Page 38 of Just One of the Groomsmen
“Did?Past tense?”
She jabbed a finger at him. “You know what?”
Before she could finish, her phone rang. She whipped it out of her pocket, and a storm of emotions flickered across her face.
“I hoped it’d be Shep, calling to say he’d smoothed things over with Lexi, but it’s David.”
“David?”
“The dentist—you met him at the soccer game, remember? We were supposed to go out tonight, but something must’ve come up.” Addie answered the phone and then said, “No, it’s not too late to call.” Pause. “Oh. Come over right now?”
She glanced at Tucker and then pushed to her feet. He curled his fingers around the deck railing so he wouldn’t do something crazy like grab her phone and toss it in the water.
Yep, he was definitely losing it.
As much as he wanted to hear what they were saying, he also didn’t want to know. Because he remembered the smarmy dentist all too well.
He pulled out his own phone to check the time, frowning when he saw it was nearly ten o’clock. A call this late was booty call territory, for sure.
She had to realize that.
Maybe that was their arrangement, and the thought of that sent a toxic burning through his gut.
Not jealousy, his brain tried to claim.
And even if it was, only because they’d finally had time to talk, and he didn’t want her to leave yet. The more he thought about it, though, the more heat pulsed in his veins.
The guy thought he could stand her up and then call her at ten o’clock and have the end part of the date?
She stepped back out on the deck. “Hey, I’m gonna take off.”
“To hang out with the dentist?” he asked, unable to hold it back.
She sighed, so she’d clearly caught the sharpness in his tone—it’d just sort of slipped out.
“Getting his dental practice up and running has taken a lot of time, and he helps his brother out with his niece a lot as well. They took her to a carnival in Montgomery today, and they got caught up for longer than expected, so he got into town a few minutes ago.”
“And he barely got cell service? That’s odd. Usually signal’s betteroutsideof Uncertainty.”
She spun around in a huff and charged back into the houseboat, so he quickly pushed to his feet and followed her inside the cabin.
For some reason, she started angrily throwing all the beer bottles away, each clank of glass accentuating how pissed she was, but since she wasn’t charging out the front door, he didn’t bother stopping her.
She shoved the mostly empty bags of chips into a cupboard they didn’t belong in, then turned to face him and crossed her arms.
“Okay, so he’s obviously not perfect, but he’s the only guy who’s asked me out in a while, and I’m fairly sure he at least thinks of me as a girl.” Her eyebrows scrunched together. “And I realize that makes it sound like my standards are super low, but…” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know why I’m even bothering to explain any of this to you. It’s none of your business.”
He debated letting it go, but he couldn’t seem to.
He moved closer and leaned a hip against the counter. “Addie, the guy’s a player. I could tell when I met him, and the fact that he didn’t bother calling to let you know he’d be late but now wants you to come running over at ten o’clock confirms it. Even if he’s not a player, he’s an inconsiderate asshole.”
“Oh, big surprise, you don’t like him.” She advanced on him, an accusatory finger pointed at his chest. “You always rag on who I date—all you guys do.”
True. But in their defense, the dudes she dated were never good enough, never truly appreciated how fucking cool she was, and they threw off numbers at poker night.
They were almost too easy to scare away, too.I bet the guys and I could scare off the dentist, no problem.
We’ll all just take turns stopping by to warn him he’d better take good care of our Addie, and that’ll be that.
