He sets another Coors Light down in front of me just as a hand slaps me in between my shoulder blades. I look over as Reed grabs the stool next to me.

“Hey, man. I said seven o’clock, right? How long you been here?”

I look behind him, letting my eyes sweep across the crowd. “Are you by yourself?”

“Yeah.” He motions for the bartender. “Why?” He lifts his head and smiles. “Oh, right. Tessa. You know she’s bringing some Aussie, right?”

I wait ’til he orders his beer before I answer. “She’s leaving with me.”

He breathes a laugh before taking a swig of his beer. “Yeah, all right. Chicks love accents, and you don’t have one. You’d be better off grabbing yourself another pussy and making her jealous.”

“How’s he supposed to do that when you’ve already claimed every snatch in here?”

I look up from my beer as Ben slides two stools over, putting one closer to the corner of the bar that Reed is sitting at and helping Mia up on the other one.

She smiles at him before her lips pull down in disgust. “I hate that word.”

“What word?” Reed asks as Ben takes his seat.

“Snatch,” she replies, making a distasteful face. “I’d prefer pussy over snatch, and I really don’t like that word either.”

“You liked that word last night.” Ben drops his head and buries his face in her hair.

The blush spreads across her cheeks as she slides a card across the bar, her other hand pushing against Ben’s chest, although she doesn’t really seem to want him to back off. “Here. Happy Birthday, Reed.”

Reed swipes the card off the bar with enthusiasm. “Aw, babe. You shouldn’t have.” Ben straightens up, snapping his head in the direction of Reed who shifts on his stool. “Kidding. Jesus.” He tears open the card and pulls out a folded up piece of construction paper, covered in crayon drawings. One of the stick figures has the words Uncle Weed underneath. “Ben, you can’t draw for shit, man.”

Mia laughs, covering her mouth with her hand. “It’s from Nolan, ass.”

“Nah, really? I couldn’t tell.”

Ben nearly shoves Reed off his stool before Reed tucks the card back into the envelope. “Tell him I said thanks. His pictures get me laid all the time.”

“What?” I ask, looking between the envelope on the bar and Ben, who seems as confused as I am.

Reed nods through a swallow, setting his beer down. “Yeah, women love thinking I have a kid. They eat that shit up.”

“Give me that.” Ben slams his hand down on the card and slides it in front of himself. “My kid isn’t getting you laid tonight.”

“No matter. I got a picture of him in my wallet I can always use.”

I shake my head as a loud laugh grabs my attention across the room. Three girls walk through the door, announcing their arrival with the different octaves of cackles emanating from each of them. The door nearly closes before it’s pulled open again, and everything around me fades as red hair fills my line of sight.

I swallow hard as she nervously chews on her bottom lip, sweeping her eyes across the crowd until they finally land on me. Her feet become glued to the floor as she stops in the middle of the bar, but she stumbles forward when someone pushes into her back. I look behind her as a guy drops his head closer to her ear, way too fucking close, and she nods once, her eyes meeting his briefly before moving with him toward Mia’s side of the bar.

The blood in my veins feels like jet fuel that’s just been lit, burning me up from the inside out. Sweat pools at the base of my neck as I wrap my hand around the chilled beer bottle—I need something to counter the heat surging through me.

I only see Tessa.

There has to be at least fifty people in this bar, including the asshole she’s arrived with, but it’s just her and me in this room. The dress she has on shows off the flawless skin of her chest, plunging low enough for me to see the top of her cleavage. I know what that spot tastes like, the feel of her hands holding my head as I slide my tongue over her skin, consuming and claiming, which is exactly what I want to be doing right now. Her green eyes appear bigger, the color more pronounced as she moves closer, meeting my gaze every other step. I know she’s nervous by the way her bottom lip is being tortured, that and the fact that her hand keeps tucking the same strand of hair behind her ear, even though it hasn’t moved. She’s putting as much distance between her and me as possible while still joining the group, but it wouldn’t matter if she were on the other side of the fucking planet right now. Every part of me is reacting to her, some more than others as I drop a hand to my lap.

Everyone seems to notice her presence at the same time, while I noticed it the second she walked in the room. Mia turns on her stool as the guy behind Tessa steps to the side, standing between her and the bar.

“Hey! There you two are.”

Tessa smiles at Mia before moving her gaze down the line of people, stopping at Reed. “Guys, this is Mason.” She looks up at him before pointing to each of us. “You know Mia, and that’s her husband, Ben, my brother. That’s Reed, and that’s Luke.”

My name drops from her lips so fast, it’s as if she can barely form the word. Mason shakes Ben’s hand and leans across the bar, offering his hand to Reed, then myself.

“Nice to meet ya, mate,” he directs at me.

I look over at Tessa briefly before dropping my head into a nod and accepting his handshake. “Yeah, you too.”