fall onto her couch and rest my head on Jax’s shoulder. He drapes his legs over my knees and gets comfortable. I could sleep right here. Right now. Sleep all night…
“Call Kent,” Sophie suggests, joining us.
“Kent,” I grumble. “You call him.”
“All right. I will.” She gets up and a minute later she returns with my purse and phone. “Kent? Hey, this is Sophie. Raina’s friend. Come and get us. We’re too walk to drunk. I mean to walk. I mean we’re drunk.” She cackles. “You want to talk to Raina? She’s with Jax right now. Let’s FaceTime.” She points the phone at Jax and I snuggled together on the couch.
I try to see the screen but it’s too far away. Giving up, I rest my head back on Jax’s shoulder.
“That’s what I thought,” Sophie says to him. “I don’t know. They might have. She’s pretty smashed. You’ll be here in ten minutes? Cool.” She hangs up and hands me the phone. “Unrequited my ass. Jax, you should leave.”
“No!” I whine. “He’s my pillow.”
Sophie sits down next to me and holds the phone to my eyes. There’s a text from Kent.
Kent: Kiss the fucker goodbye.
“What fucker?” I ask stupidly. I feel stupid right now.
“You’ll thank me later.” She kisses my cheek as she texts something back to him and then erases the conversation. She turns it off and returns my phone back to my purse, grinning at me. “You’re so pretty, Raina.”
“Back off. I’m with Jax now.” I wrap my arms around his neck and he chuckles drunkenly in my ear.
“The closer you get, the harder he’s going to hurt.”
“Who?” I ask, feeling stupid again.
For hours, minutes or seconds, I can’t tell, we sit there spinning, having disjointed drunken conversations about things I cannot remember.
“Where is she?” A deep familiar voice rumbles from somewhere in the house.
Beside me Sophie is bouncing with excitement.
“In the living room,” Sam answers.
All of a sudden Kent busts into the room. I gasp at him and lift my head from Jax’s shoulder. “Kent?”
“Who the hell is he?” he demands of me.
I smile at Jax and kiss his cheek. “He’s my friend. Huh, Jax?”
“Answer that and I’ll rip you in half.” Kent stomps into the room and grabs my arm roughly, yanking me out of Jax’s arms and to my feet. “Let’s go, Rain.”
“Kent,” I whine. “It’s just Jax.”
“Fuck Jax. Let’s go. Where’s your purse?”
“Fuck me? Who do you think you are?” Jax pushes to his feet and shoves at Kent’s chest.
Kent stares at him impassively. “Move, Rain.” He shoves me back to Sophie, who wraps her arms around me. I don’t understand what’s happening until Kent punches Jax in the face. Jax crumbles to the ground like a rag doll and doesn’t get back up.
Kent turns back to me, calm as a clear blue day. “Where’s your purse?”
“I’ve got it,” Sophie supplies.
“Is Jax okay?” He’s snoring on the ground and Samantha is in hysterics, trying to rouse him. I try to go to him but Kent grabs my hand and pulls me until I’m thrown over his shoulder. I hang there, limp and confused.
“Peace out, Sam. See you on Wednesday,” Sophie calls pleasantly as we leave.
A familiar silver truck idles in the driveway. Kent walks around it with me over his shoulder and then shifts my body so he’s cradling me against his chest. He looks down at me in anger before gently setting me in the middle of the seat. As he walks around front, Sophie crawls in beside me.
“So hot,” she whispers.
Kent gets in, lifting his fine ass inside of the truck. Before we leave he buckles me in. As he does so I touch his handsome face, holding his strong jaw between my fingers. He looks me in the eye. “Hi,” I whisper.
He rolls his eyes at me. “Hi, Rain. Don’t puke in here. James will kill me. That goes for you too,” he warns, pointing at Sophie.
She puts her hand up. “I’m good. Are you good, Raina?”
“I’m hungry.”
She giggles. “Me too. I could go for some of those hot wings Joaquin makes.”
“Mmm,” I moan. “Right? The garlic wings.”
“With some blue cheese dressing with a side of birthday cake.”
“Oh man, that sounds good. With a corndog. I want a piece of pizza.”
“Pizza has too many calories.”
“Calories shmalories,” I slur.
“You two sound ridiculous. Where do you live?”
Sophie rattles off an address and I lean my head against Kent’s shoulder. I’m in a weird space of being drunk where I’m cognizant, but confused. He lifts