Page 64 of The Rogue

Rue smiled. “Yes. It does.”

“I consider myself lucky to have caught it,” he said.

Justice frowned. Great. He was going to be in the middle of this guy trying to pick up Rue. It wasn’t going to work. She had just said that she wanted to play pool with him so—

“You want to dance?”

Rue’s eyes went wide. “I do.”

“I thought we were going to play—”

But the guy had grabbed hold of Rue and dragged her out to the dance floor. Justice just stood there feeling like a dick as he watched Rue and that unfamiliar cowboy fast dancing to some honky-tonk. She was smiling, though. Laughing, though. So he shouldn’t be mad. Because this was what they were here for. So he abandoned the table and went back to his beer, which he drank slowly in the corner as he watched them dance.

“Hey there, cowboy. Did your girl abandon you?”

He looked down at the petite blonde who had just approached him. She only came up to his midchest even with her platform heels on. “She’s not my girl,” he said. “She’s my best friend.”

“Really?” She laughed. “A guy as hot as you can be friends with women? That says a lot about your character.”

“I don’t know about that. Maybe it says something unflattering about the men you normally associate with if they can’t be.”

She made a knowing sound. “Touché. Do you want to dance?”

There was no reason to say no. So he told her yes and they went out to the dance floor, which brought him closer to Rue. Who changed partners when the song switched, another guy approaching her and stealing her away from the man she had just been dancing with.

He kept his eye on the proceedings. Guy Number One was looking irritated by what had just happened, and Justice didn’t like the look of possessiveness on his face. Rue was just out to dance. Nobody owned her, not even him. He was just watching and paying attention. He was more than ready to jump in if need be.

“She’s not your girl?”

He looked back at his partner. “No,” he said.

“You look very interested in what’s happening with her.”

“I am. She just got... She got dumped at the altar a week ago. So I’m a little bit worried that she’s here to make rash decisions.”

“Isn’t that her prerogative?”

He frowned. “Yes. But I don’t have to like it.”

“Would you be that possessive and overprotective of a male friend?”

“Listen, if I wanted to debate gender politics I would be in a classroom not a bar. Also, she is the only best friend that I have, so I don’t think we can test the theory.”

“Fascinating, though.”

If this had been another night, and another situation, this was the kind of woman he would’ve found himself attracted to. She was self-aware, she was funny. Theywould be able to have a conversation about concepts, not themselves, and have an enjoyable time until they hit the sheets, where they would have an even better time before saying goodbye.

But tonight it left him cold, and he didn’t want to get into thewhyof that.

The song ended and Guy Number One stole Rue back.

“What I don’t like is the fact that they’re acting like she’s a bone they need to fight over,” he said.

“Fair,” she said. “I can go ask her if she’ll go to the bathroom with me and pretend we’re friends.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“Hey. Us women have to stick together, because you guys are shady as shit.”

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