“Thanks, I appreciate it.” I noticed Mike’s demeanor change a bit as he leaned in closer. “Van, I know this isn’t the place, but after Tommy died, things got weird. I tried reaching out for a while and then stopped. That guilt has been heavy on my shoulders for a long time; I’m sorry. We were too good of friends for me to give up so easy, but it fucked me up too. I know now that I should have tried harder. I want to get that off my chest in case you’re out of here again.”
“Mike”—he put his hand on the giant’s shoulder—“you could have called and shown up five times a day for a year, and it wouldn’t have mattered. I shut down for a very long time. I needed time and space to work some things out on my own, and that’s really only happened in the last six months. Look, I’m leaving in the morning, but let’s set a time for me to come back. We can grab a drink and have a proper catch-up. Or better yet, come down to me. My project is an adventure resort in honor of Tommy. You’ll have to attend the opening at the bare minimum.”
“Holy shit, Van, that’s incredible. I wouldn’t miss it. Man, it’s so fucking good to see your face.” I noticed the giant of a man tear up a little. “Wait, you coming in here tonight?” He pointed at the bar behind him.
“That’s the plan. Kenna might be coming by too. She’ll either be solo or with one of her girls.”
“Your sister is old enough to get into bars and pass the bar? Shit man, that makes me feel real old. How will I know it’s her?”
“I’ll have her find you. She can’t miss ya, big guy.”
“Sounds good. If we weren’t short-staffed by three tonight, I’d leave and come with you now, but I can’t. I’m going to take you up on that drink, though. I can’t believe you just walked up to my fucking bar at midnight. What are the chances?”
We had a chuckle about it, but before we moved on, Mikey had one more thing to say.
“I really missed you, Donovan. Some of my best memories have you in them, man.”
“Same, Mikey. We’ll reminisce over them when we grab that drink, and you can fill Audra in on all the stories,” Donovan said, and I didn’t miss the sparkle in his eye.
“If you want, but we want her to continue to like you, though, right?”
And we all laughed. They exchanged hugs, confirmed their phone numbers were the same, and we waltzed into the club. I had so many questions.
“That had to be one of your travel group guys. He called you Van and knew about Tommy,” I stated when we were out of earshot.
“Yeah, it was.”
“But he works construction during the day and bounces at night?”
He read between the lines of my question. “I assure you, he has more money than I do. He has his reasons for doing it.”
“How did you know he was here? Do you feel okay after seeing him? That had to be a lot, Van.”
“No, I didn’t know, but I feel surprisingly good. The plan was to pay the bouncer to get us in quickly, but I saw him a mile away.”
I squeezed Donovan’s hand in support, but had to stop the conversation because it became hard to focus on all the things going on in the club. The beat was pulsing so loudly that the floor was vibrating, the lights went from sexy glow at the bar to party on the dance floor, and there were sweaty people in every direction you looked doing their thing. Even though we had just wrapped up our umpteenth romp in the sheets, or more specifically, on the couch, the club sure set the mood. Donovan put his hand on my bare back, which lit me on fire, and led me towards the VIP lounge. After I told Jules we were going, her friend put us on the VIP list. When we walked up, we found Jules sitting on Nathan’s lap, laughing and sipping some drink. They were here with some of his friends, but there was a mix of men and women in their crew.
“Audra!” Jules squealed when she saw me, hopping up to hug me, clearly buzzed. “I’m glad that you’re feeling better,” she said, then leaned close to my ear. “By the looks of the glow, a whole lot better.”
Donovan came up and wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you, Juliette. I owe you for saving my ass. I’m sorry for interrupting your event like that. Congratulations on your award. By the way, I didn’t realize the party was celebrating you. Imagine my surprise when I saw your photo in the front of the room!”
“It wasn’t just me, don’t worry. I’m just happy I was in New York and at the same restaurant. Pretty sure the chances of that happening are less than winning the lottery or something.”
Just then, Nathan appeared behind Jules and waved to me.I crossed to him and threw my arms around him.
“You will never know how much I appreciated you tonight. Thank you. You deserve all the good things in the world for being such a great human, Nathan.”
“Oh, fear not, he’ll be appreciated later,” Jules flirted.
Nathan winked at Jules and turned back to Donovan. “Were you the guy who caused all the ruckus tonight?”
Donovan laughed because I explained what happened at the bar with Nathan on our walk over. How he initially came up to hit on me, but instead comforted me and answered my psycho questions, and then exchanged numbers with Jules after she pushed him to do it.
“Well, my parents sure did, but it has all been remedied. Thanks for not being a douchebag, man,” Donovan held out his hand. “I’m Donovan Wright.”
“Nathan Thorston.”
Nathan shook Donovan’s outstretched hand. “I’ve got three younger sisters. Audra here looked like she needed someolder brother-type love when I got a closer look. Glad to hear it’s been straightened out. Plus, I think I should be thanking you,” he said as he put his arm around Juliette’s shoulder, and she danced in place. “We have bottles all over these tables. Please help yourself to whatever you want. The DJ tonight is great.”
