Mercy (Salacious Players Club, #4)(43)

When no one’s looking, she reaches over and snatches a piece of cheese from my plate.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” I reply quietly with a joking tone, “get your own.”

She’s wearing an adorable grin as she pops the Brie in her mouth and chases it with a sip of wine.

“Okay, seriously, we should both mingle so it doesn’t look suspicious.”

My shoulders deflate as I glance around the yard, absolutely no one of interest sticking out to me. “I don’t want to. I hung out with you at the last party.”

“Exactly,” she replies. “It’s starting to look like something is going on between us.”

“Something is going on between us,” I reply, and that makes her pause, glaring at me with intensity. I can’t tell if that made her nervous or mad. Since I’m not looking for any more punishment right now, I hold my hands up in surrender. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that, I reluctantly leave her standing against the fence and make my way over to the food table. My dad clearly didn’t invite any relatives, not that I would want to talk to any of them anyway. And since he’s too engrossed in watching his bride-to-be get spoiled rotten, I do a solo meander around the crowd. I wave at Sophie, who is sitting next to her mom, helping take photos and looking as if she’s being held hostage. She looks as desperate to ditch this soiree as I am.

Maybe once this present business is through, she and I can escape. I’m sure she’d rather check out the new merch at the comic book store than be here. I realize I’ve barely seen her since I started working at Maggie’s. Apparently, she got a new ride to D&D night…and I can’t say I’m surprised. I just hope it’s not that wizard dickhead.

“Beau?” A feminine voice says from behind me, and I turn to face a woman about my age with long brown hair and a loose-fitting dress.

I smile politely at her, and although she looks mildly familiar, I couldn’t place her face if you held a knife to my throat.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” She smiles brightly, showing off white teeth and fluttering her thick lashes.

“I’m sorry…” I reply apologetically.

“It’s okay. I’m Charlie’s cousin. We met once at her birthday party when you two were dating.”

“Oh yeah. Courtney?” I ask.

“Caitlin.”

“Shit. I’m sorry,” I say with a laugh. “It’s been a long time.”

She giggles, tilting her head and jutting her hip out as she bites her lip. “So how have you been?”

“Um…” I scratch the back of my neck. How the fuck do I answer that?

“I’m sorry…stupid question.” Her smile dissipates as her eyes dance their way over to Charlie and my dad.

“Yeah,” I reply awkwardly.

“That must have been hard to get used to.”

“A little.” I force a playful laugh as I shuffle my feet.

“Are you still working at the coffee shop?” she asks, gracefully changing the subject.

“Fuck no.” That was, like…four jobs ago, but I don’t include that part. “I mean…no, I’m working as a handyman at the moment.”

“Oh, that’s good!” she says with enthusiasm.

“What about you?” I ask because it sounds like the right thing to say to further the conversation.

“I’m still working at the gym, although my boyfriend and I broke up. You met him at that party too.”

“Oh,” I say, my brow furrowing as I try to remember. But nothing is coming up. There’s a good chance I was high.

When I glance up, she’s staring at me with a loaded gaze. I swallow as I realize she’s flirting with me. And she probably shared that part about her breaking up with her boyfriend for a reason.

I force a smile as I stare at her, realizing this is exactly the kind of girl I might have tried to hook up with. It would have been easy, too. A quick hookup and maybe a little fling, but it would have inevitably ended in an ugly breakup and her hating my guts.

“Are you…seeing anyone?” she asks, casually sipping on her drink.

“Um…no,” I stammer, because, technically, no one is supposed to know about me and Maggie.

All of a sudden, I look up and find Maggie’s blue eyes in the crowd. She’s staring at me, but clearly trying not to be obvious about it. As she glances away, I wish she would just look at me again because I clearly do not know how I’m supposed to act right now.

Then I get a wicked idea. I am a brat, after all.

Knowing Maggie is watching, I look back at Caitlin with a smoldering, half-smile that she immediately matches with her own.

“So…you work at a gym, huh? I bet you get hit on all the time.” I shoot her a subtle wink, and she lets out a loud giggle that I know can be heard all the way across the yard. In my periphery, I notice Maggie’s head snap up, staring in our direction.

“I do not,” Caitlin replies with a laugh.

“No? I don’t believe it.”

“You’re bad,” she says, blushing as she curls her hair behind her ear.

While Caitlin goes into some story about the gym, I stop paying attention, glancing at Maggie every chance I get. She’s deep in conversation with someone I don’t know, her fingers delicately resting on her lips as she smiles at them, and I can tell how restless she is. Her eyes dance back and forth between me and the person talking to her.