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Vacant heart.
He was back.
I’d made a swift, hopefully semi-graceful retreat down the velvet steps and went straight into the nearest bathroom.
I’d typically ended a stint at the wheel by delivering a “May fortune smile upon you” or some other equally archetypal gambling platitude. Then I’d begin my circuit around the casino floor—sans blindfold—to visit with the high rollers, following the subtle cues of the executives working the event to find players who needed their spirits invigorated.
As one of the casino’s top executives, Big Daddy probably wasn’t pleased that I’d gone off script. But as a man who’d watched me grow up, he might’ve granted me enough grace and understanding to stay behind and smooth things over with the patrons before seeking me out.
And I’d used those precious few minutes to scrub my skin raw instead of formulating a plan for how to deal with his son.
Or, better yet, forming and executing an exit plan.
AJ stepped around his father and confidently walked right into my personal space, pushing me back into the bathroom. Terry briefly met my eyes with a look that I could almost classify as concern. But he and I both knew where I sat on his priority list. Below the casino and his son, in that order.
So, he left without a word, the vibration from the door closing reverberating through my bones. And my nerves.
AJ leaned back against the door in a way that only people who grew up having never doubted their place in the world could.
I used to admire that.
I used to crave it.
He smirked as the blanket of silence and resentment settled between us.
Less than a year ago, I thought I’d reached the epic climax of my childhood-friends-to-lovers story. It was the perfect progression of our relationship. Handsewn by fate.
Until what I’d envisioned was ripped at the seams after just one night.
I’d lived in the jagged pieces of its aftermath ever since.
I wished I could say that I was a different person now—stronger or more resilient. But that’d be disproven by the way I stared silently into AJ’s frustratingly familiar dark-blue eyes and voiced nothing. Not even one of the thoughts I’d just been having in front of the mirror.
Bravery didn’t have room to breathe in a place where betrayal was suffocating.
His utter disregard for our years of friendship had shaken me so badly that I didn’t even know where to start. When someone who knew basically everything about you, who saw you through every high and low of growing up and was there when you were abandoned, then did the same thing to you….
There was no exact word for how that felt or what it did to you.
Before Cody moved to the Coast, AJ’s was the shoulder I cried on. The person I confided in and who helped me find what I thought was a worthwhile purpose here in reviving Lady Luck—my mom’s legacy.
He was attached to so many of my core memories, and I’d always assumed he’d be attached to future ones too.
“Still running to nowhere, aren’t you, my Lady Luck?” he asked with a lift of a thick eyebrow and a barely-there smile.
I glanced over my shoulder toward the washroom’s second exit, and he chuckled at my subconscious confirmation.
His voice turned quiet, almost earnest, as he added, “It doesn’t need to be like this. I’ve missed you, you know.” He paused, and his jaw flexed slightly, as if he was considering saying more.
When I gave no encouragement, he huffed and took a step forward, holding out his hand as if to grasp mine but then raised it to my face and tucked a piece of my wavy hair behind my ear.
My body briefly—very briefly, thankfully—leaned into his familiar touch before sanity prevailed, and I jerked away and stepped out of reach for good measure.
“Why are you here, AJ?”
He let his hand fall between us and snapped, “It’s Alexander. We’re not kids anymore. And you know why I’m here. For you.”
I cast my gaze around the bathroom and imagined having this long overdue showdown here of all places.
