Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club #3) - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,33
started dating someone else, you’d be fine with it?” Mack asked.
At his blistering silence, Mack snorted. “That’s what I thought.”
Noah gave in to a sudden burst of weariness. He set down his fork and ran his hands over his face. After a long, quiet moment, he looked up to find the guys watching him in matching expressions of patience and amusement.
“I don’t know what to do,” he admitted.
“Luckily, we do,” Mack said. “Be at my bar at three o’clock tomorrow.”
Noah’s stomach dropped. “What for?”
Mack grinned. “Initiation.”
Fuuuck.
CHAPTER TEN
A few hours later, Noah pulled into Alexis’s driveway again to pick her up for their meeting with Candi. He hadn’t been this nervous to pick up a woman since . . . ever. Something had changed last night, at least in his mind, and he was going to have a hard time keeping it cool today. Which is exactly what she needed from him.
She met him on the sidewalk wearing a long cardigan, a pair of leggings, and a small smile. “I saw you pull up,” she explained.
He held open her door and waited while she slid into the car before returning to the driver’s side. He exhaled the breath he’d been holding before sliding behind the wheel.
“Thanks for driving,” she said, not quite looking at him as she buckled her seat belt.
“You sure you want to do this?”
“I’m sure.”
She didn’t look sure, though. Her hands were a tangled mess in her lap, and her lips were a thin line. A raw, red nick in the corner meant she’d been gnawing on it with her teeth.
“You don’t have to—”
She cut him off with a look. He raised his hands in surrender.
The trip downtown was short and quiet. And when Noah parked in the ramp for the hotel where Candi was staying, they sat in the dark and the silence for a moment, just staring at the glowing red sign that read ELEVATOR. He finally looked over at her.
“Ready?” Noah got out and rounded the car to her side. He held out his hand as she slid out of the passenger seat and, as if they’d done it a hundred times before, she folded her fingers in his. His heart kicked the underside of his ribs with a painful thud as they walked hand in hand to the elevators. Only when they walked in did she pull her hand away to push the button for the lobby floor.
Noah shoved his hands deep in the pocket of his fleece. “Where are we meeting her?”
“The hotel bar.”
“She alone?”
“I think so.”
The elevator opened into a marble-floored hallway. Noah pressed his hand to the small of her back as they walked out. Her muscles twitched beneath his fingertips, but she didn’t try to move from his touch. His heart kicked again.
“Over there,” she said, pointing to a darkened corner where a hostess stood beneath a sign bearing the bar’s name.
Noah looked down at Alexis. “The Bluegrass Grill?”
Her eyes turned sarcastic. “It’s like they just gave up.”
“Do you think there will be banjos on the walls?”
“And drinks named after Waylon Jennings songs.”
Noah ushered her forward, hand still on her back. “First person to spot the Willie Nelson picture wins.”
The brief banter seemed to relax her, because her muscles softened beneath his fingertips.
The lobby bustled with bleary-eyed travelers dragging heavy suitcases and the remnants of last night’s bad decisions.
The hostess smiled as they approached. “How many?”
“We’re meeting someone at the bar,” Noah said.
The hostess directed them to the center of the restaurant, where a circular bar on a raised platform glowed a soft blue from the pendant lamps that hung from the ceiling. It was nearly deserted but for a handful of guys who were hunched quietly over beers, their eyes glued to a football game on the six televisions on the wall.
A woman sat alone several stools away, her face turned toward the entrance of the restaurant as if looking for someone.
“That’s her,” Alexis said, her feet slowing.
Noah slid his hand higher on her back until his fingers met the tight cords of her neck. He squeezed and lowered his mouth closer to her ear. “You okay?”
Her only response was to keep walking.
Candi spotted them, fumbled the glass of water in her hand, and then winced as it spilled on the counter. A bartender waved off her apologies and began to wipe it up as Candi slid from her barstool.