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“Yeah, we’ve been coming here pretty much twice
a week,” he said as I let myself take him in for the first time tonight.
He looked like a Viking with his long-ish dark blond hair and massive build. He was about the same height as Emmett, but his muscle wasn’t nearly as lean. It bulged against the light grey shirt he was wearing and made me wonder if he was even comfortable under there.
I mean he definitely could’ve gone a half-size up on the shirt, I thought before scrunching up my face at myself. Because that’s what you should be doing right now – criticizing the way Drew Maddox dresses. I shook my head, trying to physically shake away my negative thoughts. Seriously, why are you being so weird? I asked myself though in the back of my head, I knew the answer.
I was nitpicking Drew to explain to myself why I wasn’t completely thrilled to be here.
I wasn’t even a little excited. I felt restless and antsy – like I had unfinished business hanging in the air. All I wanted was to go home, but I didn’t even know what that meant because I certainly didn’t think of the motel when I thought of home, and I wasn’t thinking of Evie’s place either.
Which meant I was probably thinking of Emmett’s.
Really? I asked myself. For God’s sake, I had been the one to push him away. I had been the one convinced that I couldn’t be around him because he made me feel like shit. But for the past twenty-four hours, I’d been questioning my reality as I knew it.
Because with Emmett’s harsh words yesterday, I felt the dam starting to break.
I’d built it ages ago to keep away the truth, but now it was starting to seep through me, forcing me to realize that maybe I had in fact altered the story for my own sake.
That maybe Emmett wasn’t the bad guy.
And I was just an idiot in denial.
Fuck, I cursed, completely overwhelmed and steeped in my own paranoia till Drew laughed to break me out of my haze.
“Well, shit. What do you know,” he said. I blinked up at him.
“Huh?”
“Should’ve figured. The whole crew’s here,” he said, nodding over at the group of beautiful people at the bar.
My pulse picked up the second I looked over at the wall of well-dressed guys and willowy girls in mini-skirts and giant heels. There had to be almost a dozen people there, laughing, drinking and having a glamorously fabulous time.
But all I saw was that V-shaped back I knew too well.
Emmett’s.
Holy shit.
He was here but crazier than that was the fact that I was – wait was I? My eyes fluttered when I realized I was relieved. Practically happy to see him.
“Shall we go say hi?” Drew asked.
“Okay,” I blurted, a bit dazed as I let my heeled feet float over to the bar.
And just like that, I was walking voluntarily toward Emmett, my heart pounding as I waited for him to notice me. But instead, a figure in a red dress burst out from the group to greet us first, and my heart sank when I realized who it was.
Britt Heatherton.
“Drewsie-poo!” Britt gasped, arms outstretched.
“Christ, that nickname sucks,” Drew said, letting her lean in for a kiss as Emmett turned around in his chair.
My heart pounded the moment those blue eyes landed on me, because I wasn’t used to this look on him. His gaze devoured me on contact. It flickered over the sweetheart neckline of my dress before landing on my single layer of lipstick. But that lasted all of a second before he turned away, his face devoid of even a twitch of expression till Drew greeted him.
“Hey, asshole,” Drew laughed, holding out a hand for that handshake-hug thing that guys just naturally did. It prompted an unreadable look from Emmett, though his lips did slightly curve into some kind of smirk as he eyed Drew.
“What’s up,” Emmett said just as Britt stopped sizing me up and suddenly gasped.
