“I saw you last weekend. Remember?” Maybe he didn’t. He was blackout drunk with his tongue down Kristen’s throat. When she wasn’t making eyes at me, that is. Penner didn’t seem to notice that part. Hopefully James didn’t either.

I wished I could go back and erase everyone I’d slept with before her. It would simplify my life immensely.

His brow furrowed. “Oh yeah. Your girlfriend is fucking hot.”

“I know.” I picked up my pint glass and took a sip. “What about you and Kristen? Is that serious?” Please say yes so she gets off my jock.

“We’ll see. Keeping it casual right now.”

Yeah, good luck with that. I tried to do that too, and she went Fatal Attraction on my ass.

His attention slid to the door, where she’d just walked in. Speak of the she-devil. A group of her friends at another table across the room called her name, waving her over. With any luck, they’d stay over there. At least until I bailed.

“I’d better go,” he said, “but we’ll see you at the gala.”

“The gala?”

Penner nodded. “Yeah. We’re at your table.”

I schooled my expression, pretending like I knew. I did not. And I was not pleased about this development.

“Oh, right. See you then.”

As Penner walked away, I stood up, slid my plate down a few seats, and eased into an empty chair beside Ty.

“What the fuck, Ty? Penner was the only person you could come up with?” I hissed under my breath.

The table for eight cost five grand. It was for a good cause, so I didn’t particularly mind. But with the steep ticket price, not all the guys could go, let alone bring a date—which made filling the last two seats at our table tricky. Ward and I let Ty handle it, and he said he would. But Kristen? Had Tyler lost his mind?

Ty set down his burger and raised his eyebrows, evidently miffed at my combative tone. “What?”

“Don’t you think that’s going to be a little awkward for me?” I stabbed my french fry into the ketchup and bit into it.

Guilt creeped into his expression. “Fuck, man. He didn’t tell me she was his date.”

Tyler paid approximately zero attention to the love lives of other people, so this excuse checked out.

Gripping my glass, I sucked in a breath. “Look, I know you don’t do the whole dating thing, so you don’t understand. But for future reference, sharing a table with someone who still tries to fuck you isn’t ideal. Especially when your girlfriend will be in attendance too.”

Should I warn Bailey about Kristen ahead of time? Or play it cool and pray? If I warned her, she’d be on edge all night. If I didn’t, she might wonder what the fuck the deal was.