Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,80
him here when he’s with his buddies might be a bad decision. I hope I’m not subconsciously doing this as a reason to beat his ass—allowing his friends to swarm me just so I can claim I had to stand up for myself.
As I wind my way through the tables, he spots me before any of his friends. A long stare over the top of his beer glass, perusing me as if I might have a weapon on me or something. What is he thinking? We were friends—are, I suppose, just not how it used to be—and I want to make it clear about Stella and me.
“Can we talk?” I ask.
He finishes his beer, his eyes never leaving mine. A few buddies turn, but I don’t know any of them and I’m sure they don’t know me. But I’m still cautious, because if they’re true friends, when he throws a punch, they’ll be there to back him up.
We made amends years ago after we rolled down a set of stairs and I threw away my shot to be with Stella. I have to think we can do the same now.
He sets his mug on the table, throws money on the bar, and leads the way outside.
“Are you here to issue a warning? Stay away from your girl or else? I thought you were more original than that,” he says.
I shake my head, burying my hands in my pockets of my jacket because it’s fucking freezing out. “I want to apologize. It was wrong for you to find out about Stella and me like that.”
“You’re apologizing. And what? You want me to apologize again to you for what went down in high school?”
“Hell no. That’s ancient history and we put it behind us while she was in New York. But I also understand how hard it is to watch her with someone else. And I should’ve warned you when we started seeing one another. I shouldn’t have let you be blindsided.”
He leans on the railing and I keep my distance. The words sound good, but Owen is temperamental. It takes very little to set him off, and I want to be able to react if need be.
“You think I care about some girl I nailed in high school? Give me a break, Bailey.”
I say nothing to refute his words about nailing Stella. I trust that she told me the truth. I’ll let Owen have that one if it makes him feel better.
“I think Stella has been different things to us,” I say. “To you, she was something you had that I wanted. To me, she was more.”
He looks out at the lake. “You know what your problem is, Bailey? You’re too fucking sentimental. You think she’s going to stick around? She’s a doctor, for fuck’s sake. You’re a smoke jumper. Hell, I probably make more money than you.”
I don’t take the bait he’s slinging. I just want this over with to clear my own conscience because of how backstabbed I felt in high school when he asked her to homecoming. Clearing the air with him felt like the right thing to do.
“I guess I’ll find out. I just wanted to apologize, so I’ll go now.” I turn to leave.
“Bailey,” he says. I look over my shoulder and his hands are shoved in his pockets. “I hope she’s everything you think she is.”
I circle back around. “What does that mean?”
He laughs. “Jesus, stop protecting her. I just meant you put her on this shelf so high up… maybe she won’t live up to what you’ve idolized her to be.”
She already has.
She’s everything I want.
Everything I need.
“That’s not something you have to worry about.”
“I didn’t mean it in an asshole way. I really do hope it works out for the two of you. But you’re wrong—she wasn’t just some trophy to steal away from you.”
He’s piqued my interest. I break the distance, wanting him to expand. “Really?”
“At first, she might’ve been, but do you think I would have dated her that long just to stick it to you? My intention was only to take her to homecoming, but before I knew it, I liked her. But it was a hard pill to swallow that she was into you. Every time I was with her, she’d ask about you, tell me to fix what went wrong with us. Then the night of the fight, well…”
He apologized to me months later, when the town was sparse because most of our graduating class had gone to