you’re the one.”
I looked over to Toot’s fiancée. “I’m sorry?”
“We’ve wondered,” she said. “All these months, the guys hanging out, there was never anyone for State. It was weird. Like, the girls would be there, try, and get shut down so fast and hard that it was like a race to see how fast he could reject them. I’ve never seen a man so uninterested, in anyone, before, and now we know why.”
Toot pushed his girl into the booth a little farther. “Scoot all the way around so State can sit next to his girl.”
They all squished even closer together, the two women almost touching, and getting to sit directly across from me.
Trouper pushed me in a little more, but then squeezed in beside me so tightly that I started to scoot over again.
But he stopped me by pressing a hand to my thigh and leaning over to whisper in my ear. “Stay.”
I didn’t dare move.
A, mostly because I didn’t want to.
B, because if I did, I knew that he’d move me right back, and how he’d move me right back just might not be very comfortable for me.
Not in a ‘he’s going to do something to hurt me way’ but in an ‘I’m going to hook my fingers inside of you and leave them there so you can’t move’ kind of way.
Which, now that I thought about it, might not be too bad of an idea…
“Whatever you’re thinking about, stop,” he ordered gruffly in my ear. “Now, do you want a drink?”
I turned my face, and our lips came to within an inch of each other’s.
“I’d love a beer,” I admitted, my breath coming slightly faster than its usual.
My heart rate was up, too.
His eyes flicked downward, and I knew that he’d just taken a look at my breasts.
My nipples were hard.
There was no denying that fact.
When his gaze once again met mine, he grinned like the fuckin’ fool that he was.
“Just a few more hours, honey,” he groaned.
I closed my eyes and felt things inside of me shift.
Son of a bitch, this was bad.
I had how much more time to have to deal with this?
“So how did you two meet?” Traci asked, picking up her half-finished margarita and sucking it down until it was only dregs.
I licked my lips.
“He practically assaulted me with his words. His dark, deep ‘who are you’ was barked at me. When I answered, he asked, ‘what kind of name is Beckham’ and that was that.” I grinned.
“He’s never, not ever, been rude,” she said as she looked from me to Troup and back. “I swear to God, even when he should be knocking a motherfucker out, he’s cordial.”
I raised my brows and turned my head once again to see Troup studiously ignoring me.
“Is that right?” I said. “Tell me more about this ‘State’ guy you know.”
My urging started all the stories.
“I met him on the day that that big brawl that made national news happened,” Cannel said as she leaned forward. “Toot brought me to this very bar. We were talking, all having a good time, and then this noisy little asshole comes in here. He recognizes Toot, and shit hits the fan. I have never, in my life, seen someone take someone down so thoroughly with just his words. I kept expecting State to throw a punch, knock this guy to the ground for the things he was saying, but State just stood there, took it, and then that was that. He asks him calmly to leave, and then the guy does. Just like that. It was the weirdest thing ever.”
A beer’s set down in front of me, and I reached for it to wash down my giggles.
Oh, man. This was rich.
The hot-headed boy turned into a stoic, in-control man.
That was comical.
“Remember that time State talked that guy down out of beating the hell out of that girl? We all went outside, and that man was feeling her up behind the dumpster. He didn’t lose his cool at all. Just calmly told the guy to either stop what he was doing, or he wasn’t going to like the consequences. I’ve never seen him unable to talk some man down.”
My laughter must’ve not been as hidden as it appeared because Troup’s hand went to my knee and squeezed.
I squeaked and had to put the beer down.
My laughing eyes turned to survey him.
“You are known for your control here?” I wheezed.
Trouper shrugged his massive shoulders.
“Really, the only time I’ve ever seen him get upset