Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1)(66)

I frowned. “What does that mean? Am I that difficult?”

“No. It’s just that you’ve set your sights on one guy you met years ago when you were a kid. You don’t even glance at the guys who check you out. It’s like you don’t care what anyone thinks.”

He was wrong. I cared what he thought. Once I met him, Reece was the only one I even considered when I decided I needed to hone my foreplay skills. He was all that I seemed to see.

Deciding not to debate that point, I warily assessed the burger. “How do I even eat that?”

“You gotta just attack it. It’s the only way.”

Nodding with resolve, I picked up the massive burger and tackled it with my teeth.

Reece chuckled as I chewed the mouthful and grabbed for a napkin, wiping off the juices from my lips and chin.

“Nice,” he said in approval and leaned in and planted a kiss on my lips before I even saw it coming. It was quick and careless, and my heart raced.

Swallowing my bite, I shook my head. “Tell me you don’t eat like this every day. You’ll have a heart attack before you’re thirty.”

“Not every day, no. And I work out. Up until I dropped out of college, I played soccer.”

“In college?”

He nodded, avoiding my gaze as he gathered the burger up into his hands. I thought back to what he’d told me about his dad. How he’d come home after the accident. He’d given up college—soccer—to take care of him. Out of loyalty and guilt.

“I still play. Coach a boys’ team twice a week and play in a rec league on Sundays. I run every morning, too.” He looked me over in appreciation. “What about you? You look in shape.”

I snorted. “I walk around campus and chase toddlers at the daycare. Nothing more rigorous than that.”

“You should run with me sometime.”

Normally the suggestion would have made me laugh, but staring into his blue eyes I thought I might actually like to try it.

Picking up another fry, I nodded. “Maybe I’ll try.”

“You’ll get to love it. Your body will miss it when you skip a day.”

The back door slammed open right then. I looked up, startled. There was a commotion that sounded like something hitting the wall. A man in a wheelchair rolled into sight. Reece tensed beside me.

The man’s hair was long and looked decidedly unclean. He wore a black Pink Floyd T-shirt. Even in blue jeans, his legs looked thin from lack of use. His tattooed arms were muscular as they pushed at the wheels of his chair, propelling him forward.

Reece rose to his feet beside me and made his way across the room. “Dad.”

His father’s gaze snapped to him and the fierceness of his expression blossomed into outright rage. “There you are, you little f*ck.”

I jerked like I felt the slap of those words, even though they had been directed at Reece.

Reece’s shoulders locked tight, revealing that he wasn’t totally unaffected, either.

“Nice to see you, too, Dad. What are you doing here?”

“Thought you could keep me cooped up in that house, huh? Didn’t think I could find a way here. Logan drove me over. He’s parking the car.”

Reece sent me an unreadable look. Part of me knew I should leave, that he was probably embarrassed for me to witness this drama, but I couldn’t budge from my spot at the table.

“If you wanted to come here, I would have brought you.”

“Yeah. Right.” His father held up a crumpled flyer, brandishing it in the air. “What’s this, you little shit?”

Was there a moment when he didn’t call his son an obscenity? Each word made me flinch and shrink inside myself. Just like when I was a little girl. I couldn’t escape it then. All I could do was clutch Purple Bear and shut my eyes and pretend I was somewhere else.

“Looks like a flyer for our Tuesday promotion. Ten-cent wings.”

“You’re giving away food. You’re going to run us out of business.”

Reece’s sigh reached my ears. “It’s good marketing, Dad. We triple our Tuesday night customers. Alcohol sales more than make up for—”

Mr. Mulvaney wadded up the flyer and threw it at his son. It bounced off Reece’s chest. “You talk to me before you make a decision like this, you little f*ck!”

Reece’s hands clenched into fists at his sides, but otherwise he made no move. Logan entered the room, his steps slowing as he took in the scene.

“Logan mentioned you’re looking into expanding.” Logan’s eyes widened and he looked toward Reece apologetically. “How you gonna do that, huh, college boy? I’m not giving you the money.”

“I’m not asking you for money.” Bright color flushed beneath Reece’s skin. “I’ve tripled profits at this bar in the last two years. If that doesn’t convince you that I can—”

“You think you’re better than me, you bastard! Think you can do better with this place than I did—”

“No, Dad.” Reece’s voice sounded suddenly weary. I wanted to rise and go to him, touch him, but I stayed put, knowing that I would only attract attention to myself, and Reece wouldn’t want that while he was having it out with his father. It was all so unpleasant . . . so ugly. It reminded me of everything I was running from. Everything I had vowed to leave behind.