Bliss stopped reaching for a lime. Charm’s gaze cut toward mine from the end of the bar, and Ryan leaned back in his chair like he already knew this was about to get ugly.
“I am happy for you,” I said.
Easton looked at me then, really looked at me, and the hatred in his face would have been easier if it didn’t still know me. “You don’t have the right to celebrate anything on my behalf.”
My fingers tightened around the edge of my tray. “Everything with you costs something now.”
His mouth barely moved. “You taught me that.”
Bliss whispered his name, but he didn’t look at her.
I shifted my grip on the tray, refusing to react like he had just found the softest part of me and pressed his thumb directly into the bruise. “That’s convenient.”
His eyes narrowed. “What is?”
“You deciding what I’m allowed to feel so you never have to hear what I actually meant.”
Cade stepped closer. “Wade.”
I looked at Easton. “Order something, Captain, or move. Some of us are working.”
I saw it before he buried it, a flash of heat beneath the ice, quick and violent and gone before anyone who hadn’t once had his mouth against their throat would recognize it.
Easton ignored Cade. “I’ll take water.”
Briggs groaned loudly. “See? This is what captaincy does to people. It strips joy right out of the bloodstream.”
Rider lifted two fingers. “I’ll take whatever doesn’t come with shrapnel if it gets me away from this shitshow faster.”
Ryan looked at him. “You came with us. That option died in the parking lot.”
Bliss moved toward the glasses, but I beat her to it because I needed my hands busy and my pride upright. I filledEaston’s water, set it on the bar, and slid it toward him without letting our fingers touch.
The glass touched the bar with a quiet click, and his hand stayed wrapped around it. He didn’t look away from me, but the muscle in his cheek jumped once.
“You had a year to tell me what you meant.”
“And you had seven months to let me finish one sentence.”
His mouth tilted, but there was nothing amused in it. “You finished plenty that night.”
The hit came fast enough that my breath caught before I could hide it. Behind me, Bliss said my name under her breath, soft and warning, but I didn’t move. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of watching me step back from a wound he knew exactly how to reopen.
“That’s what we’re doing now?” I asked. “You’re going to keep dragging the worst thing I said into every conversation until it’s the only version of me you’ll see?”
Easton leaned in just enough for his voice to drop beneath the noise around us. “You treated me like shit for a fucking year, and that is the only version I got.”
I laughed once, and it came out meaner than I felt. “No, Easton. You made sure it was the only version you kept.”
His stare shifted, the cold cracking around the edges. For one second, he looked too much like the man who used to know when I was scared before I said a word, and I hated him for still being in there. I hated him more for only letting me see it when he was trying to hurt me.
“You want to do this here?” he asked.
“No.” I kept my voice low while my pulse beat hard against my throat. “I wanted to do this seven months ago. You chose to be hateful and silent where I am concerned.”
“You had a year to make sure you were heard, and you ignored me every time I tried. That is why you get my silence now.”
The words were quiet enough that no one beyond the bar probably caught them, but they hit harder than if he had shouted.
