One Night With His Ex

“Dude, stop staring at her,” Alec said.

“Shut it, Alec. I’m not looking at her.”

“Whatever,” Alec said. “It’s your turn. Don’t screw up.”

He made a face at his brother and leaned over the table to line up his shot. The sound of the jukebox playing loud country music on a Friday night made it easier for him to focus on the game. He took a deep breath and broke the balls. Though he knew this was a friendly rivalry amongst his brothers, he didn’t want to lose.

He took his next shot, sinking a ball in the corner pocket, and then moved on to line up his next shot. He had a pretty good run of three balls before it was Diego’s turn. Mauricio went to lean against the high table next to Inigo, who was posting to one of his social media accounts. His youngest brother was a hot up-and-coming driver who had been on the Formula Two circuit for a few years before making it to the big leagues of Formula One.

“Not bad, Mo. I’d hate to see what would happen if you were really concentrating.”

“I am concentrating,” he said.

“Sure you are. Like you didn’t notice Hadley on the dance floor,” Inigo said, drawing his attention to the small wooden floor set to one side of the jukebox.

He cursed under his breath as he saw her dancing with a group of her girlfriends, and was unable to tear his eyes away from her. He tried to remind himself that he was over her, but when she moved to the music, her arms in the air, hips swaying, his body reacted like she was still his.

Maybe one more night together was what he needed to clear her out of his system for good. Of course, Hadley deserved better than that. She deserved an apology, not because he wanted something from her but because he never should have slept with Marnie when he was still...hell, while he still liked Hadley.

If losing her had taught him anything it was that he hadn’t wanted things to end so horribly between them.

He took another long swallow of his beer. That kind of thinking was dangerous, because he knew if he let himself dwell on it too long, he’d start believing that it was a viable option. That sleeping with his ex would be the solution to finally getting over her.

The music changed to a slow song—“Night Changes” by One Direction—one of her favorite songs. Mauricio watched as most of her friends left the dance floor, Hadley following behind them. Without thinking, he put his beer down and walked to the dance floor.

“Do you want to dance?” he asked. “I realize I’m not your first choice but I know you love this song. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” she asked.

“How I behaved. We never really talked about it.”

“I don’t want to talk tonight,” she said.

“Then how about a dance?” he said.

She hesitated then put her hand in his. “One dance.”

“That’s all.”

He pulled her into his arms and she put her hands on his waist. He told himself this was just another part of moving on but his body didn’t agree.

Hadley hadn’t had the best week. Her mom was an exacting perfectionist when it came to any event she was planning but the added element of it being her sister’s wedding had pushed her to extremes. Hadley felt safe saying there wasn’t enough tequila in Texas—maybe even the entire South—to take the edge off her nerves. But dancing with her girlfriends was helping until she saw...him.

Mauricio.

Of course, she’d noticed him when she came in. It was impossible not to when he was with his brothers. They drew the eye of every woman in the bar. Seen together, they made you wonder what kind of deal with the devil Elena Velasquez had made to get four such good-looking boys. They were the kind of eye candy that made this part of Texas famous.

Mauricio smelled good too.

She shook her head. “How’ve you been?”

She wanted this to feel normal. Surely, the thing with Jackson under the willow tree had been a fluke. There was no way that she still wanted Mo. Not after everything he’d done. She wanted something nice and steady like Helena and Malcolm had. But she’d always felt this heat around Mo. He made her restless like heat lightning on a summer’s night. Just ready to go off without any provocation.

“Good. Busy,” he said. “You?”

His voice was a low rumble but easy for her to hear despite the music. She’d always liked the way he sounded. She put her head on his shoulder for a second and closed her eyes, pretended that this wasn’t the bad idea she knew it was, and then made herself stand up straight and step away from him.

“Good, Mo. Really, good,” she lied, but then “fake it till you make it” had been her mom’s mantra for her and her sister growing up so she figured that was okay. The song ended and she started to leave the dance floor. “Thanks for the dance.”

She walked away without looking back and forced herself to put on a smile as she climbed onto the high bar stool at the table where her friends were.

“Girl, what are you thinking?” Josie asked.

“That I did it. I danced with him, played it cool and nothing happened,” she said.

Zuri shook her head. “You’re full of it, but we’re good friends so we’ll let you get away with it. Another round of shots to celebrate you keeping your cool.”

Hadley drank another round with her friends and ordered nachos as they talked about the men in the bar. Manu Barrett, the former NFL defensive end who now coached football at the local high school, came over with a tray of shots for Josie. Her friend was the art teacher at the high school and Manu had been asking Josie out for the last month or so, but he was a player. Josie and Manu hit the dance floor, and Zuri and Hadley just watched their friend for a minute.

“She’s smitten,” Hadley said.

“Who’s smitten? Remind me again why we came to the Bull Pit tonight?” Helena asked as she slid onto a bar stool next to Zuri and reached over to take one of the shots that Manu had brought.

“Josie is smitten and we are here because you set Mom on me. It’s been a long-ass week,” Hadley said.

“And, girl, you’ve been working too hard,” Zuri said to Helena. “You need a night out. Where is your other half?”

“He’s in Houston to close a deal. He won’t be back until tomorrow, which is why I suggested book club,” Helena said.

“This is better than book club because we don’t all have to discuss something that we’ve only read the back cover of,” Hadley said with a laugh.

“True. But the book I recommended is getting really good buzz over at the Paperback Reader. Teddi expressly recommended it because she thought we’d all love it,” Helena said. “It’s about an undercover prince.”

As a CPA, Hadley’s sister did the accounting for a lot of the bespoke small businesses in Cole’s Hill. Teddi had been the bookworm in Helena’s class in high school, so no one had been surprised when she’d opened a bookstore after college.

“I’m going to read it next week,” Hadley said. She needed something to take her mind off Mauricio and a prince in disguise sounded right up her alley.

“So you and Mo?”

“There is no me and Mo, Hel,” Hadley said.

“It didn’t look that way when you were dancing,” Zuri said.

Hadley shook her head. “You know the worst part about breaking up?”

“No, tell us,” Zuri said wriggling her eyebrows at Hadley. “You’re the expert.”

Her friend had clearly had too much tequila, she thought as she shook her head. “I was just going to say that all the feelings don’t just disappear. I mean anger should burn away all the other stuff...”