Page 14 of Keep Me

“I did,” Blair said, and that did not surprise me. She has always looked for the best in him.

“Well,” Austin laughed, “turns out dealing drugs and running a legitimate business aren’t so different.”

“Oh, shut up,” I rolled my eyes, but still the image of Austin at eighteen flashed through my mind. He felt so weathered yet so contained, his pain turned inwards so deeply it flashed to the world as danger.

He picked up the small fork the waiter had left on the table, flipping it between his heavy fingers with a casual speed. “I actually stopped by your old man’s office in West Bridge before we hit the highway. Had to drop off some paperwork for a project we’re looking at.”

My hand paused over the breadbasket. “You saw my dad?”

“Yeah,” Austin said, his voice dropping into a rougher, more casual register. “He was in the middle of reviewing some new contracts, but he kicked his assistant out so we could shoot the shit for an hour about commercial real estate down in Miami. He asked if I was coming down here to see you.”

“He did?” I asked, my fingers tightening around a piece of crust.

“Yeah. He told me to tell you he filled the feeder,” Austin muttered, a lazy grin cutting through his gruff expression. “Had no idea what the hell he was talking about, but he was real specific about it. Said you’d know.”

“Why bother having conversations, if you don’t even know what you’re having conversations about?” I muttered.

“Yeah, well,” Austin shrugged, his thumb moving lazily against Blair’s shoulder. “We met each other during the worst of it, Seren. We know how to talk to each other without saying much.”

The waiter arrived then, balancing a massive silver tray piled high with shaved ice and oyster shells, alongside a condensation-heavy bottle of white wine. Austin didn’t waste a second. He took the bottle from the waiter’s hand before the man could even reach for the wine key, cracking the seal with a sharp, practiced twist of his wrist. He poured a generous glass for Blair first, setting it down in front of her like she was royalty, before filling his own and leaning across the table to pour a splash into Zane’s water glass just to be annoying. He knew I didn’t drink, so he didn’t even try to joke with me about it.

When we first met, Blair didn’t drink, either. But it was not the same way I don’t drink. She didn’t drink then because she wasn’t sure what would happen if she did. I didn’t drink now because I knew the certainty of what would happen if I did.

“Congratulations on your success, Austin. You deserve it,” I lifted my glass of water toward him.

“Don’t get sentimental on me, Seren,” Austin scoffed, though the corners of his mouth twitched upward as he clinked his wine glass against my water. “Makes me think you’re getting soft out here in North Haven.”

“She can be soft if she wants to be,” Zane interrupted, his teeth catching the rim of his own glass before he took a drink, his eyes never leaving Austin. “And that was just polite. Someone at this table has to have manners.”

“Since when do you care about manners, Briggs?” Austin shot back, a lazy smirk pulling at his mouth as he picked up a fresh lemon wedge and squeezed it hard over the ice, spraying a few drops aggressively toward Zane’s side of the table. “I remember you throwing a guy through a drywall partition at a Hawkings party because he looked at you wrong.”

Zane didn’t even blink. He casually leaned his forearm on the table, completely unbothered by the citrus fallout. “The drywall was already cracked. I was doing the owner a favor.”

“Yeah, real polite of you,” Austin grunted, turning his glass in a slow circle. He looked across the table, his eyes locking onto Zane with that unspoken understanding they always shared. “How’s the transmission on the Mercedes holding up?”

“Fine,” Zane said, a small, genuine chuckle hitting his throat. “Unlike you, I don’t wait for the engine to blow up before I check under the hood.”

“I don’t have time to look under the hood, I’m running a company,” Austin replied, though he was already sliding the silver tray of oysters two inches closer to Zane’s side of the table. “Eat one of these before I finish the whole damn dock. You look like you’re surviving on campus dining hall rations.”

“I eat fine,” Zane muttered, but he reached out, his fingers expertly lifting an oyster shell from the ice. He nodded toward Austin’s wine glass. “Congratulations on the Jacksonville title, by the way. Levi told me you almost lost the bid.”

“Levi talks too much,” Austin said, shifting his weight back against the booth and pulling Blair closer to his side. “The sellers tried to squeeze us at the eleventh hour. I just had to remind them who they were dealing with.”

“Meaning you looked at them until they got uncomfortable and signed the paper,” Blair chimed in, leaning her head against his shoulder with a dry smile.

“Hey,” Austin grumbled down at her, his voice softening instantly as he pressed a quick kiss to her temple. “It’s called negotiation, Yellow. You wouldn’t understand the nuance.” Blair gave him a look, and whatever it meant made Austin lower his voice and say, “I’m just kidding, baby, you understand every nuance.”

“You guys are so in love,” I giggled, watching the way they were looking at each other. Cassidy’s words from the other day appeared in my mind, making me wonder if this was what other people saw when they watched me and Zane. And as if Zane could read my thoughts, his hand landed on my thigh, his skin feeling like heat against an ache.

“Yeah, of course we are,” Austin muttered like I had exclaimed about the sky being blue. “I’ve been telling you that for years.”

“Yeah, but it’s just strange not seeing you alone and miserable like we’re used to,” Zane joked back on my behalf.

“Whatever,” Austin muttered, shifting his attention entirely back to Blair. He picked up an oyster, loosened it from the shell with the tiny fork, and held it up to her lips. “Eat, Yellow. They’re cold.”

Blair didn’t hesitate. She took it right off the fork, her fingers wrapping around his wrist to steady his hand as she swallowed it down. She gave a small, satisfied hum that had Austin looking at her like she had just invented the sea.

“Good?” he asked softly. He always spoke to Blair like she was the most precious thing in the world.