Page 22 of His to Love
“Nope.” I spun back to the bar and got the bartender’s attention. “Two more shots please.”
“I think you’ve had enough,” Tyson whispered next to me.
“I think that if we’re going to talk…I shouldn’t have to be sober.”
Chapter 5
I wiped my lips with my napkin before sliding the plate away from me. A large prime rib and a baked potato with all the toppings was exactly what I needed to help soak up the tequila shots. The dinner had provided me with the perfect distraction from whatever it was that exploded behind Tyson’s eyes and expression when he brought up answering questions.
With dinner done, I could no longer procrastinate.
“My mom’s dying,” I stated plainly. Next to me, Tyson sucked in a breath. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want to see the expression on his face. If it was too caring, I would cry. If he didn’t appear concerned at all, I would cry.
This is why I don’t typically drink. It makes me a crybaby. I don’t even know why I chose to blurt that out the way I did. I blamed the tequila.
“What?” Tyson sounded shocked. I didn’t blame him.
I swiped my mouth with my napkin again and took a sip of water. The ice cubes clinked against my teeth, and I sucked in a breath after I placed the glass on the bar top. My hands trembled slightly, and I shoved them into my lap.
“Cancer.”
The air thickened before my chair spun slowly until I was once again sitting between Tyson’s spread thighs.
He reached out, pressed a finger against the bottom of my chin, and pushed up. He stopped when I was staring directly into his eyes, and I hated what I saw.
A mixture of anger and concern. The concern I got. The anger made me frown.
“Cancer?” he asked.
I cringed as I watched the word form on his lips. It looked like death. Even though the two words were vastly different, they also meant the same thing.
“Yeah, again.”
He blinked and then shook his head, shaking away the shock in his expression. “She beat that shit in high school.”
Also when I was in elementary school. He might not remember that, but we were together when her breast cancer returned for the second time. I couldn’t remember the number of nights he held me in his arms while I sobbed, so fearful she wouldn’t survive.
My eyes filled with tears and I turned away from him, but his finger on my chin stopped me from getting far.
“That why you came home?”
“Yeah.” I whispered it so quietly I practically breathed the word through my lips. I blinked rapidly several times to clear the tears away before getting the bartender’s attention. He had left us alone as soon as the meals came, but now, I needed him and what he could offer me.
When he met my gaze, I flicked two fingers up signaling for more shots when Tyson wrapped his hand around mine and put it on the bar. “I think you’ve had enough alcohol.”
I stared directly at him. “I think I’ve had a perfectly shitty twenty-four hours, and if I want to get wasted, that’s not your call.”
“You got wasted last night, Blue.”
I didn’t need the reminder.
With a heavy sigh, Tyson stood from his stool and tossed a stack of cash onto the bar. “This is for both of us.”
Turning back to me, he held out his hand and waited for me to put my palm in his. While I debated the intelligence of such a decision, one of his eyebrows arched in a silent dare.
I put my palm against his and his warm fingers enclosed my hand. The familiar heat that started whenever he touched me slowly slithered its way down to my sex until everything felt warm and tingly.
Dangerous.
