Holy shit. I feel like the floor just dropped out from under me. I start to stutter out a reply, but Derek comes back and hands me a beer.
“Here you go, babe,” he says.
“Thanks.”
Braxton walks in and saunters over to our table. He looks fucking amazing in a white t-shirt and jeans. There’s nothing fancy about his clothes, but let’s be honest, you don’t need fancy when you have a body like that. He locks eyes with mine and his lips turn up in a smile.
Oh god, Braxton. Don’t start looking at me like that tonight.
Derek puts an arm around me. He’s not usually very touchy, so it feels possessive.
“Derek,” Braxton says, with a nod. “Good game the other day, man. You’re looking good out there.” He looks from Selene to me. “How are my girls doing tonight?”
Selene shrugs. “Fine. How are you?”
“I’m good,” he says, still smiling. There’s a lot of enthusiasm in his voice.
“Why are you in such a good mood?” Selene asks.
“Am I?” He turns that panty-melting smile on me again. “I’m going to go get a beer.”
I catch a subtle eye roll from Derek as Braxton walks away, and I let out a sigh.
Someone across the bar catches Derek’s eye. “Holy shit,” he says. “I’ll be right back, babe. That’s an old friend of mine from college.” He gets up and walks over to a tall guy standing near the bar. They do the bro hug thing, complete with the over-under arms and a couple of slaps on the back.
“Is it weird that I’ve never met any of Derek’s friends?” I ask Selene when he’s out of earshot.
She glances over at him. “Kind of? Maybe he doesn’t have friends here. He hasn’t lived in Seattle long.”
“Maybe,” I say. “Family either—although I haven’t introduced him to Dad, so I guess I can’t complain about that. But I don’t know anything about his family. He never talks about them.”
“That is kind of odd,” Selene says. She takes a sip of her martini. “Maybe he has a shitty family and he doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Could be.”
The weird thing is, I feel like I don’t know Derek very well at all. Even after dating him for several months, there are still a million things I don’t know. I have the basics—I know where he grew up, and I know a fair bit about his football career. But does he have a best friend? A favorite movie? Has he traveled other than for games? Does he want to? I keep trying to dig deeper, but he’s keeping me at a distance.
Braxton returns, beer in hand, and scoots onto the bench seat next to me. His arm brushes against mine. “This is much better,” he says. “I like it when I have you two to myself.” He turns to me. “Hey, baby girl. It’s been too long. I’ve missed you.”
He’s so close, it’s hard to think. “Yeah, me too.”
Selene dips her fingers in her ice water and flicks them at Braxton. “Cool it off, buddy.”
“What?” he asks.
“You know what,” she says.
There’s an edge to her voice that makes me want to scoot away from him—although I’m not sure I can.
Braxton winks at her. “So, how’s the design stuff coming, Ky?”
“Actually, I landed a new client today,” I say. “It’s a small app development company, but they need everything—logo, website, the works. They seem like they’ll be a lot of fun to work with.”
He nudges me with his arm. “That’s great. I’m really proud of you.”
Warmth spreads through me and I smile, basking in his approval. “Thanks, Brax.”
“You know what this calls for?” he asks. “A celebration.”
“Oh, come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” I say. “I’m still a long way from doing this full-time.”
“That might be true, but we should still celebrate the little things,” he says.
“Yeah, Kylie,” Selene says. “You should be proud of yourself. You weren’t even doing this a year ago, and now look at you.”
“Exactly,” Braxton says. He nudges me again. “I’ll be right back.”
I take a quick breath to get rid of the tingly feeling where Braxton’s arm touched mine. Selene watches him, her eyebrows drawn together, as he goes back to the bar. She hates it when he flirts with me like that—always has.
I brush my hair back from my forehead. I don’t know if it’s because Braxton was sitting so close to me, but I’m feeling warm and flushed. I glance over at Derek, but he’s wrapped up in conversation with his old friend. I hate to admit it, but I’m glad he’s not here. It feels good to be with just Braxton and Selene again. It’s been too long.
Braxton comes back, and a minute later the bartender brings three tequila shots on a tray, along with a little plate of sliced limes and a salt shaker.
“Thank you, my good man,” Braxton says. He passes out the shot glasses, and we all take a slice of lime and put a little salt on our hand, next to our thumb.
We hold up our shot glasses.