Man of Honor (Battle Scars #3) - Diana Gardin Page 0,55
experience like that one. That’s why I’m going to try my damnedest not to let her go. I need to be enough for her, and I want to be more than she needs.
The female bartender heads over with a flirty grin. Leaning over the bar, she sends me a wink. “Your turn to buy, huh?” She glances over at Dare, who’s clearly been having a good time tonight, and then back at me. “He’s the groom? Let me guess…” She allows her eyes to slide around my torso, taking in my build and flicking over my face before she finds my eyes once again. “Best man?”
I’m surprised, but I don’t let it show in my features. “How’d you guess? And yeah…he wants a Killian’s.”
She turns to grab the bottle of beer, and when she slides it across the bar to me she grins. “It’s my job to know. You, though…you’ve caught my attention. Want to swing back by here after your party is all done?”
I’ve never really been a player; it’s not my style. I’ve been with women, sure. But I don’t jump from woman to woman like some of the guys I know. And to each his own, I don’t judge anyone for their choices. I’ve just always known that in life, a revolving door of women, isn’t for me.
“Sorry.” I grace her with a rueful smile. “I’ve got plans after this party.”
She leans into her hand and offers me a sad half-grin. “She’s a lucky girl. What can I get to top you off?” She gestures toward Dare’s beer.
I look down at the sole beer in my hand, and then look back up at her. “Nothing. I’m good.”
And I am…good. One beer, just like the me before I lost my mom. Alcohol doesn’t drown out the pain. It just numbs it for a little while. But now? I know there’s a better way to deal with things. Especially knowing that being drunk meant I wasn’t there for Mea when she needed me.
Never again.
Pulling a folded bill out of my jeans pocket, I leave it on the bar and rejoin my group. Jeremy and Chase seem to be getting along really well, laughing at the same types of jokes and ribbing Dare with everything they have. Ronin, quieter than the other guys, eyes me as I return. I don’t know Ronin well, but I’ve noticed that his eyes miss nothing. He’s shrewd, and he has a reason for every move he makes.
There’s been more than one friendly gathering where I noticed Ronin and Mea with their heads together. I’m a guy, and I can read the hungry expression in another man’s eyes when it comes to a woman. Back then, there was nothing I could do about it. I’d be restless as hell, wanting to slam my fist into his face just for talking to her with intent, but I couldn’t without looking like an asshole.
That’s not the case now. Mea is mine.
I hand Dare his beer along with a clap on the shoulder, and then I take up a relaxed stance beside Ronin. He acknowledges my presence next to him with an incline of the head, but we both stare straight in front of us.
“What’s up?” I stuff both hands into my pockets, for lack of anything better to do with them other than clenching them tight.
Ronin takes a sip of his highball, swallowing before he speaks. “So. You and Mea? This a new thing?”
My blood heats up as it races through my veins, but I fight to keep my cool. Ronin is asking. There are a lot of guys who wouldn’t do that. They’d just try and take what they want. So I nod.
“Yeah.”
He flicks his mossy eyes toward me quickly before looking away again. But I don’t miss the seriousness in them, the question in his gaze. “Casual?”
I shake my head. He needs to be well aware of where I stand with Mea. Because no guy with brains in his head would turn down a prize like her if he thought he had a chance. “Not for me.” I look at him when I say it, and he turns his head so that our gazes meet.
He stares at me for a minute, and I don’t back down or look away. When he finally gives me one brief nod of his head, I know we have an understanding. “Treat her right.”
Blowing out a quiet breath through pursed lips, I give him a curt nod. “Plan to.”