Chicks, Man

Watching Braydon’s chest puff out at Jim’s approval makes me wish I had. Something about him irks me. That he thinks he has a chance with Hannah for one. But it’s something else. That’s when he grabs my attention. With a bright smile, he nods at me. You can take that nod and shove it up your ass.

Jim claps his hands, getting the room’s attention. “Looks like everyone’s here. Let’s play some poker!”

I’m going to take his head and rip it off his skinny little neck.

“Wow, another full house! Braydon, you sly guy! It’s normally Levi over here taking my money. Looks like my daughter found a keeper!” Jim chimes, sipping his whiskey neat. The shit-brick smiles at Hannah, his hand disappearing under the table on her thigh. My knuckles grip my cards, and I catch myself crumpling them in my hand. I drop them on the table and get up for another beer. I make it to the kitchen when a hand grabs my shoulder.

“What up, man? You seem uptight. Work going well? Need a lady friend to cozy up to?” I knock Kip’s hand off, throwing open the fridge.

“Nice try, man. Work’s fine. Just got some shit on my mind.”

“And the other? You know Rebecca won’t stop talking about you. A little phone call and I bet—”

“Dude, I’d rather saw my dick off.”

Kip laughs and accepts the beer I hand him. “Damn, that’s brutal. I didn’t think she was that bad.”

“Bad? She snuck into my tent and hid her thong inside my pillowcase in hopes her smell would lead me to her!”

Kip buckles over laughing, and my stomach churns at the memory. After having a taste of Hannah, I about vomited when I found them and threw them in the fire.

“She wants a piece of that Dent dick, bro.”

“Never gonna happen.” I take a swig of my beer. “Speaking of, what do you think of Hannah’s boy toy?”

Kip shrugs, chugging the rest of his beer to grab another one. “Seems okay. Kinda dorky, but I think she likes that style. Who knows? I can’t say I’ve ever seen her with a guy. If he’s good to her, then I couldn’t give a shit.” I want to tell him he’s a fucking shrimp and to scare him off. But that would open a shit-ton more questions on why I give a shit. Because I’m secretly banging your sister and want to continue banging her, so I need her little fan freak to beat it. “Why? You don’t like him?”

I fucking want to pummel him. “Nah, no sweat off my back. Hannah’s like a little sister to me.” God, I’m going to hell. “Just looking out for her.” And possibly my own interest.

“True that. Need eyes on her. She sure grew up in college. Gonna have dudes all over her. We need to make sure no asshole tries to screw her over.” That includes me. “Here.” He hands me a bottle of fancy tequila Jim brought home from a client. “Bottoms up. Hurry, before Stacey comes in and stops me.”

The joys of married life. I grab the bottle, and with a hefty pull, let the liquor slide down my throat, hoping to drown the idea of pummeling Hannah’s nerd toy.

Thirty minutes pass before Kip and I stumble out of the kitchen. We lost track of time, catching up on work and bullshit. Since he got married, his priorities have shifted. Not that it’s a bad thing. I love Stacey, and she deserves all his attention, but our guys’ nights have been put on hold. Not that I’ve been any better. He informed me Ben was on some Safari donating his time to the poor, and Chase was in Mexico on another solo vacation probably picking up gonorrhea.

When we head back into the living room, we find Stacey with Cheryl and Jim, while Braydon and Hannah appear comfy sitting together on the loveseat. She laughs at something he says, and I fight not to aim my bottle at his crooked nose. Her eyes find mine, and her demeanor quickly changes.

“Excuse me. I’m going to go to the bathroom.” She gets up, but doesn’t miss the opportunity to scowl at me as she saunters down the hallway. Knowing this house like the back of my hand, I excuse myself back into the kitchen and take the other hallway that wraps around to the second door leading into the same place Hannah disappeared to. Just as she begins to shut the door, I slide in through the other door, shutting and locking it behind me.

Hannah whips around and jumps back, startled at my presence. “Jesus! Levi, what are you doing?”

“The question is, Hannah, what are you doing?” She wants to play dumb, but she knows better. She sees I’m not fooled by this whole boy toy charade.