Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(22)

On the other side of her, Grayson laughed, and in front of me, a sly grin crept onto Olivia’s face. Behind me, the emcee announced the end of Dani’s set, and the realization hit me that I’d missed the whole reason I came out. On today, of all days.

And these jackasses thought it was funny.

Okay.

I glanced down at my half-finished drink, then back up at Olivia. I’d watched plenty of trash reality TV in my free time, and seen those women act up. Enough to think that a drink to a woman’s face because you were upset was a silly thing to do.

So I threw it in Grayson’s stupid, smirking face instead. And while he was coughing and sputtering and cursing about the soda and alcohol burning his eyes, I slammed the glass down on the table, turned to a shocked Olivia, and yanked the bar stool right from under her legs, sending her crashing to the floor.

Now, I had the barstool in my hands. I didn’t plan to do anything with it except put it down, but somebody must have thought different because it was snatched away. A few seconds later, big arms were gripping me from behind, dragging me away from the scene while I wriggled and fought.

“What the hell are you doing?!” A familiar voice demanded.

I was put back on my feet in the crowded back parking lot of the club, and turned to see Devyn’s brother, Eric, standing behind me with an exasperated scowl. He worked security for Refill, and we playfully called him “Big E.” Because, well… he was big. He was also a teddy bear, but he tucked that away here, because this was work. Here, he wasn’t allowing any nonsense to go down.

“Fighting again, Reesie? Is that what’s happening, we’re going back to that now?”

“No, Eric I just—”

“Just what?”

“I wasn’t fighting—”

“It looked like fighting, the way you laid that girl on her ass, and looked like you were about to knock her head in. You’re lucky I’d already spotted you, or no telling what-”

“There’s plenty of telling what!” I screamed, and Eric stopped, putting his hands on his waist. “I’m telling you now, I wasn’t about to do anything to her! I mean… yeah, I threw the drink in his face, and yanked the stool out, but that’s all. And I’m not sorry. I hope her ass bone is sore as fuck tomorrow.”

“Reesie,” Eric scolded, even though he was trying not to laugh. “That’s still not okay. They could press charges, and you’ve worked too hard to get back on track for some bullshit to mess up your life. Right?”

I swallowed hard. “Right.”

He pulled me into a hug, and I settled into his arms. He easily enveloped me in his large frame, squeezing me tight. “I know this time of year is hard for you, but… come on. Don’t self-destruct, aiight?”

I nodded as he let me go, trying my best to blink back tears.

“You’re lucky this happened where it did, so you didn’t have a big audience and make a scene. I’m gonna go back inside, talk to my people, see about smoothing this over. You… go home. Now.”

I let out a deep breath as he went back inside. That little half of a drink had definitely worn off, and now the little bit of a happy vibe I’d been building was completely gone, and I felt like shit.

I shouldn’t have done that.

It wasn’t cool.

But… a little smile crept onto my face at the memory of Olivia’s expression as she fell off that stool. She definitely hadn’t expected me to do that, while she wanted to play smug about screwing my boyfriend. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want him – he was mine until we broke up, officially. I was actually madder at her than I was at Grayson, because you weren’t supposed to do your home girls like that. If it was just some random chick, whatever. But she knew damn well we were together, had asked me about him and all.

I shook my head.

That was probably why she was conveniently clueless the other day. Grayson wasn’t going up there to study law. More like anatomy. Hers.

Oh, and I was pissed at him too. This city was huge – he could have chosen someone else. Or no one else, until he broke up with me because he wasn’t feeling it, because that was what adults with decency did.

You sure weren’t thinking about decency when you were flirting with and – literally – showing Jason Wright your ass.

I stopped in my tracks as I headed down the sidewalk, passing droves of people out to have a good time on Friday night. That was certainly true – I hadn’t been thinking about anything about getting a reaction out of Jason. When I was around him, Gray barely even crossed my mind… but intuition told me he and Olivia had been screwing around long before my eyes started to wander. Not that multiple wrongs meant taking a left made sense, but it certainly made me feel less guilty about it.

But overall… screw both of them. I didn’t need either of those trash bags in my life.

My stomach rumbled a little as I made my way back to my car, and instead of heading back to where I was parked, I went the other direction. The streets got a little emptier, buildings got a little older, people outside got a little more… hood. But that was alright.

I knew exactly where I was going.





seven.





I grinned as soon as I walked into Sammy’s BBQ and bar, inhaling the smoky aroma – a blend of cigars, swishers, and the smoker out back where they prepared the best damned ribs this city had. For a long time, I hadn’t been allowed to come to Sammy’s, specifically because of the “bar” part. My dad would bring the food home to us, but it was well after I was grown that I actually stepped foot inside when it was occupied at night.