I looked at him. “You’re sure—?”
“That sounds like a good idea actually, Grayden,” Bastian said to me, my words all but gone to Gray. He smiled at him. “You can tell me what she’s been up to while she’s been here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gray
He’d been right. His face did strike me as familiar, but for the life of me… I couldn’t place the man who’d suddenly arrived at Josephine’s house.
His face blurred as if lost in a never-ending sea. I’d known a lot of people over my lifetime, interacted with them in my “day to day” as he proclaimed as well, the man displaying an air of uppity-ness that I too had exhibited once upon a time.
It seemed like a lifetime ago.
I sipped my seltzer water, eyeing him over the many heads and faces of Brown & Hobs. He was over at the bar, selecting something as the pitcher that had been brought to our table wasn’t to his liking.
Where have I seen you?
Or maybe I hadn’t, just felt I had. Like I said, I came from a world, one he looked to fit right into. My old job, my old life had kept me around a lot of influential people at one time and that guy by the bar definitely fit the type. He wore a suit just because it was a Tuesday, didn’t matter the occasion.
Shaking my head, I peeled my vision away from him. I’d fought hard to scrub my memories of the past, not my reality now and not the point. He must have just resembled someone I knew and my face the same to him. Like I said, I used to come from that world.
And thank God no more.
More pressing issues arrived in the form of Alicia and how weird she’d been acting since this guy showed up. She rode with me to the country-dance bar featuring line dancing, but she’d been rather close-lipped about her friend. She said he was just a guy she knew from back home. He’d come to check up on her and how she was doing down here being gone for so long. I took that for what it was until they were in the room together again, the guy driving over in his expensive rental that stood out in this small town. Red and polished, he’d parked it right up, arriving before Alicia and me. Opening the door for her, he placed his hand behind her lower back. Not really… that weird if he was just a friend.
But usually one wanted to interact with their friends.
She stayed close to me, one- or two-word answers to him and our group of friends, which crowded around us when we arrived. She’d introduced her friend Bastian to the rest of the gang, but then, she faded off from him in conversation. She let the group lead on, which wasn’t much like her since she enjoyed being social. She enjoyed talking, but tonight, she remained rather passive. Even her friend—the guy—had actually been talking more than her, inquiring about the town and everything about it. He was quite eloquent, obviously of the city as Alicia herself.
Nursing my drink, I watched Alicia now, the woman involved in a rigorous line dance. Her friend Ava had brought her in shortly after arriving, the bartender not taking no for an answer, and Alicia, she was usually quite receptive to the dancing though she’d just learned while she was here. She liked to have a good time and always was a good sport about dancing with her friends.
But tonight she wasn’t too keen on doing that. In fact, she fought Ava pretty hard before giving up. She’d used me as an excuse, saying she didn’t want to leave me sitting at the group’s table since I didn’t ever dance. I told her I’d been fine. The group knew I never got out there, my lack of dancing never an issue. I urged her to go and she eventually did, her friend Bastian leaving from the table around the same time to get an alternative to the beer we had.
Alicia could dance like the best of them though she claimed this wasn’t her thing, a Stetson hat placed on her head by Ava while she joined her hip to hip. The pair was sandwiched between a couple of our other friends, Jordan and Taylor. Arms hooked, they danced with glee and the smile on her face made me feel like I was out there with her. We all had our spheres and though dancing wasn’t one of mine, I enjoyed watching her. I could watch her do anything.
Catching her eye, I tipped my chin at her, her grin strong when she spotted me too. She waved before the group spun, her position switched and her legs having to reroute because of that. Stumbling, she ran into Ava, which caused them both to crack up in laughter, Alicia throwing her hair back and grabbing her stomach. Smiling, the situation had me laughing too. They all got back into it, Alicia laughing again, but her lips straightened a little when her gaze panned to the right. The laughter suddenly left her lips completely and she turned, going back into the dance, but I moved my focus over to where she’d been looking.
The man of before, her friend, had his hand raised in her direction, his drink of choice, a brown liquor, in his hand. Closing his fingers, I assumed he just got done waving at her, his gaze panning. Stopping on me, he strode in my direction.
I lifted my seltzer water, going into a drink and putting my focus back on the dancing. As I was the only one sitting at the table still, our friends all out on the dance floor, only Alicia’s friend and I sat there, the man taking a seat on the other side of the table. Bringing his arm around the back of the chair, he gazed out toward the dance floor, lifting his hand again.
Alicia spotted him immediately, reciprocating the wave. She tugged her arm as if to leave the dance and come to us, but Ava pulled her right back in.
“Not a dancer, Grayden?”
His attention in my direction, Bastian danced his fingers on the wooden table between us with soft clicks.
“Not much of one no,” I told him, taking a drink before pushing it down with a stiff swallow. I tipped my drink at him. “You’re not either?”
A headshake followed what I said, his gaze shifting toward the dance hall.
“I prefer to watch,” he said, his gaze one of appreciation on the dance floor. His fingers flat on the table, he watched out there like he said, his vision lingering in the direction mine had all night.
Ava had Alicia in the throws of a spin, Alicia smiling in her arms and Bastian made no qualms about staring at the two, his fingers sliding up the table before grabbing his drink and taking a sip. The action caused me to grip my own glass, my eyes cutting hard in the corners before I took my own sip.
Clicking his teeth, Bastian placed his glass down, grinning a little too much at me for my liking.
“Alicia speaks very highly of you,” he said, sitting back. “The work you’ve done for her? In fact, so much, I had to see for myself which was why I came down.”
His words brought me amusement for some reason, my ice clinking my glass in my fingers. She may have spoken to him about me.
But not once had I heard a word about him.
“Well we put a lot of work in,” I told him, hoping she might have just overlooked the fact in our time together. “And I’m surprised she mentioned me as this is the first time I’ve ever heard about you.”
This was fact, nothing more and no concern had been given by me prior to this moment. Alicia had a life. She had one before this place, Mayfield, and I got that.
My words sent a curiosity skating across his expression, his lips hiking up slow in the corner.
“Interesting,” was all he said before our party was no longer alone.
Alicia joined us, her friend Ava and a few others in tow. Out of breath, they all dropped themselves around the round table easily large enough for twelve. They all found seats and Alicia positioned herself beside me, Bastian on her other side. She went to sit, pulling out her chair, but before Bastian let her, he grabbed her.
A side kiss touched her cheek, one of those French ones where his lips didn’t quite touch and I didn’t know what to make of it.
“You looked gorgeous out there,” he said to her, letting her go by the fingers and allowing her to sit beside me. He crossed his legs. “Though, I have to say, Alicia, the style isn’t quite your forte.”
The comment had all of us at the table looking at him, the randomness of it and how unnecessary it’d been. He basically
told her she looked foolish when he himself hadn’t even had the ambition to try.
Dampening my lips, I felt words on my tongue I didn’t want to say. It’d make things weird and may embarrass Alicia even more than this… friend did.
She spoke before I could.
“Well, it’s just for fun,” she said, dipping her head a little before placing her hands on the table. Bracing them, she wouldn’t face either of us at the table, no rebuttal to what was said to her.
I sipped again, keeping myself occupied and only came out of it when Alicia squeezed my leg slightly. It’d been quick, nothing more than a swift movement of her fingers but it’d been enough to let me know she was okay I supposed.
I wasn’t though, a few things this guy had said not sitting well with me. Alicia had looked gorgeous tonight, but I didn’t appreciate him saying that and doing so vocally to her.
Knowing I didn’t know the details in regards to the comfort she had in their relationship, I stayed silent, letting the conversation move. One thing I learned about Ava in these past few months was she was good at attempting to make people feel at home. She engaged the man, actually sounding like she genuinely wanted to know more about Alicia’s friend.
Needless to say he indulged her, almost to the point that revealed himself as his favorite conversation topic.
“Actually, I work in development. Not much unlike your Grayden here,” he said, nodding at me.
This man and I were far from the same, but I stayed silent, doing so a virtue all of a sudden.
“That’s actually how Alicia and I met,” he went on, dropping his arm behind her chair. He spoke to the crowd. “She represents my firm, the best at what they do and definitely worth the billable hours.”
Alicia’s smile was only slow to move over her face, her fingers reaching and scratching the back of her neck. Shifting in her seat, she moved forward a little, Bastian’s hand on her chair suddenly distant from her. Again, I didn’t know their relationship, but this seemed off.
And definitely not reciprocated.
I leaned over. “Alicia?”
She barely looked at me, shaking her head before following along with what Bastian went on with and I sat back, put back. Tapping the table, I lost the train of the conversation and, really, wasn’t seeing my place in it anymore.
Working my jaw, I checked my phone, going to get my kid an easy excuse.
Until I heard what I had next.
Alicia had been standing when it was said, her friend Ava next to her and tugging her for another dance. Alicia looked like she didn’t want to go, but again, she was going to go.
And then came Bastian.
“Don’t, sweetheart,” he said, his hand on her wrist. He squeezed. “You’ll just embarrass yourself again.”
I remember a, “What is your problem,” coming from my lips, his hand not leaving her arm fast enough. He stood first, but I’d been the one to engage, drawing Alicia away from in between us, which he took the wrong way. I just wanted his hands off her.
I just wanted her away from him.
He pushed, nothing but a tap on my arm, but it’d been enough for me to rear back.
It’d been enough for me to send him down with a single blow.
He was on the floor and suddenly everything was a blur, a crowd around us. Some had been our friends, some hadn’t but the reaction was just the same. They all stood, silent and even the music in the background seemed to have stopped. Everything struck silent, a man’s fingers to his lips as I cracked my fist right there. His mouth bleeding, Bastian let his fingers fall away and I’d never forget the expression on his face.
The smile moved slow across his mouth, the woman between us not going to me…
But taking care of him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alicia
“Alicia?”
Bastian’s fingers skated across my cheek and my stomach twisted, my body instinctually backing away from his touch.
His fingers lowered into the calm light of the room, my aunt’s end table lamp in the living room the only light to see by. We came back here together in his car, not saying many words at all along the way.
The reason why in my hand, I lowered the damp towel I’d been tending to his busted lip, the edge a deep and angry crimson. Gray had gotten him so very good.
Dropping the towel into a basin of warm water, I squeezed it out and brought it to his lip again. It’d swollen pretty good on impact, but the size seemed steady at this point. He had the indentation of bruises as well above, the print of thick knuckles embedded in his skin. Considering his injury, Bastian said nothing of pain, simply sitting there while I cared for the wound in my aunt’s living room. I guessed I felt it was the least I could do or something. I didn’t know why.
Why are you doing this to yourself… again?
The question circulated my head, Bastian’s and my history playing out before me even in the dull light of this room, him and his dominating presence and me, who always seemed to find my way back to this place when it came to him. It all started in a world outside of this one.
It seemed it found me again.
It found me in this place I discovered an unexpected peace within. It’d been one I hadn’t searched for but welcomed anyway. I loved it anyway.
My chest caving, I pressed the towel to Bastian’s mouth again, not a word of discomfort on his end like before, but when his hand reached for me once more, my blouse this time, I took my own extremities back.
He simply stared at me, questions in his eyes, but I had my own. I had so many.
My hand squeezed the towel and “What are you doing here?” fell from my lips. This had been the main question that circulated my brain since he arrived. Why was he here?
And what did he want with me?
The man sat back on my couch, his suit jacket gone and his gray button-up rolled over the thickness of his full arms. Considering Bastian had been in a fight tonight, the only indicator was a slight tousle to the wave of his spiky hair.
His head tilted, his chest rising and falling with a single breath. Bringing his hand down from his mouth, he leaned forward, arms draped over his knees.
“I feel like the real question is why don’t you want me here?”
He reached forward again, fingers intent on my chin but I pulled away once more, not letting him touch me.
His mouth closed.
“As well as why can’t I touch you?”
He lounged back with those words and I shook my head.
“You said you wanted to take things slow,” I told him, the word reverberating in my head like they had that day. He wanted to take things slow. He wanted to do his thing and let me do mine.
His fingers gathered at the top of his hair, and when he dropped them to the couch, his lips turned down.
“Yes, I did say that,” he said, moving closer to me. “But I think we can both agree we’ve been taking things slow.”
Swallowing, I panned away.
“Well, you can’t have it both ways,” I said and when I lifted the towel with intent to his lip, which started bleeding again, he grabbed my hand.
He brought the towel to his mouth, helping me wipe down his lips. The gesture was very intimate and I…
His hand replaced the towel, it dropping between us. He leaned forward and my only reaction was to move away.
“I don’t want it both ways, Alicia,” he said, drawing his body toward me. His hand touched the couch beside my hip and it would be too easy. It always had been easy.
But easy wasn’t what I wanted anymore and that wasn’t why I brought him here either.
Standing, I tried to find the reason, the bowl in my hand I placed on the end table near the lamp. My back to Bastian, I heard his breath behind me, a “You’re different” causing me to turn around.
He had his arms hung behind the back of the couch, his gaze appraising me. It was as if he was looking for something, but I knew if he found out just what that something was
it’d be the last thing he wanted to hear. He’d find out I had moved on from him, that slow was exactly what we should have been doing. We’d gotten together in a way we shouldn’t have, his separation from his wife more than fresh when we initially hooked up.
It took time away from him to make me see that and that went beyond this place, beyond what my heart ended up finding.
He stood, his fingers touching his lips, and when he came away, blood coated his fingers.
“I suspected,” he said suddenly, tongue touching down where his fingers had been. “That you were being unfaithful but I honestly didn’t believe you the type.”
“Bastian—”
“You’re sleeping with him, Alicia,” he said, the words no less a statement than me standing before him. He lifted his chin. “You’re sleeping with that Grayden. No man reacts that way unless he feels what’s his is being messed with.”
He said it so calmly, so… cold and I wondered if he even cared.
But then again it’d make sense that he didn’t.
Turning away, I intersected his hand, touching me and moving my chin in the direction of his gaze. I moved away and he only smiled, his hand coming down on the wall behind me.
“Like I said, I didn’t believe you the type,” he said, looking me up and down. “But don’t be ashamed. I’ve been with others as well.”
Of course he had.
I’d be surprised if he hadn’t.
But still my lungs felt too small in the cavity that contained them, his hands on me drawing me in. He stared at me, the epitome of collected and I had no idea how I didn’t see.
I had no idea why I felt I deserved this.
In all honestly, it took how it could be to make me see, know what it could truly be like to be cared about by someone. Gray had punched someone in a bar tonight. He punched someone to defend me.
And I went home with the man he was protecting me from.
I’d defaulted to old ways, disappointed in Gray being so reactive when all he’d done was the right thing. All he did was love.
His Sweetest Song Page 18