Well Played (Well Met #2)(73)

Two DIY shows in, he levered himself off the bed to pour another drink, finally cracking into the small bottle of rum he’d bought a couple weekends ago. But he frowned into the ice bucket. “We’re already out of ice?”

“Those things are so small. I’ll go get some more.” I got up, stretching out my back. It had gotten kinked up from curling against Daniel for the better part of an hour.

He waved me off. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll go.” He took the ice bucket and left the room, propping the door open behind him with the bolt. I channel-surfed for a couple minutes before draining the rest of my own drink, then opened the mini-fridge to see there was only one can of Coke left. I knew I should have brought more. I rummaged in my purse for a few dollars. There was a vending machine near the ice machine; I could just catch up with Daniel and grab a few more sodas.

There was a murmur of voices in the hallway through the partially open door, but it wasn’t until I’d opened the door all the way that I realized the voices were Dex and Daniel, a little way down the hall.

“. . . do that thing with her tongue? She’s pretty good at that.”

“Stop it.” Daniel’s voice was hushed yet vehement. “It’s not like that.”

A full-body tingle cascaded over me as I realized they were talking about me.

“Not like what? You’re banging her, right? I saw you at Faire with her last weekend.” Dex looked over his shoulder toward Daniel’s room—toward me—and I ducked back into the room, heart pounding as I moved the door back into a half-closed position. I shouldn’t be hearing this. Nothing good was going to come from listening to this conversation. I should close the door, but I couldn’t move. My feet were rooted to the floor, dollar bills clenched in my fist, while the MacLeans talked about, well, me.

“Don’t . . .” Daniel sighed, a long-suffering sigh that I’d gotten to know pretty well. He used it a lot when he talked about his cousins. Talked to his cousins. “It’s not like that,” he said again, his voice almost pleading. “She’s special.”

Dex laughed, and I flinched at the sound. “I’m not hating on you. I think it’s great. I’m just . . . I dunno. Surprised. You could have given me the heads-up that you were gonna handle it that way.”

I caught my breath and inched the door open a little more so I could see them better. Handle what? Handle me?

Out in the hallway Daniel threw up his hands, looking angrier than I’d ever seen him. He wasn’t an angry kind of guy. “What the fuck do you care, man? You asked me to take care of your problem and I did. Just like I’ve taken care of everything else for you for the last twelve years.”

Dex held up his hands. “Hey. It’s fine by me. In fact, I’m impressed. Totally giving you props for the way you did it. Getting her out of my hair. Managed to get a little something for yourself on the side, that’s great. In fact . . .”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I pushed the door open and stepped out into the hallway. Both men saw me immediately. Dex dropped his hands and raised his eyebrows, but all I could see was Daniel. Wide eyes, stricken expression. He knew I’d heard everything. It had to be obvious from the look on my face.

“I was . . .” My voice didn’t work, so I had to clear my throat and try again. “I was a problem?” I drew a shaky breath and looked at Dex. “I was in your hair?”

Daniel opened his mouth, closed it. Surprisingly Dex jumped in, the sudden voice of reason in this conversation. “Naw, Stace. You were great. Honest. We had fun, right?” He nodded encouragingly in response to my own dumb nod. “But then you got kinda clingy last year, sending messages and shit. And you’re a really nice girl, so I didn’t want to just be all ‘fuck off with that.’ So I asked Daniel to do it.”

“Wait. You put him up to it?” This was new information. I flashed back to almost a year ago. That first drunken message, fueled by a little too much wine and way too much loneliness. How different would everything have been if Daniel had just done what he’d been told? If he’d sent back a nice rejection, letting me down easy. Would it have hurt as much then as it hurt right now?

But something about all this didn’t add up. Something about all this made it even worse. I looked back at Daniel. “You said it was an honest mistake. You said you didn’t realize the message was for Dex.”

“He said that?” Dex laughed. It was practically a guffaw, a living thing that swirled around Daniel and me, bouncing off the walls of the hallway while we stared at each other. “Well, he’s full of shit. He showed me the message and asked me what I wanted to do about it. I told him to handle it.”

“Yeah. You said that already. Handle it.” I nodded slowly. “Handle me.”

“Well, yeah. You know, let you down easy. He’s better with words and stuff than I am . . .” He trailed off, and for the first time in this conversation, Dex looked uncomfortable. He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked from me to Daniel and back again. “That’s what he did, right? Told you I wasn’t into you like that? He said he was going to . . .”

“Yeah.” I cut Dex off. I didn’t want to hear any more. Not from him. Not from Daniel, who in all of this hadn’t said a word. He just continued to watch me with pleading eyes, as though his house of cards was falling down. “Yeah,” I said again. “He knew just what to say.” I turned and went back into Daniel’s room. My overnight bag was still on the chair, not even unpacked yet, so it wasn’t like I had to get my stuff together. That last can of soda was all his. I scooped my phone off the nightstand and tossed it into my purse. There. I was ready to go.