He wore cleaner jeans and a crisp white tee hugging his monstrous chest and arms covered in tattoos. “How’s the hand?”

I laughed a little, holding up my hand with the tiny Band-aid. “Fine. Clumsy me.”

“Drink?” He held his beer bottle toward me.

More shared germs? Did I want to swap saliva with Jason?

“Bossman!” Hailey hollered from the backyard.

I glanced over the railing to Fisher … and his date. Hailey handed both of them red plastic cups of beer. Dr. Smile was a petite blonde with normal sized arms and legs—and of course perfect teeth. Mine were fairly perfect, but a few lower teeth had shifted after I stopped wearing my retainer. And she was at least a solid C-cup.

“Where did you get the bottled beer?” I asked Jason, feeling out of sorts with my emotions. I shouldn’t have hopped on the back of Fisher’s bike. That trip to the mountains messed with me.

“I brought my own beer. Don’t care much for keg piss.”

Staring at the amber bottle in his hand, I battled wrong and right in my head. Then I gave Fisher and his date another quick glance. She slid her hand around his waist.

“Maybe just a sip.” I took the bottle from Jason’s hand and brought it to my lips taking a whiff. It smelled like beer. I had no idea if beers had different aromas like wine. Taking a hesitant sip, I let the slow mingling of carbonation and alcohol coat my mouth. It didn’t burn like I’d imagined. Maybe that was just hard liquor. It didn’t exactly taste great either.

“Let’s head down,” Jason said as he nodded toward the stairs.

I held the bottle out to him.

“Keep it. I’ll get another from my cooler.”

“I don’t need it.”

He chuckled, descending the stairs. “Nobody does, but it’s a party, Reese.”

My grip on the bottleneck tightened as I followed him down the stairs. Most of the other women were wearing nicer sun dresses or sexy shorts and cute sandals. I wore shorts that nearly hit my knees and a T-shirt that I was pretty sure was a unisex shirt with a big smiley face on it.

Minimal makeup.

No nail polish.

And my hair looked like I’d done nothing more than comb it and let it air dry after a shower … because that’s what I did.

Straight brown hair doing nothing special. No body. No highlights. No funky pink streaks. Could I have been more basic?

“Yo, Bossman,” Jason said.

Fisher and his date turned around. He smiled at Jason, but his smile faded a fraction when he saw me standing a few feet back, clutching a beer bottle to my chest. “Having…” he eyed the bottle for a little too long before lifting his gaze to mine “…a good time?” That look, it was too parental.

Too challenging.

Too condescending.