Holly looked horrified, and Alex winced.
“Of course not,” she said. “We don’t even get along. It’s his fault,” she added. “He’s very annoying.”
“Hey!” Her comment stung more than it should, even though he knew she’d had a few drinks. “I’m sitting right here. And I’m not the annoying one.”
“Yes, you are,” she said, twisting the label around her fingers. “You said I should be a nun. That’s annoying.”
Gina was no longer paying attention to them, distracted by something Henry was whispering in her ear.
“Okay, I take it back,” Alex said, moving his chair closer to hers. “I don’t think you should be a nun. So … how’s the date with Rich going?”
Holly was tearing the label into pieces now, working methodically, a little crease between her brows. “All right, I guess,” she said.
“Just all right?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t … feel the way I thought I’d feel. The way I want to feel.”
His heart skipped a beat, which probably made him a very bad person. He shouldn’t be happy that Holly’s date was a dud. “How do you want to feel?”
The label was in tiny silver pieces on the table. Holly propped her chin on her hand as she thought about the question. “I don’t know. I guess I was hoping for … magic.”
Magic, he thought, remembering how his body had reacted when Holly had hugged him. “What would that feel like?”
She glanced at him. “Why are we talking like this? Like we’re friends or something? We don’t even like each other.”
“Alcohol,” he explained. “It’s the great equalizer.”
She considered that. “I’ve had three shots of tequila and two beers. When I stand up, the room kind of swoops.” She blinked. “You know, it’s possible that I’m drunk.”
He held back a smile. “So what would magic feel like?”
She looked down at the table. “Well … goose bumps. Shivers. Your heart beating faster, your knees feeling weak. But I think I’m expecting too much.”
She looked so vulnerable as she said that, her expression a little embarrassed, her cheeks turning pink. He wanted to tilt her chin up so she was looking right at him, he wanted to lean in close and—
I could make your knees feel weak, he thought.
On the other hand, maybe not. Holly had never given the slightest indication that she reacted to him the way he did to her. Besides which, they bugged the hell out of each other, which would seem to indicate a certain level of incompatibility. And on top of that Holly was a forever kind of woman, while he was a few-months-at-most kind of guy—as Rich had so considerately pointed out.
Still—“You ought to hold out for magic,” he said gruffly. “You deserve magic. There’s someone out there who’ll make you feel that way.”
She kept her eyes down, arranging the torn pieces of label in a neat pile with a fingertip. “I don’t know about that. Maybe I shouldn’t shoot for the moon. I have Will, and I have friends, and I’ve got a job I love. That’s pretty good, right? Maybe I’m not meant to have more.”
Something about that quiet statement stabbed him through the heart. He started to tell her how wrong she was, but then he noticed Rich come out of the bathroom and lurch erratically toward the bar.
“Let me take you home,” he said instead. He glanced at Gina and her fiancé, who were engaged in a long, slow kiss. “Your friends seem occupied, and your date is on his way to being unconscious. None of you should be driving tonight.”
“I was going to take a taxi.”
“Let me drive you.”
Holly shook her head. “I know I haven’t felt any magic yet, but Rich is sort of cute … and nice … and he seems interested. Maybe if I let things go a little further I’ll start to feel something.”
The idea of things going “a little further” between Holly and Rich made his whole body tense up. Rich rejoined them at that moment, handing a fresh beer to Alex and leaning down to nuzzle the back of Holly’s neck. Alex gripped the bottle so hard he was surprised the glass didn’t break.
“Did I mention how good you look?” Rich asked, reaching over her shoulder for Holly’s top button again. Holly smacked his hand away again, but with less force than last time.
This was none of his business. In all the time he’d known her Holly had never asked for his help, and had never accepted it when it was offered. She’d never done anything but push him away. But he couldn’t just leave her here like this, too drunk to make good decisions, her friends too drunk to realize it, and Rich too drunk to keep his damn hands to himself.
“You need to stop doing that,” he said to Rich.
Even through the haze of alcohol, Rich heard the steel in his voice. He stared at Alex. Then he looked at Holly. “What’s the story here?” he asked.
She blinked at him. “Huh?”
“Does Alex have some kind of claim on you?”
“A claim? On me? Of course not.”
Rich turned to look at him again, and his expression was belligerent. “Back off,” he said.
Alex got to his feet. “I’m taking you home,” he told Holly.
“I’m taking her home,” Rich insisted, putting a proprietary hand on her arm.
“Not in a million years,” Alex said. He put a hand on the other man’s chest and gave a quick, hard push that sent him stumbling backward several feet.
“Hey!” Holly said, jumping up. “I can take care of myself. And you’re not the boss of me, Alex McKenna.”
“For tonight, I am.”
He put his hands on her waist and lifted her, amazed at how light she was. Then he threw her over his shoulder and strode out of the bar, ignoring the startled protests from her friends, from Rich and from Holly herself.
She was pounding on his back with her fists, but that wasn’t as distracting as having so much of her pressed up against him for the second time that night. It was a relief when he got the passenger door open and could deposit her in the front seat, snapping her safety belt into place.
He was betting her advanced state of intoxication would prevent her from getting out of the car before he could get in, and he was right. She was still fumbling to undo the belt when he slid in behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition.
After a couple of minutes, she gave up.
“I’m going to be really, really mad at you once I’m sober again.”
“I know.”
“I can’t believe you actually did that. Just … tossed me over your shoulder.” She waved a hand in the air to emphasize her point and accidentally smacked him on the side of the head. He winced.
“And all because I was trying to have fun for once in my life,” she grumbled, folding her arms and slouching down in her seat. “I know you think I’m uptight. You should be glad to see me loosen up.”
“I don’t mind you loosening up. I just mind you letting some drunken idiot unbutton your sweater in public.”
“He’s not an idiot. And I can take my clothes off if I want to. It’s a free country.”
“Fine,” he snapped as he pulled onto the highway. “The next time I see you three sheets to the wind in the middle of a sports bar, you’re on