Page 115 of Fall to Me
“Seriously, man.” Spencer reaches behind Hannah and taps Sean on the arm with the back of his hand as if they’re friends. Sean looks at Spencer like he would love nothing more than to break his fingers, given the chance. The guy, ignorant as hell to the situation, carries on. “Did you know that if you gave me one percent of your earnings . . . only one percent to invest for you, I could turn that into at least fifty million within the next seven years?”
Sean brings his glass to his lips, taking another sip of his drink, then asks, “Hannah, where’d you pick up this asshole?”
“Sean!” Her jaw nearly hits the floor.
“At that new bar . . . Off the Rails,” Aiden jumps in, then wiggles his eyebrows. “He’s a handful, isn’t he, Hannah?”
“Shut up, Aiden,” she says between clinched teeth. “Can’t you find someone other than me to antagonize? Where’s your date?”
Aiden looks at me and winks. “She’s back in Arizona, isn’t that right, Carter?”
I roll my eyes. Like my sister would ever entertain the likes of Aiden Fucking Brodie.
“I think I made a mistake,” River says to me before taking a bite of her salad.
“You think?”
“Yeah. I do.” She wipes her mouth. “Dinner pairs so much better with this entertainment than popcorn.”
Oh, my wife is something else.
“So, who do you think is gonna win tonight, the Bruins or Utah?” I ask.
And that’s all it takes to diffuse the conversation.
After dinner and the auction, music begins to play, and people start making their way onto the dance floor.
“Okay, us girls are going to dance,” Hannah says to Spencer, then she grabs River and Aspen by the hand, leading them onto the dance floor and leaving Spencer with us. Sean and Aiden make an excuse to slip away from the table.
Cal and I sit there for a while, watching the girls dance while Spencer continues to drone on and on about investments, leading me to believe that he only came here to use Hannah as a financial opportunity. Which pisses me off because Hannah is like family. She’s got a heart of gold and deserves better than that. Also, this is an event that my best friend has deep emotional ties to. This isn’t the time nor the place.
What a dick.
River saunters over and takes my hand. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
I trail behind her as we make our way out of the ballroom and down a hallway where we pass by Hannah and Sean, standingclose and arguing. Squeals come from behind us, and I turn my head just as Sean tosses Hannah over his shoulder.
“Put me the fuck down!” she yells.
A crack echoes down the hall as he lands a slap to her ass, then carries her out a side door. River and I stop and look at each other in shock. I look around to see who else saw that, hoping Coach isn’t anywhere around.
“Should we go save her?” I ask.
“Nah. Let them figure their shit out,” River says with a wink. “Look how well it worked for us.”
She ducks into the ladies’ room to handle her business, and I pull out my phone to mindlessly scroll through the sports app to see who’s winning tonight between the Bruins and Utah.
Tony, Diesel, and Hector catch my attention out of the corner of my eye. I lift my head as they walk toward me with another man trailing behind them.
“Boss, this man needs to talk to you.”
River steps out of the bathroom and glances over. A look of surprise crosses her face, and a smile curves her lips.
“Oh, look, the fourth minion is here,” she says. “Now you can introduce us.”
Her words don’t really register with me at first as I study the man standing in front of us, but once they do, my first instinct is to pull her behind me.
Keeping my untrusting eyes pinned on him, I do just that and ask, “What do you mean by fourth minion, River?”
