gospel’s truth, she slumps back into her seat with her eyes fixed on the hood of the car.
“You curse too much,” she finally says after an infernal, pregnant pause.
“Sorry,” I mumble in defeat, turning my own body forward in my seat.
“No, Finn. Don’t apologize for who you are. I was just making an observation.”
“Oh.”
I poke my tongue to my inner cheek as the awful silence returns. She’s clasping her hands over her bare knees, while I crack my knuckles, hating she’s decided not to say anything else, obviously waiting for me to be the one to take the lead.
Fuck it. Here goes nothing.
“It’s from being with guys all the time. The cursing, I mean. You know… football banter, locker room talk, and all that nonsense. Plus it doesn’t help I’m also the youngest of three boys. There has always been a lot of cursing at my house. It’s all the testosterone, I guess.”
“I bet your momma loves that,” she chimes in, and a flicker of hope springs free when I see her lip twitch in amusement.
“No, Ma’am. I wouldn’t dare cuss in front of my momma. Not if I didn’t want to get slapped upside the head for it. Or worse, have her clean my mouth with a bar of soap. I’ve seen her do it, too. My brother Calvin was burping soap suds for weeks after blurting out ‘shit’ in front of her, and he was already married at the time.”
The melodic laugh that ensues from the girl next to me makes my heart skip a few beats. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard Stone laugh, and surprisingly enough, it gives her such a youthful glow that it takes me by surprise a little. I don’t know if it’s her hard, mean exterior or the piercings and tattoos, but her laugh reminds me that she’s just a girl, barely in her twenties, on the brink of starting her life. There’s still so much innocence the world hasn’t taken away from her yet—something that can only be perceived by her carefree laughter.
Fuck.
I hope I don’t change that. It would be a travesty to tarnish something that pure and untouched.
“Okay, so we’ve established you don’t date. I get it. I’m not much for it either. But I do like to have fun, though. So tell me, pretty boy, do you want to salvage the night and have some fun?”
She cranes her head my way with sultry mischief in her eyes, and because that one look could probably get her anything out of me, I repeatedly nod like the fool that I am.
“Good,” she exclaims, slapping my knee. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Before I have time even to utter a word, she’s already out the door, sashaying her fine ass back to the bar from cockroach hell. Thankfully, I don’t have to wait too long for her return. Not even five minutes later, she’s back with a wide grin on her face and a plastic bag in each hand. She slams the door again, making me cringe in my seat. But I don’t dare say anything of it since it looks like the night is finally going in my favor.
“What do you have there?” I nudge her bags, hearing the clink of bottles brushing together.
“Finn, meet Jack and Jose—my two favorite men. A crappy date is never as bad when I’ve got these guys to fall back on.” She pokes her pierced tongue at me with a sassy wink.
“Glad to see you have a plan B.” I chuckle.
“You think this is plan B? Aw, you’re cute when you’re naive. This is plan A, baby. You are just here as my side entertainment.”
I laugh harder because the girl sure is cocky as fuck. And wouldn’t you know it, I kind of dig that about her.
I take a minute to think to myself where we can go to break the seal on the bottles. There is only one place I can think of that feels right to me. I’ve never really taken anyone there, but somehow, the idea of Stone seeing it excites me.
“I know where I want to take you.”
“Do you, now? Just came to you, did it?”
“Yep.” I chuckle, turning on the ignition. “Keep those two bad boys in check. We can get our drink on when we arrive, not before.”
“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, darlin’. I’ve got these two well taken care of,” she retorts playfully with the whole southern twang on her drawl.