Chasing Ivy (Oak Hill 1)

I groaned, running my hand through my hair. “I’m kind of busy, Breanna. I have a lot of work to do.”

She pouted so hard that I could hear it. Breanna was the queen at pouting to get her way. She was like a three-year-old trapped in a very attractive woman’s body.

“You’re always busy. You’ve been slaving away lately on whatever it is you’re working on. What’s keeping you up at night? The last few nights I stayed here, you’ve crept out of bed to work…we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now, remember? We’re supposed to go out together every once in a while.”

I wasn’t aware that she noticed me casually rolling out of bed and going into my office, which then led to me working for hours and crashing on the couch.

“Just this one house that needs a lot of work.”

This one house = Ivy’s.

“Well, take a break and let’s go to Ships. There’s a band tonight and I’m pretty sure Max is going and, like, more than half our friends. Pleaseeeee.”

The whiny part of her voice made me cringe and honestly had me contemplating why I was even with her in the first place. Oh, that’s right. Because she was the one who was there for me when Ivy left.

I sighed, slipping my reading glasses off. “Okay, sure. Go get ready.”

A smile spread along her face, showing off her bleached teeth and pink lipstick.

“Maybe we can slip off into the bathroom while we’re there, like old times…” Breanna winked at me and the suggestion had my balls tingling but only for about three seconds because another pretty face crept into my mind, which only made me feel like the worst boyfriend in the entire fucking universe.

What the fuck was I doing?

When I walked into Sailed Ships, I was relieved to have a beer placed in my hand almost instantly by Max. I knew he’d gotten word that Ivy was back in town and I was literally counting the seconds on the clock, waiting for Breanna to find out. I wasn’t sure how she didn’t know yet, but I knew for a fact that she didn’t because she’d be all over it like there was a sale going on at the local beauty store.

The second Breanna interlocked her arms with one of her stuck-up friends, whom Max had been trying to shag for months, he pulled me aside.

His jaw slacked when a shit-eating grin molded to his face. “You’re in over your fucking head, aren’t you?”

I tipped back the longneck, allowing the ice-cold beer to coat my throat, temporarily stunning any words that wanted to spew out of my mouth.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I muttered, moving my eyes around the bar. Ships was moderately empty but I knew that within an hour or two, people would be hopping on the dance floor with copious amounts of alcohol swishing through their systems.

Sailed Ships was the only bar in our town and since we were considered a small town, there literally wasn’t anything better to do than to come here. Friday and Saturday nights were for drinking at Sailed Ships – at least that’s what it said on the wall above the bar.

“I know you’ve seen her, I can tell. You just have this glow…” Max cackled as the words left his mouth.

I rose an eyebrow. “What the fuck are you talking about, Max?”

He smiled before tipping back his beer. I did the same, needing more alcohol in my system to deal with the thoughts swimming through my head of how I was the world’s worst boyfriend and how I couldn’t stop wondering if Ivy was going to show up.

“She has you by the balls already and she just got to town.”

“Dude, no. We’re friends. If you can even call it that. I’m working on her house and that’s it. We cleared the air a little, and now we’re just on neutral ground.”

He barked out a laugh, throwing his head back. Breanna caught my eye from across the bar, and she winked.

My stomach twisted. If I wanted Max to believe me, and even more importantly, Breanna, whenever she did catch wind that Ivy was back, I needed to make myself believe it.

I pushed past Max and his howling laughter, striding past a few already tipsy people who were dancing to an upbeat song in the middle of the poorly lit dance floor, and snuck up behind Breanna, where she waited for her low carb beer. I spun her around fast and she let out a piercing yelp.

My hands roamed over her curves as my mouth captured hers with a low growl. It took her no time to wrap her arms around my neck and push her full breasts up against my chest. Breanna nipped my lip before I let go, and her eyes twinkled with the sexy, mischievous, little glint that she’d always worn whenever I’d given her my utmost attention.

“Shall we head to the bathroom now… or later?” I asked, bending my head down to nip the skin just below her ear.

Breanna laughed softly but then her entire body went dead-stiff in my arms. I pulled back slightly and the second I saw her face, I knew.

I glanced to my left and then to my right. Almost every single person had stopped talking, stopped drinking, stopped paying attention to whatever was around them, and their stares were all directed to the same place.