Page 10 of Sweet Spot

Gage came up behind me, reaching over my shoulder to still my movements and take the knife out of my hand. “All right, killer. I think that’s enough of that. You’ve chopped that garlic into paste.”

Slamming my hands down on my hips, I spun around and hit him with a glare. “How can you be okay with that woman calling you?” I couldn’t imagine what she would have to say to Gage after what she’d done.

Gage did his best to never talk about Vanessa and how their relationship had ended. In fact, if you weren’t a part of his immediate circle, you never would have known he’d had his heart crushed by the Wicked Witch of South Dakota. It was only after a healthy dose of whiskey—something he didn’t drink often—and a pair of particularly loose lips that I managed to get the story out of him.

Gage reached up and took me by my forearms, dragging his large hands up and down in a comforting gesture, when the roles just then should have been reversed. It should have beenmecomfortinghim. “I’m not okay with it, believe me. It pissed me the fuck off, that’s why—until two seconds ago when you got all adorably belligerent on my behalf—I was having a pretty shitty day.”

It sure felt nice to hear that I helped turn his shitty day around, but... “I amnotadorably belligerent. I’m a stone-cold badass.”

He grinned, all straight white teeth and two dimples that only popped out when he smiled in a way he really meant. “Sure you are, Bits. All four-foot-eleven of you.”

I reached up and pinched the skin on the back of his upper arm, making him yelp. “I’m five-two. Don’t you try and take those extra inches away from me. And I better never lay eyes on that river rat of a woman or she’ll regret it.”

A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “I don’t doubt that for a second, babe. And trust me, I’m not okay that she called when she’s the last person whose voice I’d ever want to hear. But I came over here because you always manage to put me in a good mood. Why do you think I’m here right now? It’s because you’re my best friend, and you never fail to make things better.”

Okay, so that might have been one of the sweetest things I’d ever heard.

“You’re my best friend too.” I blew out a gust of air, calming my rage as I resumed my dinner prep, this time without the violence. “So? What did Medusa want?”

Gage leaned against the opposite counter, crossing one booted foot over the other as he sipped his beer slower this time. “Don’t know. As soon as I realized it was her I told her to lose my number and hung up.”

I looked over at him, trying to read his expression. “You weren’t the least bit curious what she was calling about all these years later?”

One corner of his mouth quirked up in a tiny smirk before he popped the last of the frozen candy bar into his mouth. “Guys aren’t like that, Bits. When we’re done, we’re done. We don’t get curious or look for closure or any of that shit. When Vanessa ended us, that was it.”

That sounded a hell of a lot healthier than my mindset right after Darrin and I broke up. I’d spent weeks going over our relationship in my head, picking every microscopic detail apart with surgical precision, trying to discover a reason why it had ended the way it had. At least until Gage showed up on my doorstep, forced me into the shower, then dragged me to Bad Alibi, the local watering hole. He proceeded to get me shitfaced and let me venteverythingwith the understanding that once the night was over, it was done. Despite the bitch of a hangover I had the following morning, I woke up feeling a million times better than I had in weeks.

“I guess I’m worried you haven’t heard the last of her. A random call all these years later can’t just be a one-off. There has to be a reason.”

He shrugged like he didn’t care, but I didn’t miss the way the muscle in his jaw bulged as his teeth ground together. “Doesn’t matter because as soon as I hung up, I blocked her ass.”

That went a long way in making me feel better.

“Good,” I said as I flipped on a burner and started heating my pan. “Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Exactly.”

I pointed my knife in his direction. “But I stand by what I said earlier. If I ever lay eyes on that woman, it’s going down.”

He gave me those dimples, and I couldn’t help but feel like they were a gift. “Trust me, you never have to worry about that. But I’ll consider myself warned.”

ChapterSix

WYNN

Ladies Nightat Bad Alibi used to mean half-off cocktails, but when they ran through nearly half their stock and the number of drunk and disorderly calls to the cops skyrocketed, the owners had to head back to the drawing board.

Buck and Darla then decided that Ladies’ Night meant only the women got to pick what played on the jukebox that night. Bad Alibi strongly catered to the biker crowd and a whole night of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez had done serious damage to the bottom line. Every penis-wielding town member went running for the hills when we all started singing alongloudlyto “Love You Like a Love Song”. In our defense, Taylor and Selena have some of the best girl-power anthems to ever exist, especially when we’re three sheets to the wind.

Darla thought it was hilarious.

Buck nearly lost his mind and declared never again.

Now Ladies’ Night meant dollar drafts.

Beer wasn’t exactly my drink of choice, but my friends and I were never ones to turn down a bargain, and dollar drafts were a freakingsteal.

The bar was more crowded than usual when I pushed through the doors. Fortunately, my girls Farah and Shane worked as servers, so they’d reserved a couple tables for our ragtag group. I squeezed and scooted through the crowd toward the tables my friends were gathered around, heaving out awhewof relief once I finally made it.

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