Page 79 of Dirty Little Mistake

"So, what are your plans for tonight?" I slid onto the bench across from Owen.

Owen slid the sandwich across the wooden table, his fingers lingering on the wrapper. "Depends." The evening light flickered in his eyes as he watched me. "If my girlfriend wants company or not."

Heat crept up my neck at the word 'girlfriend.' I ducked my head, unwrapping the sandwich with suddenly clumsy fingers, letting my hair fall forward as a slow smile spread across my face.

A buzz against my hip interrupted the moment. "Sorry," I said, fishing my phone from my sweats. "Probably Kaia about the bachelorette party."

The number on the screen hit me like a punch to the gut.I'd had it memorized after the first dozen calls.

Not Kaia.

Trystan.

The phone buzzed again in my palm, then again.

"Oh yeah." He smiled. "That's this weekend."

"What do the girls have planned?"

I hit the side button to black out the screen and turned off the ringer. "Kaia just wants to do a movie night at the house."

"Really?"

I nodded. "What about you guys?"

"Jax left it up to me and Trystan to plan."

"You and Trystan?"

"Yep."

"How's that going?"

He shrugged as he unwrapped his sandwich. "I tried calling Trystan twice, and he sent me to voicemail twice." He shook his head. "So I don't know if he's planning it or I am."

I twisted the wrapper of my sandwich, the paper crinkling between my fingers. "If I had to guess, I would say you are." My throat tightened at saying his name aloud. "Trystan's never been a planner. He's a fly-by-the-seat of his pants type of guy."

Owen methodically wiped his hands with a napkin, each movement precise. "Yeah, that's kind of what I figured." He folded the napkin into neat quarters. "So I set up something with the bar. We're just going to have a party."

"Strippers?" The word jumped out before I could stop it.

A startled laugh escaped him, and he wadded up the napkin. "No." His eyes crinkled at the corners. "I mentioned a strip club, but Jax said no."

I laughed. "His soon-to-be wife is pregnant and moody. She'd kill him."

"What about you?" He looked up through his lashes. "Would you be upset if I went to a strip club?"

My brows pulled together as I considered the question. My immediate response was, ‘Why would I be mad?’ but that 'me' forgot Owen was my boyfriend. I really didn't know how to answer that because I really didn't care, and I wasn't sure what response he wanted. I was still struggling to see him as more than a friend.

I picked at the edge of the picnic table, where the paint was peeling away. "Do you want to go to a strip club?"

Owen's shoulders lifted in a half-shrug, his gaze fixed on a point somewhere over my shoulder. "I don't." His fingers drummed once, twice on the table before going still. "Sometimes the guys like to go, but it's usually only the single guys that go."

I stopped picking at the paint, something in his careful tone making me look up. "I feel like you're skating around something, Owen."

My phone vibrated again and again.

It was Trystan.

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