Page 4 of Love or Leave (Mapleton #4)

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C ara pulled her knitted sweater tight around her chest as she dashed from her car into Keller's pub. The temperature had dropped that morning, dipping below zero for the first time in the season, and she hadn't yet pulled her winter parka out from the back of her closet.

It nearly killed her to leave her warm bedroom, but she was on a mission now, and it couldn't wait any longer.

She stepped out of the cold, dark wind and into the warmth of Willow's brewery. The moment she entered, Jer looked up and smiled.

Perfect.

He waved her toward him with one hand as he filled a glass with another.

She made her way over and hopped onto one of the tall stools that lined the bar in front of him. "Is Max here?"

He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side. "Not yet, why?"

Cara shoulders relaxed. She was happy she would have time to talk to Jer alone without having to hear her brother's opinion on the matter. "I need a favour."

"Name it," he said, leaning an elbow on the bar toward her.

"I need you to come to a concert with me this Sunday."

Jer waited, then his forehead unwrinkled and he stood up straight. "That's it?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't you want Max to know?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

She rubbed her hands over the tops of her thighs. "It's because of—"

"Cooper."

Cara nodded. "I bought the tickets for his birthday, and after I broke up with him he asked for the tickets, but because I’m being a spiteful bitch I said no.

I was going to sell them, but I met this new guy—Jalen—at golf, and he's going to be there so I want to go to see him, but obviously I can't go with Cooper, and I'd rather die than go to a concert alone, so will you come? "

She gasped for breath as Jer’s mouth dropped open.

He blinked. Paused. Then blinked again.

"Golf?"

She threw up her hands. " That's what you latched on to?"

Jer snorted. "Everything tracks but the golf."

"Ugh," she said with an eye roll. "Will you come with me? Please?"

"I would, but I can't," he said, moving the filled beer glasses onto a tray and placing a paper ticket on the tray with them. "Willow's still trying to hire someone, and I'm all she's got right now."

Cara slumped over onto the bar. Her temples throbbed.

"Just ask Max."

"Cooper is a trigger word for him," she said, her voice muffled by her folded arms.

"What about Willow?"

"I need a boy. I told Jalen my friend is a him."

Jer snorted as the door opened and Max and Antonio walked in. He leaned in close to Cara and whispered, "You could always ask Dr. McDreamSteam."

She picked her head up and fought the urge to look over her shoulder at the door. "He's outta my league."

Jer launched himself backwards in mock offence. "And I'm not?"

Cara rolled her eyes. "Of course you are. But it's different. He and I are… awkward," she said, dropping her head. "I shouldn't have asked him out."

"You asked him out?!"

She took in Jer's shocked face. "Only sort of. I said we should play poker, and he told me he's staying married. It was weird."

Jer looked like he wanted to say something, but he plastered on a bright face instead and looked over her head. She swiveled on the stool and found Max and his annoyingly attractive, perfectly bone-structured friend standing right behind her.

"I wasn't expecting you," Max said as he gave her a half hug. "It's cold."

Cara rolled her eyes. "I occasionally do the unexpected."

"No, you don't," Max said.

She huffed an annoyed breath. "I actually needed to see you," she said, leaning past him, trying for a casual wave. "Hi, Antonio."

Antonio smiled and waved back, then casually settled his tall frame onto the stool next to her, but not before discreetly sliding it away from her a little.

Why did he do that? Did she smell? Did he hate her? Did she make him so horribly uncomfortable when she suggested the poker date, and now he can't stand being close to her? Did she even intend for it to be a date? Was she the only one being weird about this?

She settled the panicky thoughts with a deep exhale.

Here she was spiralling while he probably hadn't given their interaction a second thought.

She'd dissected every syllable of their conversation.

She'd talked herself into being proud that she'd made a bold move, even though she’d initially wanted to crawl in a hole somewhere. But maybe it hadn't been that bold.

It was hard to tell.

Things between her and Antonio differed from her and Max's other friends. Adam and Ethan would have both given her a hug or a smack on the back, or something. But she'd known them all her life. They were practically older brothers to her. Whereas she'd only met Antonio a few weeks ago.

While shit-faced.

In a bush.

Not to mention the fact that every time she saw him, she wondered what he looked like naked.

She forced away the thought and straightened her spine. It occurred to her that she wasn't really sure how he and Max knew each other, or why she'd never met him before. She'd have to ask Max without sounding too curious.

Not that she was curious about Antonio.

The corner of her mouth pulled at the lie and she shook the thought from her mind.

"Is Ethan coming?" Jer asked, breaking the silence.

Max nodded. "He and Adam had to stop at Ethan's on their way. They should be here soon."

"Good," he said. "We tapped the new ale today. He asked when it would be ready."

"I'll take one," Antonio said, his deep, smooth voice floating over her ear.

"Same," Max said, sitting on the other side of Cara.

"Cara?" Jer asked.

"Sure," she said, then cleared her clogged up throat. "Thanks."

Jer put a little metal bucket of peanuts on the bar before turning to fill three glasses.

Max grabbed a peanut from the bucket and crushed it in his fingers. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Right. She braced herself for the flurry of questions she knew would come, then let it out. "Can I borrow your golf clubs?"

Max's eyebrows hit the ceiling. "Why?"

She rolled her eyes. "To go stargazing. Why do you think?"

Antonio and Jer snickered, and she took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from coming off too aggressively.

"You're going golfing?" Max asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

Cara tipped her chin up. "I've signed up for lessons. I already started Monday, but I need clubs."

"You started already? Did anyone get hurt?"

"Only my pride," she muttered, her neck going hot at the memory of swinging and missing.

Max narrowed his eyes. "Why are you doing this?"

"Ugh," she said just as her drink arrived. She took a gulp of the amber liquid before continuing. "I want to meet new people, step out of my comfort zone, try new things."

Max stared at her for a moment, opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it and opted to just nod instead. "Sure, you can borrow them, but they're probably too big for you."

"Oh," she said, not realizing there were sizes.

"You can borrow mine," Antonio said from the other side of her. "They're human size."

She twisted toward him, and was greeted by his warm, picture-perfect smile.

"Really?"

He nodded. "I'll get them to you," he said, casually taking a drink.

It annoyed her how smooth and comfortable he was. She was anything but those things. But that was probably because she was harbouring many unspoken fantasies about him, and he wasn’t harbouring any for her.

She forced her expression to be neutral.

"Thanks," she said.

"Willow's in the office," Jer said to Max. "She doesn’t want to be bothered, but she said she needs to see you when you get here."

"Thanks," Max said, standing. "I'll go see what she needs."

A second later, a waitress pulled Jer aside, leaving Cara and Antonio alone. An awkward silence settled over them as Cara’s mind went back to her problem with the concert.

Jer had been her only plan. She needed to find an alternative, or else she just wasn’t going to show up.

"So, I take it you're not a golfer?"

Cara turned toward Antonio’s smooth voice and took in his inquisitive light brown eyes. "I could be. I never really tried."

He absorbed her response. "Why now?"

"I'm in a rut," she said with a small shrug.

Antonio made a little “hmm” noise, as if he knew exactly what it felt like to be in a rut. "What's your rut like?"

She thought for a moment, wondering how much to tell him about her stalled existence. "I go to school, I go to work, and I rinse and repeat until I want to pull my hair out, then I play games."

Antonio leaned slightly forward with interest. "What games?"

Cara cringed. "I'm not saying."

He gave a low chuckle that buzzed between them. "Yes, you are."

She scrunched her eyes together. "Magic the Gathering, Blood on the Clocktower, D and D."

When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her with a heart-melting smile.

"You're a nerd."

She snickered. "You have no idea."

If he knew about her collection of Star Wars Funko Pop's or how many times she'd read Lord of the Rings , he probably wouldn't be smiling. He'd be scooching his chair even further away.

Antonio looked around the pub, then back at her. "I played D and D in high school."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

He nodded. "I was never that into it, though. Now I play way too much online Scrabble."

She laughed at him and took a drink before they fell into silence again. But this time it was far less awkward than before. Still, it didn't stop her from fidgeting with the corner of her sweater and remembering her unresolved problem with the concert.

Cara glanced across the room at Jer, who was still in deep conversation with the waitress. It was too bad he wasn’t able to go. Jer would be perfect company.

Antonio would probably be fun to hang out with all night, too, but definitely a less perfect option than Jer. Antonio was too… smouldering.

Cara looked over at Antonio. Her options were extremely limited at the moment.

What the hell? He already shot me down once. What would it matter if he did it again?

"Antonio?"

He turned toward her and one of his dark, angled eyebrows cocked.

She ignored the heat taking over her face and pressed on. "I have tickets to this concert on Sunday and I'm meeting this guy there, but I don't want to go alone."

His head pulled back, and she realized how out of the blue her question had been.

He broke eye contact with her and uneasily glanced at the door Max had left through, then back to her. "Okay…"

"Will you go with me? I already asked Jer, but he can't."

Antonio stared into her eyes for a moment before blinking away. "I don't think we should go to things together," he said.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You and I… We're more… group friends."

"Group friends?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, as he tapped his beer glass and shifted in his seat.

Gone were his relaxed shoulders and calm smile.

"Were friends only in a group. We probably shouldn't hang out alone."

"Oh," Cara said, surprised—and a little offended—by his response. Not only did he not want to go to the concert with her, he never wanted to hang out with her. Ever? She wanted to ask why but decided it would be better to shake off the insult so she gave him a single jerky nod.

Antonio seemed to notice her offence. "I just don't think Max would approve."

Cara fought off a fresh wave of annoyance, but it clearly showed on her face.

"I didn't mean it like you need his approval, or anything," Antonio said, backtracking. He reached his hand behind his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

"He doesn't trust me," he said, then added, "And he shouldn't," under his breath before lifting his glass and taking a drink.

Cara stared at him for a moment. It was both relieving and concerning that she wasn’t the reason he was saying no. Max was.

But why?

She was about to ask why when Max and Willow stepped through the door, forcing all her questions to dry up in her throat.

Antonio quickly recovered, steering the conversation toward Willow's new ale. Cara nodded along with a smile, adding appropriate interjections as needed, but her thoughts were light years away.

The concert had slipped from the forefront of her worries, eclipsed by her growing curiosity around Antonio.

Why did Max think he was so untrustworthy?

And was he right?