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“Okay.”
“Itis.”
“I’m not arguing with you!”
A little annoyed at the amusement I heard in Gabe’s voice, I blew out a breath. “Neither of us is interested in anything more than that. I think even the idea of it would freak her out, to be honest.” I didn’t notice that I didn’t mention it freaking me out.
“Really? She didn’t look too freaked out just then, she looked like she couldn’t keep her eyes off you. Or her hands.”
“She’s not ready for anything more serious.” Again, I overlooked that I failed to mention that I wasn’t ready either.
“Fair enough.” After that it was back to a comfortable silence, while I did my best not to ogle Zara too much as she shook her booty on the dance floor.
When the DJ said, “Okay, everyone, we’re going to slow it down a bit, give you a breather,” the four women left the dance floor and made their way back to the table.
Zara was about to take her seat next to me, but paused as the first bars of Adele’s “Make You Feel my Love” started playing. “Oh, I love this song.” She grabbed my hand. “Dance with me?”
I knew that the sane thing to say was no, but there was no resisting those big, blue eyes. “Sure.” I followed her back to the dance floor, my breath hitching as she turned to me, sliding her arms around my neck, pressing her body close, her gaze smoky and sultry. I wrapped my arms around her, swaying to the beat of the music, relishing the feel of her against me. Her lips curved into a smile as she pulled my head down, standing on tiptoes, pressing her lips to mine, curling her fingers through my hair. Molten fire shot through me as she opened her lips, tangled my tongue with hers, sighed with pleasure. I broke off the kiss abruptly. “Okay, that’s enough.” Startled, she pulled back, looking up at me, hurt confusion in her eyes. I pulled her back in, dropped a soft kiss on her forehead, and wrapped my arms around her again as she rested her head on my shoulder. Announcing to everyone that they were banging was one thing, but I couldn’t imagine Zara would be happy in hindsight if I allowed things to go too far on the dance floor in front of half the town.
“This is nice,” she mumbled.
I had to admit, I wasn’t particularly sorry we were public now, because she felt so good in my arms, so right. I saw Ally moving toward us, a concerned frown on her face. “Gabe needs you.” She flicked her head toward the other end of the bar, where all the pool tables were. I pulled away from Zara, steadying her as she stumbled.
“You got her?” Ally nodded, and I hurried toward the pool tables.
My heart sank at the scene that met me. Gabe was standing in front of Jake with his fists clutching Jake’s shirt, turning his head to snap at a man behind him, “Give it a rest, Joe, he’s half cut.”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s going on? This fuckwit just punched me in the face! He reckons I said something about Emma.” Joe was pressing a paper napkin to his bloody lip.
“You fucking well did!”
“Fuck off, all I said was—”
“I know what you said.”
“Jacob.” Jake raised his eyes at Gabe’s tone, a mulish expression on his face. “Even if Joe here did say something about Emma, you can’t go around swinging punches like that. You need to apologize.” Jake looked warily from Gabe to Joe and back again.
It could have gone either way, and I was relieved to see Jake’s shoulders sag as he finally muttered, “Sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it, pal, you’re out of control!” Joe’s eyes were angry as he glared at Jake, stepping forward.
I got between them. “Leave it, Joe. Please. He’s going home now.”
Joe gave Jake a long, assessing look, then to my intense relief, stepped back, muttering, “You need to get him to AA or some shit,” as he walked away.
I turned to Gabe. “You’ll be right to get him home?”
“Yeah, Lucy will help me.” Jake, his opponent having left, was now apologizing profusely to Gabe. “It’s alright, buddy, let’s go home.” Gabe caught Lucy’s eye as she approached from the bathroom, flicked his head toward the exit, and she nodded. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said to me.
“All right.” I watched as Gabe led Jake to the door and out to the parking lot, a worried frown on my face, then I saw Ally coming out of the bathroom with Zara and Emma and went to them. “You okay to go?”
She propped Emma against the wall, where she swayed drunkenly. I steadied Zara, bracing myself as she leaned against me. “Yep, I’ll just grab our stuff.” She was back in no time, slinging Emma’s arm over her shoulder, sliding a supporting arm around her waist. “You’ve got Zara?” “Yep.” We walked out and across the car park to my truck. Ally climbed into the back with Emma as I helped Zara into the front passenger seat, putting her seat belt on before moving around to the driver’s side. Getting in, I looked in the rear-view mirror. Emma had closed her eyes and laid her head on Ally’s shoulder.
“All good?” When she nodded and grinned, I started the car.
As we pulled into Emma’s drive, Ally pushed Emma upright to a sitting position and found her bag, rummaging through it and pulling out Emma’s keys. “I’m going to take her in, put her to bed, if you’re okay to take care of Zara?”
