Yeah, she’d be dining on the rush of that for weeks.
“How ya been?” Will asked me, his voice dropping as his face tilted toward me again.
If I just raised my head, we would have been practically kissing, but I didn’t. Instead, I stared at my glass of beer, twisting it around with my fingers like a socially awkward freak.
“I’m good. Just working and stuff. You?” I asked my half-empty beer.
I think I might have blushed a little when he chuckled.
“Same,” he said in amusement. “There a reason you’re not looking at me?”
There was. There was a reason. Unless I knew someone really well, I had a hard time meeting a person’s eyes when we were talking. I’d mostly figured out how to do it when I was working, since patients needed to know that I was paying attention to what they were saying, but outside that? Yeah, no dice. It flustered me, made it hard to follow the conversation.
But it wasn’t like I could tell him that.
“Uh, no?” I mumbled, the inflection making it come out as a question as I met his light brown eyes.
Then, because I’d realized what I’d done, I started thinking of Stewie from Family Guy talking about one of Brian’s girlfriends phrasing everything with an upward inflection, like she was asking a question every time she opened her mouth.
Will was saying something, but just like every other time I met someone’s eyes as we had a conversation, I’d completely blanked out what he’d just said.
“Sorry, what?” I asked dumbly, looking back down at my beer.
“I asked if you wanted to come sit with us,” he said with a teasing smile. “Damn, you’re shit on my ego.”
“Oh.” I glanced at Mel, who had a dreamy expression on her face. “I don’t think—”
“We’d love to!” Mel said quickly, cutting me off with a wide-eyed look in my direction as she slid off her bar stool.
Oh, crap.
I gripped my beer in one hand as I slid off the stool, stumbling a little when Will didn’t move from his spot next to my chair and I ended up practically on top of him.
“You got a purse or somethin’?” he asked as his hand came to rest at the base of my spine.
“She never carries a purse,” Mel replied helpfully, smiling at us like she’d just been invited to the cool kids’ table. “She just keeps everything in her pockets.”
“Musta been a tight fit,” Will mumbled, pressing a little on my back so I’d start walking. “Not much room left in those jeans.”
“Hey,” I complained, looking up at him.
“That’s a good thing, sugar. Believe me.”
I tilted my head back down and caught sight of Mel raising her eyebrows up and down. Oh, God. She was going to embarrass the shit out of me. I knew she was.
“Everyone, this is Molly and Melanie,” Will said with a smile as we reached the group he’d come in with. Then his arm wrapped a little further around my waist, one of his fingers sliding between the waistband of my jeans and the bottom of my tank top. “Molly and Melanie, that’s my cousin Cam and his girl, Trix.” He pointed to the couple then gestured to the men. “And these assholes are Rocky, Matt and Homer.”
“Homer?” I asked under my breath.
“That’s cause I always round the bases, darlin’,” Homer said with a slimy smile, making me stiffen.
“Ignore him,” Will ordered, glaring at the guy. “He’s an idiot.”
“Moose, you’re gonna hurt my feelings,” Homer joked, his face transforming so much as he chuckled that I realized he’d been testing me before.
I just didn’t know what the hell the test was.
“You can call me Mel,” my best friend chirped happily.
“Did he just call you Moose?” I asked as Will helped me into a seat. I tried to keep my voice down, but it was so loud in the bar that whispering was completely out of the question.
“Nickname,” Will replied, sitting down next to me as Mel found a place between a couple of the guys. I swear, that girl had never met a stranger.
“’Cause he gets shot and just keeps going,” Matt said jokingly, making me freeze.
“What?” Mel asked in confusion as Will’s cousin glared at the younger guy.
Will’s hand slid up my back and rested at the base of my neck as he turned his eyes to Matt. “You’re done.”
“What?” Matt asked, throwing his hands up unsteadily, giving an indication of just how drunk he was. When he’d been sitting still, I hadn’t really noticed, but now that he was moving, it was perfectly clear that the guy was plastered. “That’s how you got the nickname.”
“Get him the fuck outta here,” Will ordered Homer, whose face had gone from jovial to livid in an instant.
I wasn’t sure where to look. Rocky’s face was impassive, Trix looked like she was about to throw up, Cam was scowling, and my poor best friend was watching everyone in confusion. Mel leaned toward Rocky as Homer muscled Matt to his feet and started frog-marching him across the bar.