couldn’t see him heading out anytime soon.

“This was back when you were—where were you again?”

“Italy.”

He pointed his finger towards the ceiling. “Right. Italy. We were all at the engagement party. Remember that, Chase?”

He smirked and my fists clenched.Don’t even fucking talk about it.

“Chase was there with your mother, and it was the funniest damn thing. Hadn’t seen you in so long, I thought the boy sitting next to her was you.”

I was about to lose my fucking shit all over his goddamned face. I looked at Daniel with his blank expression and knew it was time to get the hell out before I did something I did not want to do in front of Jillian’s son.

“Party time!” The door busted open and Mr. Crew Cut barreled in. Lost the glasses but had found two women in skirts up to their crotches.

“Tommy, man. Was wondering where the fuck you ran off to.” Alex started heading to the door, bottle neck buried in his grip when he stopped dead. “What the fuck is this?” He waved his hand at the blonde and brunette under each arm while liquid sloshed out to the floor.

“Presents.”

“What, no redhead?” Jeff asked.

“One of us is a natural ginger, baby.” The blonde winked. “You’ll just have to unwrap us to find out which one.”

“Fuck, yeah,” Jeff said, pushing himself up.

“Ah-ah. You wait your turn, man,” Tommy said, waggling his finger. “You’re not the one closing up shop next month.”

“Hey, party’s over here,” I heard someone yell.

Daniel looked uncomfortable as hell. I wanted no part of this shit.

Tommy unhooked his arms and patted their asses forward. “Go ahead and start without me, ladies. I’ll be there in a minute.” They giggled off with Jeff following, and Tommy swiped the bottle from Alex, taking a chug.

“What the fuck, Tommy? You’re bringing whores here? You know Stephen doesn’t want any shit like this.”

As if on cue, Stephen said, “Get this shit off me. What the hell?”

“Aw, you’re hurting my feelings, honey.”

“I won’t push you off my lap, sweetheart. Either of you.” Whatshisname slapped his thighs, and they both plopped on top of him, laughing.

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