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We talked about old times and I asked stupid things like if he still had his old leather jacket and why didn’t he join a rock band with Jericho. Austin could carry a tune, but he said it wasn’t his thing. Now that he was a Packmaster, his responsibility was maintaining stability within his family and the Shifter community. They would get jobs and help bring in money as well as assisting other packs as needed, but Austin had acquired a lot of money from his jobs over the years. Evidently, his work paid well. Money wouldn’t last forever, so he encouraged them to find something they enjoyed doing. Jericho sang, Denver worked as a bartender four nights a week, and Reno… well, Austin didn’t mention what exactly Reno did. Ben and Wheeler were out of work and looking.
After another tall glass of beer and a few sips of Austin’s root-beer float, I decided it was time for us to head home.
“Big girl’s room,” I declared with an impish grin.
Austin chuckled and stretched his arm across the seat, watching me get up. He might have been sly about stealing glances, but I noticed his eyes sliding down to my ass. As I walked by him, I bent over and squinted. My face was numb, one of the telltale signs I’d had too much to drink.
“You have something… righthere,” I said, tapping my chin with a lazy smile on my face.
A sexy smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Then lick it off,” he teased.
Never one to turn down a dare, I bent forward and sucked on his chin. In my defense, I was drunk. I would never have done anything like that in a sober state of mind, but the tingly feeling of beer slid through my body and made me lose those inhibitions. It also shocked the hell out of Austin because I felt his entire body tense up, which I noticed because my hands were resting on his hard biceps.
I moved my mouth slowly, swirling my tongue over the dab of sauce, and suddenly there was a moment, even if only a brief second, where something fired up between us. His bristly chin had the first hint of stubble, the tang of barbecue sauce awakened my taste buds, and his shallow breath heated my cheek.
Had a sharp wolf whistle across the room not snapped me out of it, I might have even slid my lips over to his… just to see what would happen.
Austin was real smooth about it, too. When I pulled back, he lifted his left arm and touched my nose, dabbing a dollop of sauce on it. Maybe he was being funny, or maybe it was a dare on his part, but I wiped it off and left the table before discovering what base I could get to with Austin and a bottle of barbecue sauce. He laughed and stretched back in his seat.
Damn. He still had a great laugh.
I went to the restroom for a very long pee and decided okra and beer got along. In fact, they were so in love they were doing the tango and making me queasy. The bathroom also served as a temporary hiding place since my slutty behavior planted serious doubts I could ever look him in the eye again. I never behaved that way with other men, but something about Austin drew out a sexually aggressive side that made me want to slap myself.
I’d never felt so conflicted with a man as I did with Austin. Part of that had to do with the fact our relationship was wrapped up in years of history, combined with years of separation.
Still, itwasa fantastic dinner and had almost felt like a date. He took my mind away from all the worry and stress about my mother, and somehow I just knew he would make sure everything turned out okay. The strange part was how quickly my perception of Austin was beginning to change. He continued stepping up to help through every situation and never asked for anything in return.
Not a kiss, not a check, not a single favor.
He’d matured into the most selfless man I’d ever met.
I emerged from the restroom marked “Cowgirls” and stared at our empty booth. Then I spotted Marcy Robertson, the former head cheerleader at my old high school. I hid my face and dashed toward the front door before she noticed me. Those chance meetings were so uncomfortable because I had to explain what I did for a living. It was like a competition to see who had succeeded in life. Most of the girls knew who I was back in high school, even if I wasn’t the most popular, because they all used to crush on Wes.
The balmy June air smelled clean compared to the heavy aroma of grilled meat from inside the restaurant. I glanced around and wondered where he parked the car, because when we got here, Austin had dropped me off at the door so I could get a good table.
I stepped down on the curb and took a seat—my beers had been served in tall glasses and I had always been a lightweight when it came to drinking. My eyes were losing focus and God, how embarrassing was that? Here was Austin, trying to show me a good time, and now I was sitting on the curb because I couldn’t hold my liquor.
Still, I’d had fun. Hanging out and talking with Austin was so effortless now. He could spin a good yarn, and he attentively listened as I filled him in on some of the things I’d done in the past few years. While we still felt like strangers, an indefinable intimacy existed between us—one that happens with those who have seen you at your worst and remember you before all the big events in life happened.
A car engine prowled closer from the street entrance, growing louder by the second. My eyelids drooped and I closed my eyes, deciding I was going to crash on the sofa when I got home.
And then I blacked out.
* * *
The minute Lexiclosed the bathroom door behind her marked “Cowgirls,” Austin slid down in his booth and rubbed his face.
Holy shit. He hadn’t felt so alive by a woman’s mouth on him since he kissed her seven years ago. All that time he wondered if he had built up their kiss in his mind to something it wasn’t. Even the brief interlude in Jericho’s bed didn’t confirm anything because he’d just woken up and wasn’t thinking straight.
No, now he knew it was more than the kiss. It washer.
Austin had thought it was going to be tough going back to The Pit—facing all the old memories of him and Wes bonding the way friends do. Losing Wes nearly broke him. But it felt good going back to their old hangout, like he was putting to bed all that anger he had carried with him over the years. Everyone has that one place from their youth that transports them back to an earlier time. The Pit was that place. It’s where they’d scoped out girls, talked about muscle cars, and where they fell in love with old-school rock instead of the current stuff on the radio. It was a rustic joint with personality, ambiance, and initials with hearts surrounding them carved on the wooden tables. It was the kind of place you could smoke a cigarette and no one would say anything as long as you kept it hidden.
After cleaning their plates, he decided to bring the car around front and save Lexi the walk of drunken shame. Austin smiled, thinking about how she had asked him to order her dinner. “I trust your choice,” she’d said, which was code for, “I want to see if you really remember a damn thing about me.”
Of course he did. He even knew she liked a cup of sauce on the side to dunk her roll in. Why he remembered stuff like that was crazy, but he’d thought about her a lot over the years.
Except in those thoughts, he’d imagined Lexi had already settled down with a man and had kids. Her being single made no sense to him. Then again, it was for the best considering she was a Shifter. He also noticed nothing had changed in regards to how men’s eyes were all over her. Lexi had always possessed a natural beauty and he didn’t think the Shifter allure was behind every roving eye.
