His laughter echoed behind him as he took off toward the road leaving Tawny and Luke staring after him. Her cheeks flamed as she tucked a loose lock of hair behind one ear.
“Okay, so that guy is a real asshole, huh?” she asked.
Luke’s grim smile gave her chills. “Yup. And wait until I see him out later in the week. I’m going to bust him right in the jaw.”
She nodded and then shrugged. “Well, I ought to be getting back to Suzette.” She combed her fingers through her hair and stood, waiting while Luke pushed himself gingerly to his feet.
“Right. Well, thanks for, you know, patching me up and everything.” He held out his hand and she took it and shook, trying to ignore the sizzle of awareness that shot through her.
Dang, he was tall. A full head taller than she was. He was eyeing her curiously and she realized with a start that she’d been staring.
She yanked her hand away and grabbed her bag. “No problem. See ya,” she mumbled. Then, with a stiff nod she turned quickly in the other direction and headed off to find herself a beer.
That was all she needed. A nice drink to cool her off and chill her out. Then, she’d be able to relax, celebrate, and move on with her night. Then, she’d be able to stop trying to picture what Luke Anderson must look like underneath those sexy, faded jeans of his.
“Tawny,” Suzette called, and waved a red cup full of beer in the air. “I gotcha one. Come on over. We’re about to start a game.”
Tawny followed her friend and took the outstretched drink gratefully, sucking down half in a long swallow and settling onto a nearby log. Suzette and Rex had apparently assembled a little crowd around them, and before long they all joined in, agreeing to let each of them pick one drinking game to play and running through the list. She had never been much of a partier before moving to Alhouette, but she’d been out enough with Suzette to know that she couldn’t be trusted to pick.
“Fine, fine,” Tawny said, “but I refuse to play Suzette’s favorite game. It’s not happening.”
“Why?” Rex glanced from Tawny to Suzette and the blond snorted a laugh.
“Tawny’s a chicken,” Suzette explained.
“Because it’s terrifying,” Tawny shot back and took another swig of her beer, but from the corner of her eye she was watching Luke. He’d made his way over to another small group and they were all fawning over him, especially the girls. They were all drinking, talking animatedly about the crash while Luke stood back and listened to them, barely ever opening his mouth.
“I’m sorry. Those can’t be the rules.” Rex’s voice broke through Tawny’s thoughts and she focused on Suzette as she let off a little peal of laughter.
“I swear it. My older cousin Gil taught me when I was twelve or so.”
“Maybe I’m just not understanding it right,” Rex tried. “So you have a nail in a stump—”
“Yeah. And all you gotta do is flip the hammer in the air, catch it, then hit the nail with the hammer. If you miss, you—”
“Go to the ER,” Tawny finished dryly, and they all laughed.
“Tawny’s right. Suzette, you cannot pick that game.”
“Fine, if y’all wanna be a bunch of fuddy-duddies,” Suzette pouted.
Not that Tawny was looking, but Luke Anderson was walking away from the knot of other people now, prowling through the little opening in the tall grass until she could only just make out the top of his mop of dark hair. She couldn’t help but wonder where he was going.
"How about something everybody knows how to play? Like thumper?" one girl suggested and Suzette considered her for a moment before sitting up straighter.
"I have an idea," Suzette said. "Let's play Never Have I Ever.”
Tawny polished off her beer and stood to quickly fill up a second. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
“Eh, I hate that game,” Rex said, curling his lip but Suzette ignored him.
"It'll be fun. Come on, fingers up everyone. First person to put all five fingers down has to chug a whole beer." Suzette grinned and everyone did as she commanded, placing their beer bottles in the grass so that they could show their “score card”.
"Right. Okay. Um, I'll go first. Never have I ever...been to another country," Suzette said, and Tawny put a finger down, silently thanking heaven that she didn't have to put fingers down for every country she'd been to. If that were the case, she'd be polishing off half that keg all by her lonesome. And, by the look of her new beer, she didn't need any help in the chugging department.
"Ha! Tawn, I got you!" Suzette said, and Rex rolled his eyes.