On the Rocks (Last Call #1)(42)

“What the hell is going on?” I hear Casey from behind me, and I turn to see her furiously stalking across the parking lot toward us. She comes to a stand before us, her arms crossed defensively over her chest. All of my anger toward Hunter gets pushed to the back of my mind, because now I’m dealing with an enraged Casey Markham.

She looks back and forth between the two of us, waiting for an answer. Hunter sort of turns away and laces his fingers together on top of his head, holding his face up to the sky as if he’s praying for patience and serenity.

“I repeat—what is going on?” she asks again, this time with an underlying menace in her voice that makes me cringe. Over her shoulder, I spy Brody walking out of the bar, but he doesn’t approach us. Rather, he just stands there, his hands in his pockets, watching all of us carefully.

“Gabby,” Casey barks. “Why did you call Hunter an * in there?”

Hunter turns toward me, curious as to what I’ll say. My gaze falters and falls to the ground, where I kick at the loose pebbles in the parking lot. I can’t lie to her… but apparently, I can’t look her in the eye either. “Um… Hunter and I have been seeing each other, and I was mad when he kissed that woman.”

“I did not kiss her,” Hunter grits out, and my head snaps up to his.

“Sure looked like it to me,” I throw back at him.

“Whatever,” he says in resignation.

“You two have been seeing each other?” Casey asks quietly. “For how long?”

“A couple of weeks,” Hunter says.

“And you kept it secret… from me?” The hurt is evident in her voice, and I feel lower than I’ve ever felt in my life. Suddenly, the fact that Hunter was kissing—or had been kissed—a few moments ago seems irrelevant.

“Casey,” I say as I take a step toward her with apology in my voice. “I was going to tell you. I just—”

“Don’t,” she snaps at me, holding up her hand. “There’s nothing you could say to justify it. You were my best friend…”

Were? As in past tense?

“Casey, I’m sorry,” I say urgently.

“Just stop,” she hisses. “You’re selfish, Gabby… selfish and disloyal, sneaking around… sinking your claws into my brother. You’re despicable.”

“Now just a minute,” Hunter growls at Casey, stepping up to my side. “I went after Gabby, not the other way around.”

Casey turns her eyes toward Hunter, blazing bright blue with anger. “Nice to know you were complicit in this, Hunter. You two deserve each other then. Just stay the hell away from me.”

Spinning away from us, Casey stomps back to the bar, pushing past Brody, who stands silently, watching it all. Tears well up in my eyes, and I feel so unbelievably helpless.

It appears I’ve lost my best friend, all because I was too afraid to tell her the truth. And Hunter… well, I’ve probably lost him too, seeing as how I might have misconstrued the “kiss” situation.

Before the first teardrop falls though, Hunter is pulling me into his arms and tucking my head against his chest. “It’ll be okay, Gabs. She’s just angry, but she’ll come around. She didn’t mean those things.”

Squeezing my eyes shut to dispel the moisture hanging heavy in them, I nod my head in agreement, although I’m not really sure Casey is going to get over this.

Pulling back slightly, Hunter uses his hand to push my chin up so I look at him. “I swear to you… I did not kiss her. She caught me by surprise, but I pushed her away as soon as I got my bearings. I have no f*cking clue what she’s doing here.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I shouldn’t have gotten so mad, and now I’ve ruined everything. I’ve embarrassed you, pissed Casey off…”

Leaning down, Hunter kisses me softly, gently holding my head. “Don’t worry about it. It will be fine.”

Nodding my head, I step back. “Listen, I’m going to head home. You need to go take care of your guests. We can talk more tomorrow.”

“I’ll take you home,” Hunter says, understanding it would not be a good idea for me to go to his house tonight. A slight surge of jealousy hits me that Sasha will be staying there with her brother—at least, I assume she will be—but Hunter really hasn’t given me any reason to distrust him.

“No,” I tell him as I lay a hand on his chest. “I’ll get a cab. Go inside and check on Casey… and like I said, you have guests who came in to see you.”

Hunter looks unsure, glancing between the bar and me. Finally, he calls over his shoulder to Brody, who’s still standing by the door. “Can you take her home?”

“Sure,” he says quietly. “Let me go get my keys.”

Hunter steps back up to me, reaching a hand up to cup me behind me head. He looks at me, pinning me hard with assurance. “It will be fine, Gabs. Trust me.”

I nod even though I completely disbelieve that this could in any way turn out okay.





Well, if one good thing came out of the fiasco of tonight, at least Gabby and I are out in the open.

Assuming I still have Gabby.

After I loaded her in the car with Brody, I went inside to do damage control. I found Casey in the bathroom crying, while Alyssa tried to talk to her. I walked in there, ordering another customer who was primping in the mirror out, and tried to set things right.