Burn With Me Read Free Page B

all pretense of working and joined them in a drink. She was officially in love with this pub. Penn had taken them on a walk away from the tourists and younger crowd to find this out-of-the-way slice of heaven. No flashing lights or loud music. No throngs of people pressed against each other and screaming to be heard. Just laughter and stories and the kind of relaxed vibe that only happened in a local hangout filled with friends.
    Not that she didn’t love the throngs, because she did. In fact, she usually preferred them. She was a throng addict. This was a change of pace, but she had to admit she was truly enjoying herself. Especially once Greg began sharing stories of their adventures, and the men at the bar started teasing her as if they’d known her all her life. It reminded her of better days.
    “Snakes are highly misunderstood creatures,” a new voice spoke above the chortling, and she watched as the man slid onto a stool at the end of the bar. She bit her lip. Maybe it was the beer talking, but though he was fuzzy at the edges he was kind of…pretty around the eyes.
    He smiled as if he knew it, and she shrugged. “Yes, so Greg loves to tell me. Symbols of rebirth and protection, et cetera. He was trying to make me feel better about branding myself for life, but I doubt I was sober enough to be philosophical that night.” The men around her laughed at that. “I have a feeling I just wanted to look like a badass.”
    Greg raised his glass. “And you did. You do. A big-eyed, freckle-faced badass. Let’s just toast the fact that your proposal predicament was over at that point, and you didn’t wind up married to a gaggle of Elvis impersonators.”
    They all raised their glasses, some snorting into their beer and others just shaking their heads.
    The older, undeniably charming character beside them leaned forward again in mischievous interest, his elbows on the bar as he cradled his half-empty pint. “Proposal predicament? I hear another story in the offing.”
    “No.” Aziza violently shook her head, feeling the room spin slightly and taking another swig of ale to slow it down. “Don’t you dare, Gregory Prophet. There are some things we don’t talk about. Like your Jedi collectibles.”
    Penn, who was leaning on her hand and stirring her mixed drink as she enjoyed the show, started to smile. “I don’t know about the dolls but I’m well aware of this. Your mother had me worried you’d give in and get married before you finished school.”
    Greg pushed his empty glass toward Aziza, pointed at the tap while nodding to the others. He didn’t see her glare at his behavior. “We were all worried,” he assured Penn. “If there were a world record for the number of times one woman was proposed to by random strangers, our girl would have beaten it long ago. It was all I could do to get her safely home from high school without some lovesick fool bending his knee. I thought it was a prank at first, but it just kept happening.”
    Aziza had thought it was a prank too. Her oldest brother playing a joke on her because she’d said she never wanted to get married. Why would she? Why would any of them? Her parents had been the perfect example of how much pain loving someone could cause. “You’re exaggerating. It wasn’t that bad.”
    “Hah!” Greg disagreed a little too vehemently. She had to smile. He was tipsy. The long plane ride had turned them both upside down for a day or so, making them easy drunks. “Here’s my friend,” he continued, pointing to her as if she were exhibit A, “who dressed like a tomboy from Alaska, even in the Texas heat mind you, and wasn’t even allowed to go on a date until she was eighteen, and you would think she was famous the way they followed her around.”
    Aziza really hoped everyone in the pub couldn’t hear him. “Greg? I’m not kidding. Jedi dolls…that’s all I’m saying.”
    “You were beside her all those years? All that time with her and you were never