Bent Read Online Free PDF Page A

tension building in her shoulders, "You have no clue. Business is good, but damn, this band brought some assholes into the bar with them." She went on to recap two near fights, a guy they kicked out for grabbing women on the dance floor and a higher than average number of women throwing themselves at her co-workers.
    Micah stood behind her and started rubbing the knots out of her neck. "Sounds rough." Because of their close relationship, they both knew there were rumors they were sleeping together.
    In reality, Ashley Millgrove was the big sister Micah never had. She'd seen him at his lowest points and never shied away from telling him when he was being a dick. In turn, he told her exactly what he thought of every guy she dated after they had come into the bar.
    She'd listened to him when things got tough and he had no clue what to do. He wished it wasn't so busy tonight so he could get her advice.
    "It's not so bad," she said. He could feel the tension melting from her shoulders. "At least the tips are good."
    "Well there's a silver lining," he didn't want to disrupt her smoke break with his problems. Chances were good it'd take an entire shift to sort out everything Micah had screwed up and she would be going back to work in a few minutes.
    Ashley turned so her legs were hanging off the end of the table and she was looking at Micah. "Enough about me. What's up with Annie's friend?" He should have known she'd have seen them together. It didn't matter how busy she was, Ashley didn't miss anything.
    "I was going to talk to you about that..." he paused while he tried to think of the best way to ask Ashley's opinion. He'd never cared about saying the right thing but this was do or die. He had one chance to make things right with Julia. "Do you think people can change?"
    "I think so but it depends on the situation. I take it you didn't meet her tonight?"
    In some ways, it felt like he'd met her tonight. Julia was so different from the girl he'd been head over heels in love with as a teenager. He'd told her all the time that she needed to learn to stand up for herself when people used her. If tonight was any indication, she was now an expert at speaking her mind.
    "You could say that," he mumbled avoiding eye contact with Ashley.
    Ashley leaned back on her hand like she had all the time in the world. "So, what did she do?"
    How could she know everything she knew about Micah and still jump to the conclusion that Julia would have been the one to do something wrong? She was one of the sweetest, most honest people he knew. It bothered him that this is where Ashley's mind went at his question.
    "Not her. Me." Micah explained everything to Ashley. If nothing else, he figured it would help him figure out how to say the same things to Julia.
    She deserved to know everything before the stupid dinner he'd roped them into by throwing the pool game. He'd planned on her refusal when he made the bet and she called his bluff. Now that he was talking to Ash, he wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
    "First, I think you're damned lucky she didn't slap you when you walked up to her," Ashley jabbed a finger into Micah's chest to punctuate her point. "And second, if you still love her as much as I think you do, you need to be honest with her."
    "I don't--" How could she think he was still in love with Julia? Sure, he enjoyed seeing her and had fun dancing and shooting pool with her, but that wasn't love. Love didn't figure into any of this, he just needed to clear the air with her.
    "Don't try to deny it. You don't get flustered over women. You've never once asked my opinion about a woman until tonight. That means something. That means she is something special." She hopped off the picnic table and grabbed Micah for a quick hug. "Just do me a favor, don't do anything that'll cause a scene here. I don't need the cops in here tonight."
    Once she was back inside, Micah sat on the table while he tried to put everything together in his mind. This was his chance