“You too, actually. You look very Ruckish or Rucklike or something.”
I shook my head and glanced at my panic-ridden girlfriend. She couldn’t see it like I could—she was too nervous. This was like watching a bad spoof film of Ruck’s and Rose’s lives where the blind were leading the blind. We would never have reacted like this to seeing one another. Not in a million years.
Thatch’s laugh was boisterous, his body nearly falling into my lap with the action. Turning his face to mine, he mouthed “name” quickly. I had to fight the urge to sigh. If it wouldn’t have been a spectacular failure and an embarrassment for Georgia, I would have told everyone to give it up right then.
Instead, I typed out Rose on my phone and showed it to him quickly.
“Rose!” Thatch practically shouted. Cassie nodded along while Georgie’s eyebrows pulled unconsciously together. She was rightfully confused. “I thought that was you, Rose! I can’t believe how beautiful you are in person, Rose!”
I discreetly elbowed Thatch in the ribs. “Say her name one more time and I’ll kill you,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
He grimaced and shut his mouth.
“What’s going on?” Will asked, the spectacle apparently just as confusing from the outside looking in.
“I was wondering the same thing,” I said, playing along.
“It, um,” Georgia mumbled. “It seems like they know one another or something.”
“Thatch and Cass?” Will asked, confused.
“Yeah,” Cassie confirmed. “We’ve been talking online ever since he sent me a picture of his big, ugly dick.”
Will jerked in surprise. “What?”
“It wasn’t his,” I interjected at the same time Thatch taunted through a smile, “Well, you’ve got the big part right.”
Georgie’s eyes came to me.
“Or so I’ve heard,” I added.
She looked upset. “He talks to you about it? What…” She paused and swallowed. “About what they say?”
God, this was horrible. I hated this and myself and every-fucking-body right now.
“No, baby. That’s the only thing he told me,” I assured her, digging my fucking grave a couple of feet deeper.
The urge to flee was strong, but we’d literally just fucking gotten there. To hell.
The Raines Law Room was definitely what hell looked like. The devil and fire and the roaring fucking twenties.
She’d confided in Ruck, and she felt badly about what that meant to her relationship with me. I could see it written in cursive, scribbled and scrawled all over her beautiful face as she warred with herself about not wanting me to know the things she’d told him and feeling like a liar and a cheat for having hidden something behind my back in the first place.
It made me sick inside, twisted the lining of my stomach and my intestines alike, and I just barely managed to stop myself from jetting to the bathroom for reprieve.
But my face was her lifeline in this situation, for as much as she feared being outed, every smile I gave her was a comfort. I refused to leave her on her own in this stormy sea to float and flounder.
Bottom line, Rose would have ditched Ruck ages ago if I hadn’t twisted every conversation to my advantage. I was the guilty party here.
As Thatch started to flirt, I pulled my attention from Georgia long enough to tell him to pump the fucking brakes. One comment about her tits and the ruse would be roasted.
“Ruck and Rose are friends. Ruck’s dating someone else, and Rose is a virgin for fuck’s sake,” I informed him. “Lay the hell off.”
Wild eyes jumped to mine. I wanted to shove the words back in as soon as they escaped.
“Excuse us for a second,” Thatch said with a smile, dragging me from the couch and over to the bar in a way no one else could.
My ass hit the stool in front of him and he leaned in menacingly.
“You better start talking, dude. I’m fucking dying over there in the name of your two-timing ass, and you can’t take your eyes off of your girlfriend long enough to save me.”
I shook my head.
“What the fuck is up? If that woman is a virgin, I’ll freeze my fucking nuts off with one of those wart removers.”
I grimaced.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Not a pretty fucking picture. So tell me, what’s the real deal here?”
I considered it for a second, what it would hurt if I told him versus what he would hurt if I didn’t. I decided I liked all of my bones like they were. And anything I told him to keep to himself, I knew he would.
“Georgie is Rose, not Cassie. But she doesn’t know I know that, and she doesn’t know I’m Ruck.”
“Jesus.” He put his face in his hands and rubbed at his temples. “You don’t pay me enough for this level of complication.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not here as an employee. You’re here as a friend. And I didn’t invite you, if you’ll remember. I tried to get you the fuck out of here before they got here.”
“All right, all right, I get it. You and Georgie need to leave or something. I can’t keep this shit up, but I can’t abandon you either.”
“Noble of you.”
“Duh, dude. My character is top of the pyramid.”