Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

F air Shot

Ruby

It’s the last day of the semester and we all left the house, except for Finn and Charlie because they are having what we will call a reunion. Aaron is driving us over to Fair Shot since none of us wanted to be in the house and hear all the moaning.

Briar and Annie are meeting us there.

“I think we need to divide into two groups,” Luc says. “I’ll take Ruby and Annie.”

Luc is sitting in the passenger seat upfront and Hayden is sitting behind him. Hayden literally whacks him upside the head.

“My sister isn’t going anywhere near you,” my brother warns.

Macklin is sitting between us and he shifts a little beside me. He has both his hands resting on his knees and very far away from me. I’ve tried to convince Macklin to go back to Saugatuck with me, but he’s refusing because he thinks it’s too risky.

“Damn, bro, chill. I just thought the girls would have good aim,” Luc defends.

“My ass,” Hayden responds.

Aaron laughs and I remain quiet. We arrive to Fair Shot and we all get out of the car. We meet Cade with Annie and Briar in the parking lot. Briar’s SUV had to go into the shop so Cade was nice enough to offer them a ride tonight.

“Hey,” I cheer as I walk over to my girls. I give each of them a hug.

“It feels like forever since we’ve been here,” Annie says.

“It has been forever,” I reply dryly, since we were here months ago with Charlie. She and Finn got off on the wrong foot and things were tense back then.

We all head inside. The guys booked two lanes. We divide up with Cade, Hayden, me, and Briar on one lane; and Annie playing with Luc, Aaron, and Macklin in the other.

The waiter comes around and we all order beer.

Then we start throwing some axes. We are all hanging out and having fun when Cade whips around and says, “What the fuck?”

His reaction makes all of us look in the direction he’s watching. Scarlett is here and her tongue is down some guy’s throat. I’ve heard rumors of her cheating and she hasn’t been by the house as much as she used to, but I know Cade didn’t have it in him to break things off with her.

Cade stalks away without saying a word. He charges toward Scarlett. Her blond hair is on her face and must be blocking her vision because she doesn’t notice Cade standing beside her with his arms across his chest looking peeved. The guys all follow behind him. I love how they have his back but keep a bit of a distance.

“What should we do?” Annie whispers. “I feel so bad for him.”

We trudge a little closer to the guys to hear Cade clearing his throat. That causes Scarlett to take a pause as she slowly pulls away from the guy. Her blue eyes pop when she takes in Cade beside her. “Honey, this is nothing. It was a dare.” She laughs and it’s so fake.

“I’m fucking done, Scarlett. This is bullshit. I don’t know how I’ve put up with your lies this long.”

Scarlett stands and walks over to him. “Honey bunch,” she places her palm on his chest. Her long red fingernails splayed across his muscles.

“Take your fucking claws off me,” he barks, radiating anger but also hurt and betrayal lace his tone.

“Cade, there you are, babe,” Annie says, coming out of nowhere she walks around to his side and places her palm on his chest which causes Scarlett to take a step back. Then she’s leaning in and kissing him. I think it’s going to be a quick kiss, but she tugs on the back of Cade’s head, pulling him closer to her, and deepens the kiss. Suddenly they are making out. All of us are in shock but not as shocked as Scarlett.

“What the hell is this, Cade?” she shrieks.

But he’s too busy making out with Annie to pay her any attention.

“Let’s get out of here, Calvin,” Scarlett says, looking pissed. She walks away with the guy and Cade and Annie are still kissing. People around us begin to holler and cheer because it was quite clear what just happened here.

“Show’s over, she’s gone,” Macklin announces, but they continue to kiss for a few more seconds until Annie pulls away, and when she does, they both look flushed. Annie is a red head; she has freckles and a naturally pink tinge to her skin, but now she is full-on blushing and her lips are bee-stung swollen. She gives Cade a bashful smile.

He licks his lips. “What was that?” he asks her.

“You’re welcome.” She winks, pats his chest, and walks back to our ax throwing booth.

Briar and I follow her, but I hear the guys asking Cade if he’s okay. He seems to be in shock and my guess is it has nothing to do with Scarlett. That kiss they just shared was fire.

“Um, do you want to explain what just happened there?” I point back to Cade.

Briar waits expectantly too.

“Come on, the guy was drowning. He needed a lifeline and that was me.” She shrugs.

“Um, holy shit. That was hot,” Briar agrees wide-eyed.

“No big deal.” Annie brushes us both off.

“No big deal, my ass,” I add.

Annie laughs. “He’s a good kisser. I did a good deed.”

“Annie, you don’t just go around kissing guys,” I remind her.

“True,” she agrees.

I draw my brows together. “What is going on, Annie?” Something isn’t adding up.

“My high school boyfriend is transferring to Riverside starting next semester,” she says as if it explains everything.

“So?” I ask.

“So…” She winces. “We were together for three years and it was a really messed-up relationship.”

This is the first time she is mentioning him.

“What do you mean?” Briar asks.

“You guys remember how things went with Chase?” she asks, reminding us of the guy she dated in freshman year, who was a douchebag she kept taking back.

“It’s hard to forget,” I reply, and Briar agrees.

“Well, my relationship with Ford was kind of the same. I think I’m broken. Like I can’t find a good guy.” She frowns. “Ford was older and handsome as hell. I just kept taking him back. He was attending Harvard. Who the hell switches out of Harvard law?”

“Riverside has just as good as a reputation,” I remind. “And you aren’t broken. You’ve just had bad luck. You shouldn’t talk about yourself that way.”

The guys walk back over to the booths, which are side by side.

Cade walks up to Annie. “Am I supposed to thank you?” he asks, touching his lips.

“I would say so,” she responds, and she’s blushing again.

“Thank you,” he grins. And just like that their interaction is over.

We all get back into our lanes and throw some axes. No one talks about the crazy situation and Cade seems to be doing okay.

I walk over to the little table at the end of our booth and take a sip of my beer. A guy walks up to the booth.

“Hey, you’re the girl from the track team. I saw you running the other day,” he says, and he isn’t shy about checking me out.

Since he didn’t ask a question, I don’t really know what to say.

“You want to come to the bar? I’d love to buy you a drink,” he offers.

Before I can blink and say no thank you. Macklin is beside me. “She isn’t interested. Get lost.”

“What?” the guy asks confused. “Who the fuck are you? The boyfriend?”

“None of your business. Now leave,” Macklin insists.

They’re both big guys and this is making me feel uneasy.

My brother walks over. “Everything good here?” he asks, looking between Macklin and the guy. It’s like he is sending the message that Macklin has backup.

“Whatever,” the guy says, and he walks away.

Hayden then turns to Macklin, looking very unpleased. “What the heck was that?”

“What?” Macklin asks, feigning innocence. “We watch out for Ruby. That’s what we do.”

“The guy was just offering her a drink. Ruby knows how to say no if she wants to,” my brother answers. Damn, he’s being very chill about this. Macklin, on the other hand, was acting like a jealous boyfriend. Just because we run off to our spot at the library almost every weekday does not give him the right to get all protective of me. I know how to defend myself, and I know what I want. It was not that guy.

“You’re right, bro,” he says to my brother and then looks at me. “Sorry, Ruby.” He gives me a sheepish grin, but he can barely look me in the eyes. This is how it’s been since we started hooking up. There is a change between us, which I guess was expected.

“It’s fine but Hayden is right. I know how to take care of myself,” I tell Macklin.

“Right,” he replies.

“Besides, I don’t think you guys should be scaring off potential mates. I’m at a point in my life that it would make sense to date,” I remind, and Macklin looks a little stunned.

“As long as he’s a nice and respectful guy with good intentions, I’m fine with it,” Hayden explains. I wonder if that would include Macklin. Probably not.

“What he said.” Macklin points at Hayden.

“Okay, can we throw some axes?” Aaron hollers.

We all go back to throwing axes, but the underlying tension is still there between Annie and Cade, who keep side-eyeing each other and me and Macklin, who seem to be doomed.