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"Well, excuse me for trying to give you a little enlightenment," Billie said, toying with her crescent moon necklace.
"Oh, I was enlightened alright. And I now know I will never, ever bend forward in front of a man again unless I am fully dressed."
"Right. Like you are ever undressed around a man," Billie teased.
"I am busy with work."
"She always says that. And half the time, she is lounging on her couch with her real boyfriend: Netflix," Billie said.
"Guys are a hassle," Hope said, shrugging.
"Guys are fun," Billie corrected, eyes dancing.
"Well, when one toys with them like you do, maybe," Hope relented.
"They love being played with," Billie insisted. "Speaking of playing. Is that Malc's friend Rowe I see? Excuse me. Girl code," she said, shrugging. "Thy bitches shalt not get in the way of a good dicking," she clarified before sauntering off to talk to the tall, dark, handsome stranger.
"The one man in the world she stands no chance with," Hope said, shaking her head. "Of course, it is the one she wants."
"Why does she have no chance with him?" I asked, seeing her move in front of him, getting his attention.
"He's a lot like Malc. Quiet. Sensible. And Billie, well, she is..."
"The exact opposite of sensible?" I filled in. With love. Because I happened to get a kick out of Billie's brand of crazy.
"Exactly. Anyway. Back to Niro," she said, making me jump and turn, wondering if he had spotted me yet.
He still mostly had his back to me, though, as he raised a glass of amber liquid to his lips, taking a small sip as a woman moved in front of him, reaching out in a familiar way, running her hand up his arm.
"It's, ah, it's nothing," I said, my voice a small, uneven thing.
"Yeah, sure looks like nothing," Hope said, tone dry, but I was too distracted to call her on it as Niro turned a little bit more, showing me more of his profile.
Which had a badly healing cut right above and along his eye as well as a bruise on his chin.
It wasn't a strange sight to see Niro with bruises. I mean, he was always getting into little skirmishes when we were growing up. And a biker life was not always an easy one. Still, I had this old, familiar urge to walk over there and insist he follow me into the bathroom so I could clean the cut out with some witch hazel before the infection set in. The woman's hand moved across his shoulder, sinking under the neck of his tee, then pulling it down slightly to inspect something she found there. A tattoo, most likely. One I didn't know existed, and it bothered me more than it should have since I was an active participant in our fallout to realize there were parts of his life I no longer knew about.
As if suddenly sensing my inspection, Niro's gaze went from the woman's hand on his chest right to me.
The contact as it fell on me felt like an electrical current right through the center of my body, unsettling, unexpected.
He looked like I remembered, if maybe his jaw had chiseled out a bit more than before. But it was the same face. The same dark hair. The same dark eyes.
Except, something was different about those eyes. Something was so different that a strange chill moved through me, making a shiver rack my system, shocking me enough to suddenly turn and dart out the back door before I even really understood what I was doing.
What was I doing?
Running away from Niro, my old best friend?
No, I realized as I made my way across the back grounds, making a beeline for the picnic table under a weeping willow.
No.
I wasn't running from that Niro.
I was running from the man who had taken his place.
A man I no longer recognized.
My father was right after all.
Something had happened to Niro.
And a part of me didn't want to know what it was. Because I was terrified I wasn't going to love this version of him like I loved my Niro.
Hell, I wasn't even sure he was a man who would allow himself to be loved.
And that was possibly the worst thing I could imagine.
So I was running from it.
From him.
Only... I didn't realize he was chasing after me.
Chapter Five
Niro
I guess I should have expected her.
Once the news got out that she was home, of course someone was going to head over and drag her to the party so everyone could welcome her back home again. Like family and friends should.
Gracie was the most likely to reach out first. And Hope, already getting dragged by Gracie to a party she wouldn't love, decided to drag an even more unwilling Andi along with them.
She'd never been a fan of parties. It was too crowded, too loud, too overwhelming to her senses. She'd rather be one-on-one with a friend. Or surrounded by a pile of puppies. Not at a party.
