AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 23
Jimmy
“Haven’t seen ya around much this week.” Cash, who was my brother Billy’s best friend and second in command at the bar, smiled as I took a seat on the stool across from him. “I’m guessing it has something to do with Chy’s friend.”
It was weird thinking of Bella as Cheyenne’s friend. Almost as weird as Cash calling my sister Chy. I’d been wondering for a while what was going on there. It was obvious that Cash and Cheyenne gravitated toward one another, but they both denied that anything was happening whenever they were questioned about it.
I had a feeling that might be due to Billy puffin’ out his chest and going into full-blown big brother protective mode whenever Cheyenne was around. When we were little, Billy and my mama had nicknamed her Shadow because, apparently, she used to follow him around all the time. I had no memory of it, but it was clear even now that my two middle siblings shared a close bond. Just like it was clear, to me at least, that Cash was in love with my sister.
Instead of addressing the comment he’d made about Bella, I smiled at the poor bastard and asked, “So when are you gonna tell him?”
Cash’s brows scrunched. “Tell who? What?”
“Tell Billy boy that you are in love with Chy.” I made sure to emphasize the nickname he’d given her.
Cash’s jaw tensed. “We’re just friends.”
With that unconvincing declaration, he moved to the other end of the bar. I had to admit, I actually felt sorry for the man. He obviously had it bad for my sister, and unlike me, who thought they’d make a cute couple, Billy didn’t want his friend anywhere near his Shadow.
Just like everything these days, my line of thinking led me right back to Bella. I wondered if she had any siblings. I hadn’t googled her, even though considering her father was Miles Santini, I was sure I’d be able to find some information on her. But I felt like that was cheating somehow. If I wanted to know something about her, I figured I should go straight to the source and ask her.
Unfortunately, I had no idea when I was going to be seeing the source again.
I checked my phone for probably the hundredth time that day. Every time I did, I just knew that I’d see that I’d missed a call or a text from Bella. And every time I was proven wrong.
She’d yet to be the one that initiated any sort of contact and I had to admit, it was getting to me. I’d never cared before about being the one to set up hanging out with women. If anything, I’d appreciated being left alone, rather than bothered by women trying to get in touch with me. But it was different with Bella.
I couldn’t get a handle on what was going on in that gorgeous head of hers. She was so open, honest, and vulnerable. That was clear. But at the same time, there was definitely something that she was holding back—a part of her that was guarded. If it were anyone else, I would assume that they must be hiding something really deceptive, such as being in a relationship.
It wasn’t the first time a woman had come down to Firefly Island for vacation, hooked up with a local, and then gone back home to their significant other like nothing had happened. Forget Vegas, the saying might as well have been What Happens in Firefly, Stays in Firefly.
I didn’t get that vibe from Bella, but even if that were the case, I wasn’t sure it would make a difference to me. She was the worst kind of trouble. She was the kind that I wanted to run toward when what I should really be doing was running away.
Which is why I found myself sitting at the bar with my thumbs hovering over my screen, getting ready to text her, when the door opened behind me and I heard a sound that I instantly recognized. It was Bella laughing. I’d know it anywhere.
Without turning around, I knew what I would see when I did. I got that funny feeling in my belly that I did every time we were in a room together, right before I laid eyes on her.
The closest thing to it I’d ever felt before was the feeling that I got when I went on a roller coaster and the cart was climbing up, about to make a steep drop. That was the feeling I got whenever she was near. Probably because I knew as soon as I saw her, I’d be falling again.
Not able to help myself, I turned my head. The moment I did, just like every other time I saw her, the bottom dropped out. I had no safety net. I was freefalling.
Bella stood in the center, my sister on one side, and the woman I would soon be calling sister—if Billy had anything to say about it, at any rate—on the other side. He’d been trying to put a ring on Reagan for months. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on him wearing her down. Eventually.
I watched Bella enter the room, taking her in from a distance. Brunette locks framed her sweetheart-shaped face. She wore a low-cut, red T-shirt that hugged her curves, and jeans that did the same. I could feel the energy in the place shift as the trio made their entrance.
I knew that every guy in the place was drooling over her, and I didn’t blame them. Still, something about seeing her out “in the wild” ignited my most primitive and primal instincts to rise up in me. I knew I was the only man that had ever seen what those curves looked like naked. I was the only man that had touched those curves with his hands, his lips, his tongue.
From across the crowded space, my eyes locked with hers. She smiled, shyly, and lifted her hand in a small wave. Unable to stop myself, I stood from my stool and stalked toward her. Before I made it halfway, I saw Knox Montgomery step in front of her. I could no longer see her face, now blocked by Knox’s broad shoulders.
I’d been friends with Knox since we were in diapers. We’d always been competitive. It started with racing our Big Wheel tricycles and continued on to fuel some of the most epic showdowns Firefly had ever seen. There was the dodgeball championship in fifth grade. Our teams made it to the finals where Knox and I faced one another, both captains of our respective teams. It ended in bloody noses, a broken wrist, and the ambulance being called.
In high school, we’d both gotten it into our dumbass heads that we should play chicken with our four-wheelers. Neither of us bailed. We both ended up in the ER with stitches and broken bones.
And when it came to the opposite sex—well let’s just say Bella wouldn’t be the first girl’s attention we’d both wanted. But she was the first one that, for me, it wasn’t about winning. This wasn’t about any sort of pissing contest with Knox. This was about one thing and one thing only. Bella.
“Jimmy!” Clyde, one of the three wise men—or stooges, dependin’ on who you asked—slapped me on my shoulder. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. “You look like a man on a mission.”
I was.
With a grin, I dipped my chin in acknowledgment, but didn’t break my stride. I was only distracted for a second, but when I looked back, I saw someone else had joined the group I was headed toward. Nadia Carson had hooked her arm through Bella’s and was shooing Knox away.
If memory served, Nadia and Knox had been there, done that, so to speak. I couldn’t catch everything that she was saying, but I did hear the phrase “girl’s night.” I was glad that Knox took the L on that one. If I’d made it to them first, chances were Cheyenne would be telling me the same thing.
Instead of forging ahead with my mission, I made a tactical decision to fall back. The key to any war was knowing when to retreat in battle. And I knew that there was no mistake about it: if Knox was interested, this was war.
