Ivy looks up at me with a shy smile.
“I’m tired of sharing your company,” I tell her as I get to my feet. “I want you all to myself for a while.”
“Save us a seat,” Mary says as she pets Moose’s head. “And don’t get too comfortable, we’re coming later to crash the party.”
With smiles on our faces, Ivy and I head off to the bar.
Chapter Nine
Ivy
“They’re here,” I say as I stare at the table in the back in disbelief. We just walked into the pub and they’re the first people I see.
“Do you want to leave?” Easton asks.
I look into his beautiful face and feel a wave of love hit me. This man gives me an unbelievable sense of courage. Just being around him makes me feel like I can do anything.
“No,” I say as I hold my head up high. “Let’s go get a drink.”
He takes me over to a table in the opposite corner of the pub and we sit down while we wait for Easton’s brothers and their mates to show up.
I keep an eye on my ‘friends’, but they still haven’t seen me. There are two guys at their table who I don’t know. Probably some locals they picked up. I get a bad taste in my mouth as I turn away.
“Those are your friends?” Easton asks as he looks over.
“Were my friends. Leaving me to die in the woods and not even bothering to tell the cops is kind of a friendship deal-breaker for me.”
Easton puts his hand on mine and it makes me feel better. His touch always does.
For once, I feel like I don’t need them. I have Easton and a new life waiting for me if I want it. I do want it, but I’m scared to take it.
These friends have never really been good to me. High school can be like prison sometimes where you just have to grab someone and hold on. To be alone is worse than death. And those were the girls I clung onto for social safety.
It’s time to let them go. I don’t need them anymore.
The huge bartender comes over and gives Easton a hard look.
“No fighting tonight,” he says as throws down two coasters. “I mean it. Last time was your last chance.”
“Last time?” I whisper as I look at the man I’m still learning all about. I guess I have more to learn.
He shrugs. “We’re done with the fighting for now,” Easton tells him. “Enzo’s sister is my cousin’s mate.”
The big bartender laughs. “You’re shitting me. That must have gone over well.”
Easton smiles as he shakes his head. “About as well as you could expect. So, anyway, I don’t think there will be any more brawls in the near future.”
“If there are, you keep them out of my bar,” he grunts.
We order two beers and the huge guy leaves.
“Fighting?” I ask Easton with a grin when we’re alone again. “Do tell…”
He’s about to talk when I hear my name. “Ivy, you bitch! Get over here!”
“And bring that hunky man of yours.”
It’s Kindrie and Miley’s voice. It makes me cringe to hear them.
“Are you going to go?” Easton asks as I study the grooves in the table.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I just want to stay here with you.”
“Ivy!”
God, they’re screaming across the whole bar. They have no shame.
And no class either.
“I’ll go,” I say as I take a deep breath to calm my nerves.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
I shake my head as I get up. “I’ll just be a minute.”
His protective eyes follow me as I walk over to their table. I love how his eyes never leave me like he always wants to make sure that I’m safe.
“Ivy, where the hell have you been?” Lindsay asks with a flick of her blonde hair. “Sleeping in a treehouse?”
The rest of the girls giggle.
“I almost died.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Kindrie says with a dismissive wave. “You look fine.”
“My parachute landed in a fucking tree,” I snap. “I was not fine. I was stuck a hundred feet in the air for twenty-four hours.”
Lindsay’s face drops. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit is right. I was caught in the rain overnight.”
“That rainstorm?” Wendy asks. “That was pretty bad.”
“Yeah, we got caught in it on the way back to the inn,” Miley says with a scrunched-up nose. “It messed up my hair.”
I could smack her. I’m so pissed that my hand is shaking. I was literally going to starve to death and she’s worried about her hair.
“How did you get down?” Kindrie asks.
I stare right at her. “Why didn’t you call someone when I didn’t show up? Didn’t you care?”
She shrugs. “I knew you’d be fine, and look, you are!”
She tries to play it off with one of her wide smiles, but I’m not letting her off the hook. Not this time. Not anymore.