I groaned. The little witch of a waitress had ratted me out. Mick never would. The crush of people was whispering as they tried to find me. I pulled at the beanie again while Mick stalked from behind the bar to the stage. He took the mic from the DJ and said, “Karaoke is closed for the night, folks. But get ready to shake your booties because Dancing Dan is going to have the tunes up and running until we close. Enjoy.”
As he walked by my table, he mouthed, “Sorry.”
But the damage had been done. I’d been identified.
Another male body appeared in Mick’s place. A man in an expensive suit that looked out of place in the relaxed atmosphere of the bar.
“Miss Morgan, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I had no idea you knew my old friend, Brady,” the man said.
I took him in, trying to place him. He was tall with a lean, muscular frame. Attractive. Almost sexy with his black hair slicked back, accenting his dark eyes and the five o’clock shadow that coasted over his pale skin. Finally, it dawned on me who he was.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Is that you, William Chan?”
He smiled at me, sticking his hand out. I shook it, assessing the man who’d been my childhood best friend.
“I hardly recognized you in the suit,” I told him.
He chuckled, drew an unused chair from a nearby table without asking if he could, and sat on it the wrong way—an old habit he’d had when we were growing up. A strange power move, as if using the chair the wrong way made him cooler than anyone else. He’d already been the coolest kid in town because of his dynamic confidence and the power tied to his last name.
“You two know each other?” Tristan asked, and there was an edge to her voice that I didn’t quite follow. It was different than her irritation at me. It was almost violent.
“Brady and I grew up together. Chased girls together. Graduated together,” William said with a wide smile.
“Then he went off to Princeton, and I went off to Juilliard, and we haven’t seen each other since. I didn’t realize you were back in Grand Orchard.” I didn’t like how he was making it sound as if we were still friends. It came with the job, the people who crawled out of the woodwork once you became famous, but after years of Lee helping me practice, I was damn quick to put those people in their place. If you didn’t, it led to a whole string of bad requests and bad feelings.
“Been back for a while now. I’m on the city council and charged with fixing the town before it falls completely apart. Right, Miss Morgan?” he said, sending Tristan a coded message that my entire body reacted to. It was like some masochistic anomaly took over me as I puffed out my chest and slid an arm behind Tristan’s head along the back of the booth.
“We’re going to go dance,” Stacy said, giving Jin a shoulder shove. He got out of the booth, and Stacy glanced back at Tristan. “You coming?”
Tristan looked like she wanted to leap across the table and tear William’s throat out. Jin caught the drift of whatever I was missing, took Stacy’s hand, and said, “Yeah, come with us, Tris.”
I looked at William and smiled. “Seems you joined us at a bad time. We’re being asked to hit the floor.”
I pulled Tristan’s hand into mine and tugged her from the booth. She hesitated only until she saw William drag his eyes down to where our bodies were joined. Then she curled her fingers over mine. When I looked down, I was surprised to see there weren’t sparks of cartoon-like light shooting off of our hands, because that was what it felt like. Like the Fourth of July had come early. Like sparklers were burning and singeing over our skin.
The song was moody and slow, the best kind of getting-to-know-you song. One that spoke of illicit kisses and hiding in dark corners while the flame of desire flew through you.
I pulled her up close, and she wrapped her hands around my neck.
The smell of her hit me again, and I realized that, mixed in with the music store scents, she also smelled like chocolate. Not the overt, sugary sweetness of milk chocolate, but the bittersweet taste that hit the corners of your mouth with a tang. Between this unexpected perfume and the way her body felt under her thin dress, my body was coming alive.
Parts of me that weren’t used to responding this quickly to anyone ached for me to run my hands over the slope of her waist and bury my fingertips into the small but fleshy curves of her hips. I’d become more flirt than action after having enough sex in college and my first year on the road to last me a lifetime. These days, I didn’t need the rush of sexual frenzy to shore me up as I once had, but the mere colliding of Tristan’s skin with mine had me craving her.
When I looked down into her face, her eyes seemed to absorb me, as if she could read every thought and feeling going through my head. I wanted her to know them. I wanted her, period. Staying in Grand Orchard until the summer became even more of an imperative. The need was no longer just about helping Cassidy. It was also about helping me.
Tristan
MEANT TO BE
“Boy, make me believe
But hold up, girl, don't you know you're beautiful?”
Performed by Bebe Rexha w/ Florida Georgia Line
Written by Rexha / Garcia / Miller / Hubbard
My body was reeling from thephysical contact of the male body up tight against mine. Not just a male body, but a male body that had already been calling to me like a ghost in the dark. Memories of touches whispering over me.
