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Cari shakes her head. “Thanks for the offer but—”
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Tess announces, shoving at Conner’s shoulder to let her out of the booth. “Come with me, Cari. You know my bladder doesn’t work right unless you’re in the same room while I pee.”
“You’re disgusting,” Conner says, helping her out of the booth.
“Guess that means we are perfect for each other,” Tess says, shifting from one foot the other, waiting for me to let Cari out.
Cari starts to laugh but as soon as she’s free, Tess grabs her hand and hauls her across the deserted bar, toward the ladies’ room.
“What are you doing?”
I look across the table to find Conner watching me—uneasy, like he thinks I might have rabies. I can pretend I don’t know what he’s talking about but that would mean I have hope that he’ll just let it go. Which I don’t. Instead, I just shrug. “She’s broke and almost homeless, what am I supposed to do, Con? She’s my friend.”
“The two of you aren’t friends,” Conner says, his tone hard and final. “You might pretend to be but you’re not.” He shakes his head at me like I’ve disappointed him somehow. “You want to fuck her. I don’t know about you but I don’t usually fuck my friends.”
“You don’t have any friends,” I say, trying to deny the fact that he’s right.
“I have Tess,” Conner shoots back, leaning back in his seat.
“She doesn’t count,” I say shaking my head. Tess and Conner have been best friends since we were kids.
“You know why she doesn’t count?” He smiles at me. “Because I don’t want to fuck her.”
“Stop saying that,” I growl at him, throwing a look over my shoulder to make sure we’re still alone. “Cari needs my help and I’m going to give it to her.”
“Okay,” Conner says, conceding with a toss of his hands. “But at least admit that you didn’t offer her a place to live because you’re a nice guy. You offered her a place to live because you want to—”
Behind me, I can hear Tess and Cari on their way back to the table. “I will punch you in the face.” I said it quietly and Conner laughs just as they made it back to the table.
“Okay,” Cari says, the birthmark on her chest a deep, rosy pink. She’s excited and I can’t help but want to believe that it’s because she’s moving in with me, not just because she’s successfully avoided homelessness. “If you’re serious, I’ll do it. I’ll move in.”
Nine
Cari
As soon as we’rein the bathroom, Tess flings me inside and shuts the door, spinning around, to press her back against it. “Say yes.”
“Say yes?” I shake my head, instantly dismissing her advice. “I can’t say yes, Tess.”
“Why can’t you?” She says it like I forgot to take my medication.
“Because he didn’t mean it—it’s just Patrick… being Patrick.” I cross my arms over my chest. “He was only offering to be nice.”
“Who cares,” she hisses at me, throwing her hands up in the air again. “He’s such a sweetheart, he won’t back out. Once you say yes, he’ll be stuck.”
“That’s horrible,” I hiss back at her, crossing my arms over my chest. “I can’t do that to him.”
“Bullshit you can’t. You’ve been lusting after Gilroy for years.”
“What? No.” I shake my head, my chest so hot, I can feel the heat of in my back. “Patrick and I are friends.”
“Really? Friends?” Tess laughs at me. “I saw you. You were about three seconds from dragging that little college skank out of Gilroy’s by her hair.”
I was caught. There was no use denying it. “So? Moving in with Patrick isn’t going to change anything.”
“It will if you tell him how feel.” Tess is looking at me but I have a strange feeling she’s talking to herself.
“What happened with Declan?” I say, breaking our unspoken vow to not ask. The exasperated look on her face gives way and for a second she looks like I sucker-punched her. “Shit.” I suddenly know what it was like to be Conner Gilroy. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”