“I don’t want money from you,” I said vehemently.
“There’s got to be something I can do to help.”
The song ended, and I looked back at the table, grateful to see that William was no longer there. I stepped away from Brady, and the heat of him wandered away from me. It had felt soothing. The warmth. The body. The concern. But I couldn’t fall into that, or I might never crawl out.
Brady looked like he was going to grab my hand again, and I crossed my arms over my chest, holding my elbows. “Thanks for the dance.”
I moved toward the table, and he followed me. I didn’t have to look to know it. My body would have felt it even if the eyes around the room hadn’t given it away.
Stacy and Jin got there just as we did.
“I think I’m going to call it a night,” I told them. Stacy smiled a knowing smile as she glanced at Brady and then back at me. As if one dance would suddenly mean I was ready to sleep with the singer. As if one dance could obliterate another man from the silent memories embedded into my brain and skin.
“You going to be okay to walk home alone?” she asked.
She wasn’t ready to give up her night of celebration, and I couldn’t blame her. She and Jin worked extremely hard at their day jobs, and they’d worked even harder on the proposals and grants needed for the charter school. They’d earned this night out more than anyone I knew.
“I’ll be fine. It’s, like, three blocks.”
“I’ll walk you home,” Brady said, his warm timbre coasting along my skin.
“What? No. I’m definitely not walking out of this bar with you,” I told him, dashing my eyes around the room to the staring crowd.
Brady seemed to take in the same sight, and his shoulders stiffened a little.
“You’re right, but I’m still walking you home. You go out the front, I’ll go out the back, and I’ll meet you on the corner of Tenth and Main.”
“I don’t need anyone walking me home.”
“I’m not sending a lady out into the night by herself,” he replied with a stubborn set of his jaw.
“I’ll walk you home and then come back,” Jin said, standing up with a bit of a stumble.
I laughed. “If you walk me home, I wouldn’t trust you to make it back here without falling into the gutter.”
It was either ruin Jin and Stacy’s night or agree to the offer from the man making my veins dance. I turned to Brady. “I accept. Thank you.”
His face broke into a huge grin. The one he was famous for. The one posted in advertisements all over the world. The one I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resist if he kept it winging my way. I might be tempted to kiss it. I’d be as bad as the waitress who’d given her his number on the napkin. I mean, not that it was bad. She’d seen what she wanted and taken the risk. Really, of the two of us, I was the bad one. I was the person who was too lost to take a jump. To dare.
I grabbed my coat and purse, hugged my friend, and then headed for the front door. I felt the eyes on me, as if one dance and a drink at a table with Brady O’Neil had suddenly rubbed some of his “famous” off on me. Brady didn’t leave with me. He waited before heading toward the bar and the door to the kitchen, drawing the eyes back to him as I escaped the room.
The line waiting to get in was small, but the voices of the people there and the music of the bar followed me into the night. The storm had turned into a hazy cloud of fog that my breath added to as I walked down the street toward home. When I hit the corner, Brady materialized out of the mist and shadows, and it would have scared the bejesus out of me if I hadn’t known he was going to be there.
As we walked, the noise fell behind us, and the dark, silent businesses took over. Even the restaurants were closed. Only Mick’s was left open. The hush mixed in with the fog made the world feel mysterious, as if I was on the brink of something new. Like the feeling I got when I started a new painting. Expectations of grandeur that may never come true.
“Thanks again for walking me. I didn’t really need it, but I didn’t want to break up Stacy and Jin’s celebration.”
“I’m heading this way anyway.”
“Do you live near downtown?” I asked and then grimaced. “No, don’t tell me. I’m not asking so I can stalk you or anything.”
He laughed, the ripples going through the mist and the night.
“I knew you didn’t mean it like that. My parents’ house is actually across from the college. When I’m in town, I live in the apartment above their garage.”
This struck me as funny, and I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped.
“Why is that funny?” he asked.
