Pretty Sweet - Christina Lee Page 0,88

place afterward.

Yeah, I’ll be there. I love watching you play.

I smiled. How had this become my life? I’d looked at Jesse or people like Skylar and wanted things they had, but never thought I’d have it. Now, now I was going to take it. I’m gonna get ready with Jesse tonight. I’ll see you when you get there. I hit Send, then added, Miss you.

Miss you too.

I looked up at Jesse, who was watching me. “You’re so totally in love with him.”

“I am.”

“Have you told him?”

“Not yet. I… What if he doesn’t feel the same?”

“Then he’s crazy. He’d be a fool not to love you, but I have a feeling your big, protective teddy bear is as gone for you as you are him.”

I hoped so, and maybe tonight I’d tell him how I felt.

34

Jake

“Earth to Jake,” Mia said.

I glanced up from my phone after responding to Seth’s text and blinked. “Christ, sorry.”

She had been trying to tell me about a big shipment that’d come into the garage, and I had totally spaced out on her. I’d been doing that a bit too much lately, like my head was somewhere up in the clouds.

She quirked a brow. “Got something or someone on your mind?”

A blush crawled over my cheeks. “Busted.”

“Seth?” she asked. “Everything good in romance land?”

“Everything’s great,” I admitted. After our weekend away, everything felt more real between us, like we were building something solid.

After work, I went home to shower and change, feeling way less nervous than the last time I went to the Playground by myself. By now I was more confident in my own skin.

Once I found a parking space, I got in the long line and waited, feeding off the buzzing energy of the others in front and behind me. Just as I was about to pass the man taking IDs, I was forced back onto the street by two bouncers dragging a big guy out the door. I stiffened as I watched the man twisting in their grasp and cursing, very obviously drunk. Damn, he must’ve gotten an early start.

And I was suddenly assaulted by the memory of my father being kicked out of a bar for disorderly conduct. Mom and I had pulled into the parking lot, and the owner, who knew my father well by then, had given us the choice of calling the cops or taking him home to sober up. I wanted his ass to sit in a jail cell overnight, but Mom had vetoed me, hoping to avoid involvement from the police and his possible retaliation the following day. He was already passed out in the back seat by the time the decision was made. Thinking about how he’d ruined so many of our fucking nights had me rattled. I turned away from the disturbance, not wanting this to be another one.

Once inside, I worked my way through the packed bar, my gaze landing on Skylar on one of the risers, shirtless and in tight shorts. He gyrated his hips before bending over and shaking his ass toward his many admirers below. I smirked. Definitely sex-positive, like Seth had said. And hell, picturing Seth shaking his cute little butt at me the other night while I played back there would only serve to make my jeans uncomfortable, so I kept moving.

This time when I got interested looks, I didn’t shy away like last time. I held my head high and smiled without giving anyone the wrong idea. There was only one person on my mind tonight.

I gave the password at the door to the bouncer with the purple Mohawk—I’d made sure to look for it on Instagram—and he let me pass through. Once again, I was struck by the understated atmosphere, which immediately calmed my racing pulse.

Scanning the tables, which were near capacity, I strode toward a recently vacated barstool and sank down, grateful for a place to sit while I waited for the show to begin.

“Hey there,” Dane said, placing a bar napkin in front of me. “Nice to see you. Beer?”

I nodded. “Please.”

He served me, and we made small talk. I took a couple of hearty sips, then sat back and surveyed my surroundings. Dane moved down the bar to speak to an older couple I remembered from my last visit, and the guys beside me were discussing what type of men they enjoyed hooking up with. I sympathized when one of them complained about never finding anything meaningful, and smirked when his friend asked why he