I screw up my face, “For real?”
I’m glad he did, too. That’s fucking disgusting.
Hannah pushes herself away from the railing and takes a step toward Bowen. She stands on her toes, leaning closer to say something in his ear. I see his jaw move in response, but he’s facing away from us now.
Hildy peers into the window reflection and wipes away the smudged eyeliner under her eyes, “I think he handles stress better than he used to.”
“How did he used to handle it?”
“Fighting,” Hildy grins at me, “total Thunderdome.”
“What?” I scoff at her in disbelief.
Bowen is tall and muscular, but I can’t envision him getting into a physical altercation with anyone. He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t smash things, he barely ever gets angry.
Hildy furrows her brow and nods, “Oh yeah, he got in trouble all the time—fighting, sneaking into bars, generally being everywhere he wasn’t supposed to. He and Jay were big into street racing, too,” she sniggers, “every year in high school, they threatened to kick Bo off the soccer team.”
“What changed?” I ask, peering at Bowen’s silhouette, trying to imagine him doing any of these things.
“I don’t know,” she chirps, “maybe getting a real job and growing up? Now,” Hildy continues, “if he has a problem, he just chain smokes for an hour, figures it out, and then he’s fine.”
I jerk my head around, “Really?”
“You’ve never seen him do that?”
“No,” I shake my head in disbelief.
Hildy arches her brow and gazes at Bowen in the distance, “Wow.” She sounds impressed.
Finally, Bowen leaves Hannah at the railing to finish her cigarette. He doesn’t see us at first, but veers to the right when he sees us standing in the shadows at the corner of the building.
“Why are y’all standing in the dark?”
I cross my arms, “Just waiting on you,” I peer over his shoulder with a tight-lipped smile, “Something better going on over there?”
“Jack shit going on over there,” Bowen drapes his arm around my neck and whisks me around the corner with him, “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“Be right over,” Hildy says over her shoulder as she heads across the patio toward Hannah.
Once in the garden out back, Bowen leads me through the crowd into the middle of the dance floor and pulls me close to him. I wrap my arms around his shoulders, glad to be hidden among a hundred other people, pressed against him and swaying to some John Legend song. I look up at him and then avert my eyes with a smile.
Bowen catches me and narrows his eyes, “What?”
I cast him a sideways glance, “I’m glad you don’t smoke like a chimney anymore.”
He cracks a smile, “Where’d you hear that?”
“Hildy.”
“God,” he rolls his eyes, “why was she telling you about that?”
“No reason,” I shake my head, “you didn’t take Hannah’s cigarette and she just mentioned it.”
“What else did she tell you?”
“Just about all your antics in high school…” I hesitate, glancing around the dance floor, “so maybe you can tell me why Hannah doesn’t like me.”
Bowen knits his brow in confusion, “She doesn’t like you?”
“So obvious!” my voice shoots up an octave, “She comes over and starts touching on you while I’m sitting right there, acting like I don’t exist the entire time. And,” I add, “if she’s a close friend of Hildy’s, there’s no way she didn’t know about me before tonight. So, what’s her problem—did you used to date her?”
He shakes his head dismissively, “Hannah’s cool, but she reads too much into things.”
“Like what?”
“We all went to high school together and we were really close. But she’s the type of person who interprets things how she wants to instead of how things really are. I don’t know if she ever had a thing for me, but if she did, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”
“Why?” I hood my eyes, “Because you were so popular?” I taunt as my grin widens.
“You can fuck right the hell off with that,” Bowen chuckles as he pulls me closer and kisses me. He scans the room to make sure Hannah isn’t close-by, “And, truth be told, she can be kind of a moron.”
“Oh?”
“Let me put it this way—Hannah’s a nurse and she works at the same hospital as my mom, but if she walked into my room, I’d make peace with God right then.”
“That’s awful,” I chuckle.
“You think I’m kidding. My mom is one of the best, but that place can’t be the pillar of excellence they claim to be if they still let Hannah Bailey be a nurse.”