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“Oh. Is she okay?”
“That’s what I was trying to find out when you came up.”
The two men go back and forth in that familiar way like they’re good friends or siblings while I’m still working out the ex-wife comment.
“Wait a second,” I say when it occurs to me that Bear is the obvious nickname for Barrett Fulton. I push my palms against his chest to take a step back so I can tip my head up and see his face in the light of the other guy’s phone. His gorgeous, scruffy face that I just saw a few days ago.
“Barrett? What are you doing here?” After I ask the question, the answer slaps me in the face. “Oh my god. Were you coming to stop Laurel from getting married? You told me that you wouldn’t show up and cause a scene!”
“No, I know. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I was trying to get that closure we talked about.”
“Closure?”
“To see Laurel is happily married to someone else.”
“You wanted to see if she’s happy? Marrying one of the men she cheated on you with while you were away?”
“One of the men?” he huffs, and I wince.
“Sorry. I thought you knew.”
“She’s bleeding,” his friend or brother says as he shines the light in my eyes again.
“I know that, RJ,” Barrett responds, dabbing at my wound with the cloth again. Was RJ one of his brothers’ names? I think so.
“Ow.”
“You’ve got a bad scrape. Just making sure the bleeding has stopped,” he replies. “Did you hit your head hard? Could you have a concussion?”
There’s no possible way my clumsy fall could be any more embarrassing than having the hottest man ever witness it.
“Do you want me to take her back inside so we can get out of here?” RJ offers.
“I definitely can’t go back and tell them now,” I remark. “Nobody else needs to know that I fell when I was running on rocks in heels.”
“Why were you running?” Barrett asks.
“Ah. Just in a hurry to get out of here,” I lie rather than tell him I thought someone was following me. What if someone was there, though, and follows another woman out of the party and hurts her? “Did you, ah, see anyone else? I mean, was anyone else out here to witness my face-plant?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone else,” Barrett replies, confirming it was all in my head.
“Well, um, thanks for checking on me, even though you shouldn’t be here.”
“You were laid out on the ground bleeding. I couldn’t just leave you there, even if it meant outing myself for showing up here.”
“I won’t tell anyone you were here if you never tell anyone I tumbled across the rocks like an idiot.”
“Deal,” he agrees, flashing me a small smile that I’m compelled to return.
Infact, the two of us stand there and just stare at each other silently for several long seconds until RJ’s light skips away from us.
“Where are our bikes?”
Barrett clears his throat. “Down that row,” he tells him, pointing to the left side of the parking lot.
