On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,90

say.” His brows drew together making him look funny.

“Calli’s father called and upset her so we decided to—”

My hand flew out covering her mouth. “You can go,” I said, trying to sound as sober as possible. “We can call an Uber.”

“There’s some scary guy over there expecting me to give you both a ride home, so not gonna happen, sweet pea. Let’s go.”

“Sweet pea, you call her sweet pea? Oh my god—” I pressed my hand closer to Josie’s lips, trying to drown out her words.

Zach lowered his face, rubbing the back of his neck as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d walked in on. But I saw the trace of a smirk lift the corner of his mouth as he looked at me through his thick lashes.

My stomach clenched.

Damn him.

Why did he have to be standing there looking all gorgeous? Like a handsome white knight sent to save the princess from her ivory tower. I snickered, imagining him riding in on a beautiful horse.

“Horse?” he asked.

Oops.

I must have said that out loud.

“You should have a drink with us, Messiah,” Josie suggested. “One for the road.”

“I think you’ve had enough.” He glanced around the bar before his eyes grazed my face again.

He looked pissed.

“Come on, let’s go.”

“Party pooper.” With a reluctant huff, Josie slid off the stool and stumbled into him. “Oops, I must have tripped.”

“Yeah, I bet you did. What the fuck did you give them?”

“Hey, don’t look at me, man,” Xavier replied. “Your girl can be hella persuasive.”

“Oh, I’m not his—”

“She’s eighteen,” Zach growled.

“It’s a college town, everyone is eighteen. You need a hand with that?”

“I think you’ve done enough.”

“Suit yourself, man.”

“Bye, Xavy wavy, thanks for the drinks,” I sang, climbing down off the stool. Zach tried to help me, but I shooed him off. “I’m fine.”

He grumbled something beneath his breath, but I didn’t catch it over the roar of blood in my ears.

Zach was here... he was here, and he was going to give us a ride home.

Why?

Why was he being so nice all of a sudden, so freaking reasonable?

My head hurt just thinking about it.

“You have a car?” I blurted out, leaning closer to his arm despite refusing his offer of help. I was fine, even if the room was spinning so quick, I felt like I was on a Tilt-A-Whirl.

“Whoa.” I grabbed ahold of his thick bicep, steadying myself.

“You good?” His gruff voice was magnetic, and slowly, I lifted my eyes to his, electricity crackling between us.

“Do you feel that?” I said part-awed, part-freaked the hell out.

“Yeah.” He swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple pressing against his throat. I’d never noticed anyone’s throat before. but Zach had a nice throat, the kind of throat I wanted to lean in and lick.

“Calli?”

His voice startled me, and I blinked up at him. “Y- yeah?”

“You look like you’re about to kiss me… or bite me.”

“I...” Heat rolled through me.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Josie yelled from the door breaking our connection, “let’s roll.”

“Jesus, this isn’t what I had in mind.” Zach went to walk off, but I grabbed his arm again.

“What did you have in mind?”

His eyes grew darker. “Trust me, sweet pea, you don’t want to know.”

Zach

Fuck.

I wanted to kiss her.

I wanted to take Calli in my arms and slide my mouth over hers until we both had no other choice but to use each other for air.

But anger vibrated inside me. She was drunk with Josie at some dive bar on the edge of town.

What the fuck was she doing there?

When Joel had gotten the call, we were all hanging out at the frat house. I didn’t particularly want to be there, but the exhibition game was this weekend. And Brad was right, the team were cautious after Callum and I had gone at it. We’d drunk some beer, shot some pool, and bonded over our hopes and dreams for the upcoming season.

I’d overheard Joel yelling down the phone at someone and tried to do the right thing asking him if everything was okay.

I hadn’t expected him to ask me if I could go pick up Josie and Calli from some biker bar.

We managed to get outside. Calli was still draped over me like a bad rash but Josie seemed okay. “Brad didn’t want to come?” she blurted out.

“I didn’t ask him,” I replied. The second Joel had said the girls were at a bar drunk, I’d hightailed it out of there.

“Oh.” Her expression fell as she stared up at me. “Were you guys—no, don’t answer that. I