Living Out Loud (Austen, #3)(47)

I waved her off. “Keep it.”

She took the map back with her cheer fading. “All right. Thanks.” Her gaze met Will’s. “I’ll be right back.”

He offered her a winning smile. “I’ll be right here.”

She floated away, leaving us alone.

Will Bailey and I stared each other down for a solid count of five before I turned to leave, unwilling to give him any more of my energy than I had to. And by energy, I meant full and unadulterated rage.

“Do you like her?” he asked my back.

I stopped dead and turned around slow, flattening him with a heavy glare. “Looks like she’s with you.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I don’t owe you anything, especially not an answer. You didn’t deserve my sister, and you don’t deserve Annie either.”

“What’s your problem, Brandon?”

My teeth ground together so hard, my jaw ached. “Don’t ask questions you know the answers to.”

He shook his head. “It’s been a long time since Sarah, and I’m not the same guy I was. Annie’s different—I know you see it too. I’m not going to hurt her.”

“Let me tell you something, Bailey.” My hands fisted, quieting their trembling by force. “If you do, I will end you. Do you hear me?”

His eyes narrowed, but he nodded once.

“Good.” I turned, storming away with thunder at my back.

“But don’t get in my way,” he said from behind me, bringing me to a halt. “If you think it hurts now, just remember—I can make it so much worse.”

I didn’t acknowledge his words with a response, but they sank into my veins with an icy chill that did little to cool the fire in my chest.

Annie was heading toward me, but I didn’t slow down.

“Hey, Cam wanted to see you,” she said as I approached, her coat hanging over her forearms and her brow curious.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

I marched to the back of the store as she called Bye after me.

Once in the back and away from them, I felt better by a small degree. I was even able to stop considering all the ways I could murder Will and the places where I could dump his body. In the office, Rose was sitting in front of her laptop across from Cam, who was kicked back in her rolling chair with her Chucks on the surface of her desk and a lollipop in her mouth.

She smiled around it, the white stick hooked in the corner of her lips. “What’s up, man?”

I relaxed my clamped jaw. “Nothing. You wanted to see me?”

Her smile faded, and Rose turned to look at me. Both of them wore discerning expressions.

“Well,” Cam started, “I was going to ask you if you could send me the bar schedule for next week, but now I’m gonna insist you tell me what’s the matter.”

“Yes, I’ll send you the schedule, and I really don’t want to talk right now.”

One eyebrow rose, and she nodded to a chair next to their desks with authority that brooked no argument.

I rolled my eyes and sighed, dropping into the chair. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Rose closed her laptop and rested her elbow on her desk. “Is this about Annie?” she asked plainly.

“Well, she’s with that fucking douchebag!” I spouted, flinging a hand back in the direction I’d come from. “I mean, of all the guys in New York, she had to find him.”

Cam moved her feet to the ground and reached into a jar on her desk, her hand reappearing with a purple lollipop, which she extended to me. “Here. You need this.”

I took it, tugging at the cellophane wrapper before popping it into my mouth. It really did make me feel a little better. Or maybe my mouth just needed something to do so it would shut the fuck up already.

Either way, when I spoke again, it was with a little more control. “He’s not a good guy. I know because he dated my sister.”

I told them an abbreviated version of what had happened with Sarah, and their faces grew heavier with every word.

“Okay, I see the problem,” Cam started. “And we all know you’re into Annie.”

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

“Like a blinking neon sign, dude,” Rose said, opening and closing her hands at me like they were in fact blinking lights.

I sighed and closed my lips around the sucker stick, working that candy like I might find answers in the middle. “I had this big, stupid plan to take her out today, but he was here to take her on a fucking date. A date! And now I feel like a fool and a creep and a loser while she’s fawning over that asshole.”

“Are they together?” Rose asked.

“I mean, they’ve known each other for, like, five minutes. They’ve never even been on a date—until today.” I sulked.

Cam nodded. “Then there’s still time. You just need a plan. I don’t think you’re wrong to want to get her away from him. And I’ve seen you two together at work. It’s obvious you guys have chemistry.”

“Cam,” Rose warned.

“What?” she asked innocently. “You even said you saw it too, so don’t act like I’m off base.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying,” Cam said, turning back to me, “until it’s, like, official, I feel like you’ve got some wiggle room. You could ask her to the historical costume mixer. I know she loves historicals, so I have a feeling she’d be way into it.”