“Oh, shit,” someone mutters, but I don’t catch who. I’m already on the move.
My assessing eyes are locked on the guy holding Alice at the hips. Steps sure in that deliberate measure I’ve perfected over the years. People automatically shift out of my way as I cross the crowded room, my focus entirely on her.
A new song starts, but I don’t hear it. I don’t hear anything besides the roar in my ears. I stop just inside her space, close enough that my voice doesn’t need to rise to carry.
“Take it off.”
I flick my gaze to the hat, then back to her surprised face like I’m giving her a choice.
An amused smirk quirks her lips, but it’s the hesitation that feels like a test. My jaw tenses, grinding my molars together. I set my steely gaze on the guy.
“That yours?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Then you should know better than to put it somewhere it doesn’t belong.”
He laughs it off, moving half a step back, but his hand doesn’t leave her waist. “It’s harmless.”
I regain that half step. “Not to me.” Turning my chin to my shoulder, I find Alice watching the exchange. “You gonna keep it, or you gonna hand it back?”
She scans my face, a challenge playing upon hers. Slipping the hat off her head, she holds it out to the guy. “Sorry, but my dad says I can’t play today.”
I choke on my next breath. My heart slows, relief pumping through my veins. She’s sassing me again after days of shuttered silence.
Cowboy over here shifts his gaze between us. “That’s it? Who even is this guy?”
Alice shrugs and tucks her hands in the back pockets of her shorts. “I guess so. I had fun teaching you to dance.”
“Whatever.” He slams his hat back on his head and departs through a shrinking space in the dance floor.
Alice crosses her arms and cocks her hip. “Are you going to tell me what that was about?”
“No.”
At this point, I feel like I accomplished my goal. Making sure Alice goes home. Alone.
“I don’t accept that answer.”
Spotting an exit on the rear of the building, I grab her hand. “Not here.”
The night air is cool as we burst through the door, her front nearly colliding with my back over the threshold. The heat of the approaching summer isn’t yet lingering much past dark. Dropping her hand, I tip my chin back and drag in a deep breath, opening my eyes to the bright brilliant stars overhead.
“You’re fucking confusing, you know that?”
I shoot her a look.
“I mean, what the hell, Sutton?”
“You didn’t seem this mad a minute ago.”
“I think I was in shock. Yeah, that’s it. It hadn’t quite hit me that you just chased off a potential hookup!”
My molars snap together. “Your…what?”
She threads her fingers through her unruly hair. “God. Never mind. It’s not like I was going to go through with it. You still had no business telling me what to do.”
I settle my arms over my chest, the corded muscles in my forearms rolling with the movement. “You’re free to do what you want. Doesn’t mean I have to like watching it.”