Page 9 of The Drop

“Ah, man, why did you badmouth Cami?” The blonde behind Grant sighs, cracking his knuckles. His hair is on the longer side, sitting below his ears and giving surfer boy vibes. “Now, we've got to kick your ass.”

They all seem to look at each other to see who is going to start. I can see Josh’s eyes go wide and get shifty. Whoever these guys are, they have my girl’s back completely, and I’m here for it.

“Woah, woah,” Grant holds his hands up and eases the guys down. “We are not kicking anyone’s ass; we are going to let him get back in the car and drive off because he didn’t mean to insult our dear friend Cami. Did you, Jim?” He nods towards Josh to encourage him.

I snort at him, mispronouncing his name, and Cami snickers beside me.

“Yeah, of course I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, you know how girls are?” He shrugs and when the guys just stare at him, he fills them in, “Bitchy.”

Grant groans as the boys seem to get even more annoyed at the bitchy comment. “Bitchy?” Cami whispers. “How dare he; I’ll show him bitchy.” She huffs, and I pat her back, passing the wine as we turn our attention to the boys, who have gotten closer together now.

“Jim, was it?” Grant asks before Josh can correct him. “It’s time to go. There’s no scenario where you’re getting past these guys to see her.”

“He’s right, Jim,” the wilderness guy or Bear says. “If she’s Cami’s girl, she’s got a whole hockey team’s worth of protection.”

I like Bear; he is my kind of people.

“And he’s double right, Jim,” the surfer looking one pipes up, winking at him. “Because we don’t fight fair.”

Josh goes wide-eyed, again looking back and forth to the apartment building and the four hulking hockey players sizing up his options. “Fine,” he says finally, hands up and moving towards his car. “Just tell her I was here, alright?”

“I’m not going to do that, Jim.” Grant smirks, and that earns him a glare from Jim. I mean, Josh. God, that is going to be hard to shake.

Josh gets into his car and attempts to speed off, but mounts the curb and gets the tire stuck in the mud. We all awkwardly watch as he tries to pull forward a few times before putting it into reverse, and this time, he slowly rolls back and away from the curb and drives off down the street.

Cami and I look at each other and flip onto our backs, bursting into laughter at how ridiculous the whole situation is.“Oh, fair maiden, Cami and friend, wherefore art thou?” comes a voice from below..

“That’s Bear,” Cami says, standing up and leaning over the railing. “That was so wrong, it almost sounded right.” She laughs out loud, and I follow behind her to the railing, where I lean over and get a closer look at “the guys.”

“Ah, so here is the girl ruining our party and getting us to beat up her boyfriend,” Grant says while looking at me.

Narrowing my eyes, looking down at him. “I didn’t ask you to do anything.” I glare at him.

“Sorry, I misheard you.” He smirks. “I thought you said, ‘Thanks so much for doing that, and by the way, it was hot.’”

“Hmm, no, I wouldn’t have said that because I’m a terrible liar, and you would never have believed me.” I narrow my gaze at him.

Cami snorts next to me, and Grant’s smirk disappears as the guys burst out laughing.

“Oooh, you are going to be fun. Please tell us you’re hanging around for a while.” The blonde at the back laughs.

“Back off, Adam,” Cami hisses. “Off limits.” He rolls his eyes at her as they head toward the steps that run along the end of the balcony.

“They’re not coming in, are they?” I whisper to her.

“They live next door, remember?” she explains, grinning. “They throw the best parties, speaking of which.” She speaks to the guys. “How was the party? What did I miss?”

“Eh, nothing much. Some girls started a catfight over Gunnar.” He pats the guy who had been standing next to Grant, who I presume is Gunnar. “He broke it up fast, though. No fun, are you, player?”

“Shut up,” Gunnar grumbles. “Boring party, Cams, this was much more fun.” He winks at her, and she smiles back.

Huh, that is interesting. I put a sticky note in my brain to ask Cam what’s going on there.

They are level to the balcony now and start muttering goodbyes as they shuffle through their door. Grant is at the back, and Cami walks past me through the balcony door.

“Hey,” I say a little louder, and he turns around. “Thank you.”

He raises an eyebrow.

---