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LIV
I’m too many shots in, but I feel amazing just the same.
Mia and I came out tonight for one last hoorah before we head to California this weekend. Everything has been happening so fast that I thought we’d have to postpone or stay in a hotel before I found us a place to stay, but a rental home came through and I’m excited, somewhat at peace, and anxious at the same time.
And I won’t slow down.
Not until I’m far away from here and every memory that remains. Like I told Mia, there’s nothing here for me anymore. I don’t know why I stayed, but I know I have to leave to start somewhere where my mind is at peace and my money is not from a man that I’ve slept with multiple times.
Hudson is going to be pissed when I come into the parlor tomorrow to tell him that I’ve been offered a job I can’t refuse, but he’s already mad at me, so what’s the difference? I’m not going to mention that I’m moving out of state and to California because I know it’ll trigger Rory’s father and a relationship with him, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I just need to get away from the potential of what I could’ve had here. I think, if I remain, Hudson will always haunt me, even if I do quit working for him and stay in town. And, with my luck, I’d run into him everywhere.
I can’t do it.
California is the place for dreams and, I’m hoping with the food truck job and experience, that one day I’ll be able to do the same.
“Liv, you want another shot?”
I glance over at Mia, who’s in the middle of downing one right now with Bobby. Some dude we used to go to high school with who has a mad crush on her but won’t admit it out loud.
I shake my head in the middle of the dance floor that’s currently packed with bodies. However, I’m close enough to where she’s standing that I can hear her over the music.
Without much thought only of the bass of what’s playing, I lose myself in my own space. There’s nothing I want more than to be able to move forward and build a magnificent life for me and my daughter. Maybe, eventually, meet someone that I can have a relationship with and not be so closed off about Rory.
Here, I’m so used to her being a second-class citizen that I can’t comfortably speak about her anywhere.
She’s like a ghost.
But Rory is real and loud and vivid in my life.
I don’t want her to feel like she’s not wanted. And I’m surprised that she hasn’t noticed or asked about my mother and for little details of my life.
But, she’s still young, and when they do come…I’ll answer them as honestly as I can without making it sound like she was never something my mother or sister wanted without a husband.
For as long as I can, anyway.
My ass bumps into a body that has me mindlessly turning around to apologize, but instead of doing that, I almost fall on my ass when I double back from the sight of Hudson in my gaze and the purple strobes illuminating off his sculpted muscles.
His hand immediately shoots out to steady me before drawing me closer and back to where I once was before.
My pulse races through my veins on speed as I try to gather up what he’s doing here, how he knew I’d be here, and what I’m supposed to say. He so graciously gave me the week off, but I thought it was to get me out of his hair for a while, so he didn’t have to look at me.
Now he does.
And it’s his fault now since he came up on me without any warning.
Hudson suddenly leans forward, catching my breath in his grasp when he mutters, “Watch your step, Opie.”
His voice isn’t loud, but I can still hear it as though my brain can only pick up his wavelengths of sound. His green eyes skate down the front of me in a slow descent as I watch him with suspicious eyes at how this is all going to play out.
Lifting his hand, he crooks his finger for me to come closer and my feet faithfully move before I can tell them to stay. Thick fingers lace with mine before Hudson guides me through the crowd and the short distance to the back of the bar.
Outside, people are chilling with their beverages underneath stringed lights that hover over the renovated alley. The music barely makes it past the glass door, but it still strums a bit through the space.
But that’s completely forgotten when Hudson pivots along the brick wall and hits me with his focus again.
Then everything hits me all at once.
