“Thank you,” she said.
He moved his focus to her. “Anytime. Congrats, by the way,” he said. “I’m happy for you. Does Addison know yet?”
“She does,” Lanie said, chuckling but dialing it in as she glanced to her side for Nick. “She’s over the moon to be a big sister.”
That time, it was Nick’s turn to show a flash of pain as he closed his eyes and turned his head, guiding his wife along. I’d bet that Leo didn’t notice it, and I’d double that bet to say that Nick had no intention of showing it.
I looked back to Leo, but he was already moving down the bar.
Okay, then.
Not my business.
As I made my way around the bar to join Gabi and Carmen, I glanced back to see him talking to a bored-looking woman in a suit. Talking to her, but his eyes were on me, sending heat to every nerve ending.
Nope.
Keep walking, Micah. Keep walking.
* * * *
“I can’t take your bed,” Gabi slurred, attempting to get up for the seventh—maybe eighth—time. “I need to go home. I have fishhhhhhh. That’s all I have. Just them.”
I’d heard about these fish for the past hour. This tank I never saw one gill or scale in when I was over there the day before, but now was the reason for her entire existence.
“They will be fine till the morning, Gabi,” I said. Again. “Or the afternoon, however this plays out. They won’t be fine if you wreck your car on the way home, Miss Five Corpse Revivers and a shot.”
“Mmm, all that lemonononony—”
“Yeah, you might not care for lemon much tomorrow,” I said. “So enjoy the memory.”
“I’m so glad you came to town, Micah,” she said, hugging my pillow to her chest as she careened backward into the other one and rolled over onto her face. “You’re my bestest friend, now,” she mumbled.
I giggled and covered her up as she passed out instantly. I hadn’t been anyone’s “bestest friend” in a long time. It was kind of nice, even if a bit influenced.
My hand was killing me, now that my own influence was wearing off. I looked in the baby fridge for ice, but of course there was none. All I could do was run colder water on my towel and wrap it. First, though, the clothes had to go. Dress, underwear, hat were all tossed aside for the one thing I was glad I’d put in the getaway backpack. (The irony of “getaway” was not lost on me.) My favorite comfortably tattered sleep shorts and matching tank top. Not so much for honeymoon wear, but for after the action when Jeremy fell asleep and I would lay in bed reading whatever. They weren’t meant for any other eyes but mine, but they possibly beat out root beer floats for comfort level.
I pulled them on, grabbed the afghan off the couch to wrap around me, and headed out the door to the bathroom to wash my face. Halfway down, a smallish door I hadn’t seen off the hallway to the left caught my eye. My feet made the detour before I could think.
It opened to a small, almost hidden balcony. Not overlooking the street, but over the back alley, straight into another brick wall. The view made it pretty clear why this hadn’t been presented as a selling point, but there were two lounge chairs with makeshift footstools out there. Probably Gabi’s parents’ little escape hatch.
It called to me. A little patchwork piece of privacy to think, absorb the night, and just—be. I commandeered one of the chairs and put my bare feet up on the stool, closing my eyes, hoping the quiet would soak in and dull the noise in my brain. I’d meant to ask Gabi tonight about going to Jeremy’s with me tomorrow. To be my witness and ensure that anything that was said or done wasn’t just for my eyes only. That would have to wait till in the morning, given the current state of her face-plant into my bed.
I sighed, opening my eyes to look at the shadows on the brick across from me. This was perfect. Some people might wish for a beautiful view, but to me it was like curling up in a cocoon with your own head where no one could see you. Right now nothing sounded better than that.
The door clicking behind me might as well have been a cannon going off, and I nearly took out the other chair in my flail to get to my feet. Without the afghan, which landed under the chair.
“Um,” said Leo, taking in the view of not just bricks but way too much of me. “Am I interrupting?”
“Yes, actually,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself unsuccessfully, then giving up and diving under the chair for the afghan.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s—” I flailed again as I tried to gesture while wrapping a see-through blanket around me. “It’s fine. I just found myself a little spot, and—”
“I found it last night,” he said, sinking onto the other chair without further ado, closing his eyes before I even sat back down. “So technically it’s my spot.”
“Technically?”
“Squatters rights.”
“Well, technically, you’re supposed to still be at work,” I said, sitting back down, wishing there was enough to cover my legs. It was either top or bottom, and I was going for most necessary. “So, how was the first day?”
Leo breathed in deep through his nose and let it go. “Well, the other bartender spilled sangria on me—”
“Explains the smell.”
“And then this chick drinks too much and pukes everywhere, and I have to go save my sister-in-law and my—you—from a crazy madman,” he continued, making me giggle. “Then of course there was my sulking brother wishing I’d stayed gone. Or dead. Whatever he thought I was.”
“Sounds like a banner first day,” I said. “Maybe even normal for this place.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Gabi said this town is weird. Things come out of nowhere, bees disappear, and something about an old man who lives in the woods.”
“I think I might work for him,” he said.
I looked his way. “The man in the woods?”
“If he’s BBG,” Leo said. “I’m doing some clean-up contract work across the pond for them and was told the owner was located remotely.”
“Hmm,” I said, closing my eyes. “Well, the two of you should hit it off like gangbusters.”
“Whatever,” he said on a tired exhale. “So, how’s your friend?”
“She’s snoring in my bed right now,” I said.
“You left her alone?”
“She won’t be moving again until tomorrow,” I said. “She wore herself out arguing with me about fishhhhhhhh.”
Leo laughed. An unexpected deep rumble of a thing that sent goose bumps rolling over my entire body, making me turn to stare at his grinning profile. Oh, my God. It was just unfair for any one man to be that hot.
“And you?” he asked, looking my way in the dark, nearly catching me gawking.
“She sobered me up,” I said. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“How is your hand?” he asked, reaching for my hand with the towel wrapped around it and turning it over. “Hurt?”
“Throbbing a little, yeah,” I said.
“Get you a freezer pack tomorrow,” he said, setting my hand back down carefully.
I saluted with my other hand, and silence fell. Weirdly, it wasn’t awkward. It was okay, like a blanket and dessert in front of a movie. Comfortable. Each in our own heads, except for the thoughts pinging around mine about how natural that felt with him. With a guy I barely knew, when eight years with Jeremy had never felt like that.
I closed my eyes and relished the fact that some of the internal noise had dissipated, and then he took a deep breath.
“I broke a promise,” he said softly, the quiet of his words cutting through the night. “To Nick.” There was a long pause, and I almost held my breath. “I broke his trust. I broke everything.”
CHAPTER TEN
The goose bumps trickled over my skin again, slow, like they were pickin
g their path. It felt like a moment, Leo confiding something personal to me, and I realized how foreign that was. Jeremy was either an open book or told me nothing, because I never got the sense that anything he said was a big deal. Was that kind of sad?
“We were on our own at a pretty young age,” he said after another long pause. “Went to live with our uncle, but—” Leo scoffed. “He had no interest in parenting anyone. He was never there, so I kind of took that on. Made sure we were always at school and no flags were raised so that nobody would figure it out and report it or split us up. We swore to each other that nothing would make that happen.”
“How old were you?” I asked.
“Thirteen,” he said, offhandedly. “Nick was ten.”
“Jesus.”
“No, it was okay,” he said. “We made it work. Most times our uncle at least made sure there was food in the house, but anything we really needed I learned to—be innovative.”
He stole. Part of me wanted to raise my hand and say Hey, me too, and bond, but the grown-up inside me said to shut up. I stole things back then for the thrill of it. He did it out of need.
“I made a lot of bad decisions those years, though,” he said. “Hooked up with the wrong people over and over, letting greed drive me instead of just getting us by the right way.” He shook his head. “I was such a moron.”
“How old were you then?” I asked.
“Twenty.”
“Everyone’s a moron at twenty.”
He smirked. “I was a special kind of stupid,” he said softly. Almost to himself.
“Oh, he told me tonight that he worked construction for a Blankenship, might have been Jeremy’s family.” Leo went silent. “They used to live in the same area y’all did before their house burned down.”
The quiet was deafening.
“Small world,” he finally said, echoing my earlier thought. “So, long story short, he came to me needing my help and I bailed on him. Then I had to leave, and—”
Leo stopped talking again, and I looked at him, waiting.
“Had to?” I asked.
He rubbed at his eyes and blew out a breath.
“Story for another time.” His hand dropped to his chest. “Why am I telling you all this?”
“My magic power,” I said on a yawn. “Makes men weak and talkative.”
“Well, you need to dial that shit back,” he said, making me laugh softly. “It’s potent.”
There was another stretch of silence, and I had the weirdest urge to touch him. To reach over and hold his hand. Speaking of being a moron. Thank God that hand was currently wrapped in a wet towel and not up for stupid activity.
“Jeremy swept me off my feet,” I said instead. Because my powers clearly weren’t done for the evening and didn’t exclude me. “I’d had boyfriends, but nothing like that. No one could blow me away or pull me out of my comfort zone like he could. I was—kind of a free spirit up till then. I moved out at eighteen, went with the wind, did what I wanted, didn’t answer to anyone, and then I met Jeremy Blankenship.”
“And all that changed?” Leo asked.
“Times a million,” I said. “But slowly. At first, I thought it was the way it should be, you know? I was twenty-four and all over the place, so I thought it was good for me. Growing up and being responsible and having someone help you, shape you, love you so much that you believe it’s all for your own best interests.” I tugged the afghan around me tighter. “Then all these years later, I wake up one day and realize that there isn’t anything of me left. My interests are in a box in my brother’s attic. My friends have disappeared. My way of thinking is pressed so far back in my mind that I can barely see it, because Jeremy’s way—his words, his logic, his branding—has become the new me. ‘That’s not professional, Micah. Wear this instead. Hold your head up at parties, Micah. Look like you belong. Get out of the rain, Micah, you’re not a child. Get your head in the game, Micah. Look like this. Act like this. Talk like this. Have a friggin’ orgasm when I do, Micah, because I don’t have time for the extra work.’”
My eyes filled with tears.
“I live in this pretty box. Like going to one of those all-inclusive resorts that have everything so you never want to leave?” I nodded at my own analogy. “That’s my life. You said people run away from something or to something, and I honestly don’t know which it was.”
I was breathing fast and didn’t realize it till I stopped talking. My heart was racing.
“Hey.”
I head-jerked in his direction. “Yeah?”
“You aren’t there anymore.”
I drew in a shaky breath and let that simple sentence ground me. Darkness surrounded us, but I could see him looking at me, and it was intense. He reached over, resting his arm on my chair. Not on me, but it was the same as if he had. I felt the warmth behind the intention. I felt his touch in the same way I’d wanted to touch him, and it settled my rushing blood.
“Your choices are yours again,” he said finally. “You took off the ring; you can put it back on again any time you want. You left, and you can go back; no one is pulling your strings now. Just breathe. Be you.”
I inhaled deeply and let it go, staring forward again, listening to the ring of the quiet. Be me. I had to figure out who that was again.
“I was callous when I said that earlier tonight, Roman-off,” he said. “I’m sorry for that.” He faced forward, too. “I should know better than anyone that there’s always a story behind the story.”
I looked down at his arm, still resting on my chair. Not in a controlling way but—protective. Caring. Something I would have never gleaned from the big bear Harley-guy I first climbed onboard with. Then again, he did let me climb onboard.
“So there’s a story behind coming to this odd little town to bartend at a restaurant and work for secret people that has seeing your brother as an ulterior motive?” I asked.
Leo chuckled and turned to face me, his feet landing on the ground.
“Remind me not to talk around you, Roman-off,” he said, leaning close to my head as he stood. “You remember too much.”
I grinned as he walked off. “Magic power.”
“By the way,” he said, stopping and turning back, “any man who isn’t willing to do the extra work for you? That guy is an idiot and not worth your time.” He held up a hand. “My opinion.”
Oh, my God, that was out loud. I’d said that out loud. I’d said—
Kill me now.
“Good night,” he said, opening the door with a click and closing it behind him.
I closed my eyes and pushed the mortification away, letting the silence sink in again, blanketing me. This time it came with the echo of words.
You aren’t there anymore.
Be you.
Goose bumps.
“Good night,” I whispered.
* * * *
“I’ve been mauled by wild animals,” Gabi muttered, crawling onto my couch after a trip down the hall. The crappy couch I’d slept on because she’d commandeered the entire bed like a damn octopus. “I feel like I did the running of the bulls last night. And they won.”
“They did,” I agreed. “But you put up a good fight.”
“Why is the bathroom so far away?” she mumbled into a pillow.
I laughed. “I feel your pain.”
“Did I—was there a man who—did I hook up with someone?” she managed to get out.
“You don’t remember?”
Gabi pulled her head out of the pillow and squinted up at me.
“So I did?” she said. “I was with some strange guy? Oh, my God. I haven’t been with anyone besides Bart in—” She went even paler than before. “I’m gonna be sick.”
I grabbed the wastebasket and set it close to her, shaking my head.
“Slow down,” I said. “
You didn’t hook up with anyone. There was just this drunk guy that got handsy during karaoke and picked you up to—”
“Ride—oh, sweet Jesus, yeah I remember that now,” she said, pulling another pillow over her head like a sandwich.
“I’d make you some toast, but I have no food,” I said. “We could go get something.”
“Don’t say—food,” she said, her voice muffled between the pillows.
“But I do have some headache medicine and a bottle of water in my mini fridge,” I said.
Gabi grunted.
“I think I even have a lemonade in there,” I said, testing my theory.
Pillows went two different directions, as she rolled to her side and dove her head into the wastebasket I’d be throwing away later.
“There you go,” I said, getting up for the water. “Get that poison out of your system.”
An hour and forty-five minutes later, I was dressed and Gabi was sitting upright and picking miniscule corners off crackers I’d raided from the shop’s snack stash they use for gift baskets. And I was antsy.
“I know you feel like death right now,” I said, sitting on the coffee table opposite her. “But would you mind riding with me somewhere? After we go feed your fish?”
She frowned. “How do you know about them?”
“They were vitally important last night,” I said.
She chuckled as she broke another crumb off, staring at the cracker in her hand like it was a science experiment.
“What Nick did—his announcement—” Gabi said, a small smile warming her face. “That was cool. He and Lanie are so lucky.”
I remembered her mention of fertility research.
“You and Bart were trying to have a baby?” I asked.
She scoffed. “I was.” She blinked rapidly. “Everything turns out as it should, I guess. I can’t have babies and he can’t be faithful, so…”
“I’m sorry, Gabi.”
She swiped under her eyes quickly. “Just take my car again,” Gabi said with a wave of her hand. “I have no plans to do anything.”
Charmed at First Sight Page 11