Page 43 of The Leaving Road

She just shrugged as if not bothered at all that Dexter was clearly steaming mad. “She’s my friend, and she had the right to know that Sloan was coming out with us tonight. I didn’t know she would show up.”

“They haven’t been together for years; you know he avoids her… Why do you…”

“Why do I, what?” she snapped at him. “I just want my friend to be happy. You can’t possibly be mad at me for that!”

“I just wish your friend being happy didn’t come at the expense ofmyfriend being miserable. Come on, Lydia, you know he was miserable when they were together. Why push this?”

Before she could respond, Lexie came blowing back to the table, a knowing smile spread over her lips. She mouthed to me,Be ready, he’s coming for you.

She winked at me, which was her tell of approval. What had happened in the last day that she was firmly on Team Sloan? She hated him as much as I did, or so I thought.

Her gaze slowly ran over Matt, as if forgetting he was there. She didn’t bother to hide her eye roll and slight frown, either.

Sloan came stomping over to the table, clearly upset about his encounter with Cassie, but his eyes cleared a little and softened when they finally landed on me. His eyes did a slow perusal over me and my outfit, and I saw his lips part a little. When he finally made it to my face, his eyes met mine and all I could see was burningwant.If it were possible, I think my clothes would have gone up in flames from the heat steaming off just his look.

Even Matt must have noticed, because he cleared his throat, doing his best to interrupt and break the moment that Sloan and I found ourselves in. A part of me wanted to look at Matt and completely disregard the look Sloan was giving me, but the second our eyes met, I knew that was going to beimpossible.

Being slightly embarrassed at our blatant stare down with each other, I shook my head, causing my hair to create a wall between both men who were now sitting firmly on either side of me. The conversation slowly started to pick back up. Jace was currently engaging the guys in a conversation about something or other, but I was completely distracted.

Sloan placed his hand on my thigh, which had originally caused me to tense up because I wasn’t expecting the butterflies that erupted in the pit of my stomach at the gesture. I officially almost lost it when he started rubbing small circles on my skin through the rips in the jeans. Wetness was pooling in between my thighs, and I was getting so worked up, I could barely think straight.

Lexie’s voice cut through the tension, giving me a small reprieve and something to focus on other than Sloan’s taunting circles.

“I have a question!” she burst out like she’d been waiting to ask this for a while. I couldn’t help but shoot her a surprised look, wishing like hell we could communicate telepathically.

“Why did no one tell me that Sloan owned Yuliana’s?”

I looked over at him. “You do? I didn’t know that. It’s so good! I was so upset that my bad date ruined such good food.”

He shrugged as if a little embarrassed by it. “It was a pipe dream growing up. I never thought it would happen, so I never thought to mention it.”

Lexie’s grin only grew. “You thought about it as a kid?”

He looked at her questioningly but answered her invasive question anyway, “Yeah. I’d thought about it since I was a teenager.”

Glee positively overtook Lexie’s face.

“You don’t say…”

She half slammed her hand on the table, looking between both of us. “When my girl over here had me pick her up at that place, I couldn’t help but think something about it felt familiar, but that didn’t make sense. I’ve never been to town before…” She half spaced out, but then zoned in on us again.

“Anyway, howinterestingis it that Yuliana is just a fancy word for a magnolia tree… I think the word originates somewhere from China, isn’t that right, Sloan?”

Chapter 29

Magnolia

The silence around the table was deafening. Sloan had stopped making circles with his thumb on my thigh, and I took a chance to peak over at him and noticed his face was crimson before he finally answered Lexie,

“Yeah…I might know something about that,” he said as nonchalantly as possible.

Matt whistled low, and it held a hint of resignation to it. “I think I’m going to take off.”

I felt tremendously guilty over the turn of events. “Let me at least walk you out.”

“Really, that’s okay. I know when I’m beat.” He offered me a wink, letting me know there were no hurt feelings.

“No, I want to.” I slid my chair out, only to feel Sloan’s hand tense around my thigh for the briefest of seconds before letting go.

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