“Goddamn you, dog.”
Pike and Anthony burst out laughing while even Nick cracked a smile.
“Nice. Room full of so-called gentlemen and you all stand around, yucking it up while I’m assaulted by this fool.” Noel pushed Butch away gently and the hound sat back, staring up at her with his tongue lolling out but she ignored him. She wiped her hands off on her jeans and they finally settled on her hips as she studied him. “You don’t look as bad as I thought you would.”
“Thanks. That’s the nicest thing any of my friends have said to me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“How bad did you think he’d look?” Pike asked.
“Dawson-ugly-crying-on-the-dock bad.”
Pike chuckled. “You should have been here when we arrived. Listening to ‘Last Christmas,’ laying on his side with snot dripping from his nose.”
Nick glared at Pike.
“Glad I missed it.” She walked into the room and over to his closet. She pulled out a blue collared shirt and held it up in front of her. “Go put this on. We’re taking you out.”
Anthony tipped his Denver Broncos hat back, revealing his olive skin and sympathetic green eyes. “I don’t think he wants to go, sugar.”
“We do not care what he wants. Only what he needs.”
Nick smirked. “I need some alone time and a bottle of Crown.”
Noel threw the shirt at him. “I’ll buy you the Crown for later, but you are leaving this house. I’m not letting you spend your first night home moping. We are gonna show Amber that you don’t give a flying frickety frack about her.”
Pike came over next to her and put his head on her shoulder, gazing up at her adoringly. “Have I told you I find your made-up words adorable?”
Noel rolled her eyes. “Never gonna happen, Fish.”
Nick stood up, clutching the garment in his fist. “If I put this shirt on, will you all stay silent for ten minutes?”
“Maybe,” Noel said.
“I’ll take it.”
Chapter 4
NOEL
Noel leaned against her car in the Brews and Chews parking lot, frowning down at her phone. She’d texted Trip after her meeting earlier this afternoon, asking him if they could talk, but he’d said he was busy today. So, they’d set up dinner for tomorrow and she’d gone about her day of cleaning her apartment.
But when she’d taken a breather after her meeting and decided to scroll through Instagram, she’d noticed something interesting. Trip’s last post was a selfie of Jillian Groves sucking his neck on the lift chair. Struck dumb, Noel stared at his boyish grin and twinkling blue eyes under his brimmed black beanie, her heart constricting. Jillian’s perfectly contoured cheek, heavy fake lashes, and glossy lips didn’t need a filter. She was always camera-ready beautiful, while Noel’s Insta boasted pics of the things she loved like sunsets, BBQ pork sandwiches, and her friends instead of her usually makeup-free face.
They looked perfect together, a wonderfully romantic moment captured and memorialized forever.
God, she was an idiot. At least she hadn’t voiced her idea about taking him to the wedding. He probably would have squeezed her arm like they really were old pals and given her some gentle letdown so he could still come off smelling like a rose.
Technically, he didn’t do anything wrong. You weren’t even together; just hooking up.
However, they had agreed to talk if something changed and the fact that he hadn’t mentioned Jillian spoke volumes.
“Hey! This was your idea. You coming or what?” Nick called from the entrance.
Noel slipped her phone into her clutch, swallowing past the lump in her throat. “Yeah, yeah, don’t get your boxers in a twist.”
She traipsed across the gravel parking lot where Nick waited at the door for her. She couldn’t quite meet his eyes; afraid he’d notice the slight sheen to hers. She wasn’t crying, not really, but they burned something awful. She’d put her feelings aside because Noel knew Nick needed to get out of the house, but honestly, she wished now they’d just stayed in watching a movie.
“Everything all right?” Nick asked.
“It’s great. Never better.” She squeezed his arm and discreetly dabbed at her eyes. “I can’t wait to get you drunk and watch you lose at pool.”
Nick looped an arm around her shoulders, sounding like the cheerful Nick she knew and loved. “It doesn’t matter how much I drink; I don’t lose.”
“First time for everything.”