13. Conrad
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Conrad
Evelyn is already half-asleep as the truck bounces up the dirt driveway to the house.
“I’ll be right back. The babysitter is already here,” Austin says, quietly climbing from the truck. He unbuckles Evelyn and carries her into the house.
Brooks leans over from the front seat, looking at Hadley, who’s sitting beside me in the back. “You ready to go out tonight?”
“I haven’t been to Benny’s Tavern in years. It should be fun.”
I slide my hand over, resting it on her bare thigh, just below the hem of her denim shorts. “There’s a band playing tonight. It’ll be packed.”
“It’s always packed in there on this weekend,” she says, placing her hand over mine.
Austin climbs back in the truck. “Jacey’s going to have an easy night babysitting. She’s already in bed,” he says, backing out of the driveway and heading back into town.
He looks in the rearview mirror at Hadley. “Do you want to go home and change or anything?”
“Are you saying I look bad?” she asks, staring right back at him.
“Uh… no. I’m definitely not saying that.”
Brooks pipes up from beside him. “What he means to say is you look hot as fuck as always, but he’s trying to be a gentleman in case you do want to change or grab anything.”
She glances down at her cut-offs and black tank top. “Do you mind stopping by my mom’s house? I’ll be fast. I promise.”
“Of course, angel,” Austin says.
I don’t even think he realizes the nickname he slipped in there, but Hadley does. She stutters in a breath as soon as the word falls from his mouth.
I don’t know what happened at the park earlier, but something has shifted between them.
All I know is that when we walked back over to join them, Austin had his chin resting on the top of her head, and even though deep emotions were written all over his face, he seemed lighter. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
The truck pulls to a stop in front of the house. She’s crawling over me and jogging into her house before I can react.
Even though there are a ton of things the three of us should talk about, including one very important one, we all remain silent.
Brooks’ head smacks against the window. “My dick is going to die a slow painful death tonight,” he groans.
“What the fuck are you going on about?” Austin asks, but his face freezes when he looks over in Brooks’ direction.
My head turns to the right. Hadley is walking toward us in a flowy white dress that hits just above her knee and dips down between her breasts. To top off the dream-girl image, she now has on a pair of cowboy boots.
“Grayson’s going to murder me,” Austin mumbles just before Hadley swings open the door beside me.
As much as I want her to climb over me again, especially in that dress, I want to be a gentleman. I step out of the truck, holding my hand out for her.
She gives me a smile and climbs into her seat. I am in so much trouble. She’s… perfect.
As we head to the bar, I lean in close to her ear. She lets her hair out of the braid Brooks did for her earlier.
It lies around her shoulders in messy waves that look like someone has been running their hands through it repeatedly, which is putting all kinds of images in my brain that probably shouldn’t be there right now.
“You look gorgeous,” I whisper.
She blushes. “Thank you.”
Austin finds a spot a few blocks from the bar, and we walk the rest of the way.
Just as we expected, it’s packed. Country music rings out from the small stage at the back of the room.
“Do you want something to drink, sweetheart?” I ask Hadley.
She thinks for a moment. “Vodka soda with lime or lemon is fine.”
“You got it. Brooks and I will go get drinks. You guys, go get a table.” I point between Austin and Hadley.
Grabbing my brother’s shirt, I tug him toward the crowded bar with me. It takes a few minutes, but finally we get to the front.
“Benny, my man,” Brooks says, seeing the owner of the bar, who only bartends for special occasions anymore.
He runs his hand through his graying hair. “The Thompson twins,” he says with a smirk. “What can I get for you?”
“Vodka soda with lime and three beers,” I tell him. He nods, getting it all ready.
Brooks leans his hip against the bar, looking at me. “We need to get Austin out of his shell tonight.”
I nod in agreement. “I think it might be easier than usual after what happened with the two of them earlier.”
“Do you know what happened?”
I shake my head. “I just know that he’s seemed different since then.”
Benny sets all of the drinks in front of us, and I hand him my credit card to open a tab for us.
I point to Hadley across the bar. “If she tries to buy any drinks on her own tonight, don’t let her. Just put it on my card. Okay?”
“Sure thing,” Benny says.
We grab the drinks and walk to where the other two are leaning against a wall by the pool tables.
“My lady,” Brooks says, handing Hadley her drink.
I pass Austin his beer, and we all hold up our drinks.
“To just having fun and not worrying about anything else for the night,” Brooks says loud enough so we can all hear.
Hadley looks at each of us, lingering for a beat longer on Austin. She nods, eyes sparkling. Austin takes a deep breath but jerks his head in a nod as well.
We all clink our drinks together, sealing in the promise for the night to come.
“Are you any good at pool?” Brooks asks Hadley.
Austin snorts out a laugh. “Unless you’ve gotten a personal pool tutor in the last few years, I’m going to say no.”
She glares at him. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“You were worse,” he says, leaning his face down closer to hers. “But everyone can learn with the right teacher.”
Oh, shit. He has it bad for her, too.
“How about we play in teams?” I say.
Austin stares at her until she gives in. “Fine, you can teach me, but we’re probably going to lose.”
“Fine by me,” he says. "I think I’ll get a better prize than these two even if we never get a single ball in the pocket.”
Yup, he’s just as fucked as we are.
We do end up destroying them, even when Brooks and I both backed off. Neither of them seemed to mind at all, though, as she was bent over the table, and he was pressed up against her, guiding her through every shot.
I can only imagine the boner he’s trying to conceal in his jeans right now.
She comes back from the bar with a new drink for her in one hand and our three longnecks clenched in her other hand. She gives the other two their bottles before thrusting the last one at me.
“What did you do?”
“What do you mean?” I take the beer from her hands, enjoying her sudden feistiness even if I have no clue where it came from.
“Benny told me my money is no good in here. He wouldn’t let me pay for this round.”
“Oh, that.” I take a long pull of my beer.
“Did you do this because I told you on the plane that I got laid off?”
My head jerks back. “What? No.”
“I have money, Conrad.”
“No, that didn’t even cross my mind. I told Benny not to let you pay tonight and to put it on my tab because you’re here with us tonight, and I take care of what’s mine.”
Her shoulders relax as she exhales. “Yours?”
“It sure feels that way.” The look in her eyes shows that she feels the same, even if she doesn’t say it out loud.
Brooks taps on her shoulder. “Want to dance?”
She hands me her drink, then laces her fingers with Brooks. Austin and I sneak over to one of the high-top tables just as another group leaves.
“I thought she was going to bite your head off.” He laughs, sitting on one of the stools.
I scratch my neck, cringing. “Yeah, I thought so too. She’s sexy when she’s all fired up, though.”
He hesitates for a moment, unsure of how to talk to me about this. Brooks and I have shared a few women between us before, so talking like this has never been weird for us. With Austin, it’s a different story.
“Uh, yeah, she is.” He drinks half of his beer before setting it back down. “She got laid off?”
I debate whether to explain because it isn’t really my story to tell, but sooner or later, it will all come out anyway.
“She had a pretty shitty day before she came home. I guess she got laid off and found out her boyfriend was cheating on her all on the same day.”
“Who the fuck is he?” he sneers, his face turning red.
“Calm down, Rambo.” I chuckle. “He isn’t in her life anymore. She made that very clear on the plane. Plus, what he did landed her in our lap, so I’m not going to complain.”
“I still want to murder him.”
“Just focus on her now.”
We look over to the dance floor where Brooks is swinging her around the floor to a fast-paced song. The smile plastered on her face is unmistakable.
“Do you really like her, or is this just messing around for you?” he asks.
I could joke around with him and say that I’ve already messed around with her, so if that was the goal, I would have been done when the plane landed in Colorado. That wouldn’t do either of us any good right now, though.
“I like her. A lot.”
“And Brooks?”
I look over at my brother, who now has Hadley held tight against him as they sway to a slower song. The look in his eyes is something I’ve never seen from him before.
“I’m pretty sure he’s already falling for her.”
Austin nods. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to hurt her. I don’t want to punch either of you.”
“What about you?”
He tilts his head back, staring up at the old ceiling. “I don’t think we have enough time to get into that.”
“Well, I think you either start talking or you go ask our girl to dance.”
“Dance it is,” he says, sliding off the stool. Avoider.
He taps Brooks on the shoulder. Words are exchanged, then my brother is striding back toward me with a huge smile.
He downs the rest of his beer, and then Austin’s.
Hadley has her hands wrapped around Austin’s neck, her fingers mindlessly playing with the short hair on the back of his head. They are swaying back and forth, staring into each other’s eyes like no one else in this bar exists.
“He’s halfway in love with her,” Brooks says, reaching for my beer.
I swat his hand away. “So are you.”
He doesn’t even try to deny it. “I could say the same about you, brother.”
Ding, ding, ding. One point for Brooks.
My hand slides into my pocket, toying with the delicate bracelet I bought earlier.
At one of the booths, Hadley kept staring at this thin rose gold bracelet with colorful flowers woven throughout the chain. As soon as she was distracted with Evelyn at the next booth, I quickly bought it.
It’s been in my pocket ever since. I don’t know when I’ll give it to her, but I know I want to see her face light up until her eyes crinkle at the sides.
I like things in my life to be planned out and methodical. I like things to go at a certain pace. Nothing with Hadley has followed any of those norms in my life.
Usually, that would have me running for the hills, but with her, I’m not running from anything. I’m jumping on the wayward train as it speeds from the station.