Page 48 of Shortcake
“Hey!” One of the bachelors shouted, pointing at me. “It’s the shortcake chick!”
“Bippity Boppity, right?” The other guy said, laughing.
Oh, fuck.
Gulping I swung around and turned, walking away from Harper, so maybe they wouldn’t look in her direction at all. “Ahhh, Shortcake chick. Just what Ilovebeing called.”
Even though I was probably around the same age as these guys, I far surpassed them on the maturity scale.
“Aw, come on, Red,” one of the guys said, following me for a few steps toward the bar. “Don’t be like that.”
“I like the nicknameRedeven less than Shortcake.”
“We weren’t that bad last night, were we?” The guy with the longer blondish hair leaned his elbows on my bar, flashing me a smile.
I inhaled sharply and took a quick look at Conrad. Did he hear that ‘last night’ bit? Was he putting two and two together that these were the same guys hanging with his sixteen-year-old until after midnight?
“You were fine. Are you here to order something? Or did you just come by to say hi.”
“Can’t we do both?”
“These guys bothering you?” I knew the booming tone of Conrad’s voice before I even saw him stand up from his table.
Behind him, Harper hissed, “Dad, no!” Then she quickly buried her face in her hands.
“Nope,” I answered quickly. “I’m fine. They’re fine. We’re all fi—”
“Hey,wait.” Jay, the same guy who’d been super drunk and super attached to Harper last night pointed beyond Conrad’s shoulder directly at his daughter. “I know you. You’re the girl!”
Conrad’s gaze swung over his shoulder to glare at Harper whose face had deepened to a plum wine shade of burgundy. “She’swhatgirl?” Conrad’s voice was low and graveled. A viper before its attack. A panther’s quiet purr just before the pounce.
I gulped. Tears filled Harper’s eyes as they grew wider and more terrified, peeking between her fingers.
The guy started to walk toward Harper. “I didn’t get your number last night. I’ve been thinking of those sweet lips ever since I left—”
Before any of us could register what was happening Conrad’s fist was flying through the air and connected with the guy’s jaw in a deafening crack.
You know what was the most fucked up thing about the scene unfolding in front of me?
I’d never been more attracted to Conrad than in that moment that he punched that bro-dude. Even though blood was spurting from the kid’s nose and mouth like an explosion on his face, I wanted to leap into Conrad’s arms and wrap my legs around his waist.
Something about the primal way he jumped into action to defend his daughter.
The way he saidfuck itto rules and laws and acted on pure instinct.
Yep. That was the sort of screwed up love I apparently sought.
All around us, chaos broke out. Some patrons had run out of the bar, leaving their chowders and drinks untouched and bills unpaid. Others were launching to their feet to jump in to help break up the fight.
“What do we do?” Haylee cried.
“Call the cops!” Enzo shouted.
“Heisthe cops!” I yelled back.
Conrad grabbed Jay by the collar, yelling in his face, as the other bachelor party friends rushed toward the fight. “You were thinking of my daughter’s lips?!” Conrad shouted.
“What the hell, man!?” Jay shouted back. “What’s your fucking problem?”
