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Hudson

The bar is loud.

It’s also the last place I want to be. Nature of the beast, though. This is who they expect.

It doesn’t matter who I really am or what I want. This is the persona I’ve taken on. The space around me is filled with laughter and clinking glasses.

This was my idea. It’s what’s expected.

Has been ever since I became a Redville Saint.

The fun guy.

The player.

The titles are exhausting, and I hate it. But it’s easier than letting anyone in.

The good news is I can at least grab a drink and escape for a moment. The bad news is the conversations that will most likely be flung at me, which I don’t want to partake in.

I navigate through the crowd. Relief floods over me as no one approaches me.

Until I collide with something. Scrap that. Someone.

“Watch where you’re going,” a feminine voice snaps. I don’t even need to look down to see who I ran into.

I do, though.

Molly steps back and glares up at me.

Okay, I might have overstepped when I gave her that card. But I hate the idea of someone struggling alone.

“Seriously, Wilde. Do you ever pay attention?”

“Me? Are you kidding?” I cross my arms at my chest and lower my head to gesture to her phone in her hand, the screen still lit up from the texts.

“Maybe if you weren’t staring at your phone, you’d see what’s in front of you,” I fire back.

“You’re blaming this on me?”

“Changing the truth is what you do, Hex.” There is no question this is residual anger from the other day.

“Wow. You’re a jerk.”

I nod. “That I am. But at least I’m not a liar.”

“Aren’t you?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Not that I can remember. Tell me, Hex, what did I lie about?”

“Stop calling me that. It’s a ridiculous name.”

“It’s been years. Don’t you realize the name stays? Plus, is it really that far-fetched? Everything goes wrong when you’re around.”

“Can you just go?”

“Me? You can go.”

“Find your flavor of the night already, and do us all a favor.” Her voice drips with distaste.

My back goes ramrod straight. “You think you know me, but you don’t.”

“’Cause you aren’t a player.”

I throw my hands up. “You know what? You aren’t worth it. Throw your walls up. Lie. I don’t have time for this shit.”

“Walls? What the hell do you know about my walls?” she shoots back, her voice rising over the noise.

My jaw tightens for a moment, the tension hanging thick in the air between us. “I know more than you pretend I do.”

Her expression stiffens, a flicker of something crossing over her face. “Fine. I’ll go.”

For a heartbeat, everything seems to fade away, and I can once again see her all those years ago. A part of me wants to pull her close and ask her what haunts her.

But I decide to let it go and let her walk away.