“I guess I am running from something.” The silence thickens, and Caleb sharpens his stare over me. I can practically hear him sayingdon’t do it.
“Running from myself,” I say, and the table breaks out into another bout of laughter. Dinner comes and the girls talk amongst themselves, but it’s those concerning looks Caleb keeps tossing my way that have me on edge.
“What’s going on?” I glance to Ace a moment before looking to my brother.
“Just what you said. It bothered me.” Caleb tries to shrug it off.
“Dude.” Ace shakes his head at his friend. “He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself.”
“Can you?” Caleb asks before shoveling another bite of that Kobe beef into his mouth. Last time I offer to foot the bill around my brother.
“I most certainly can, and I am. I’m in a better place. Things are looking better than I hoped they would.” I steal a quick glance at Zoey. She’s beautiful, smart, down-to-earth, and funny. How am I just seeing that tonight? I’ve been around her for weeks. I guess I’m slow in that department. Throw a beautiful woman at me, and suddenly I’m dumb, deaf, and blind. Everything in me stills a moment as I take her in. Zoey is remarkable. The perfect package. It feels as if the scales have fallen from my eyes, and I see her now for the gift she really is.
“She’s not on the market,” Caleb whispers, and both Ace and I huff a dull laugh.
I lean in and whisper right back, “What the hell has gotten into you?” Whatever it is, it’s pissing me off.
“You,” he hisses right back before leaning in closer. “You’re on the rebound, dude. You’re hurt, and hungry—everything looks good right now. You need to take a step back. Do not. And I repeat, do not hit the midnight buffet.”
Ace groans as he tips his head back. “She’s just a kid.” He nods my way as if agreeing with my brother.
The girls break out into laughter at the other end of the table, and I’m thanking God Zoey isn’t party to any of this.
“She’s a woman.” I grin her way like a hungry alligator. “She’s not a kid, and neither of us is made of glass.” I glance to Ace. “Maybe don’t tell Gavin that last part. I’m not looking to have my ass handed to me by a lumberjack with muscles the size of tree trunks. I’m not hurting anybody. I promise you this is chaste. Nobody is walking away from this in pieces. That was my last relationship. I’m not up for a repeat. This is two friends having a good time. It’s innocent.” More or less. And I’m predicting that will come to a spectacular end, but I’m not up for sharing that tidbit.
The two of them slump in their seats, each assessing me as if they have a predator on their hands.
“Keep it innocent,” Ace grumbles before getting back to that rack of beef on his plate, but Caleb stares at me with those saline eyes.
“Liar,” he practically mouths the word as his lips curl up on the sides. Caleb has always been a master at gifting a disproving grin, and tonight I’m getting it right from the source.
We finish up our meals and opt out of dessert to get down to Colony Hall on time.
All the way down, Zoey and I talk about our childhood days at Lake Loveless.
It’s easy. It’s bliss like this with Zoey. I can feel her attraction toward me, and its powerful pull—an aphrodisiac like no other. I’m in. Whatever this is, it has sucked me under and there’s no way out. There never is a good way out of a riptide. Zoey’s attraction, her heart, is stronger than the ocean.
I am in trouble around this girl.
I hope I don’t live to regret it.
I can’t do that twice in one lifetime.
* * *
Colony Hall is bright,open and filled with enough middle-aged people to assure you that the eighties were a very long time ago. The women all look great, markedly put together. The men are balding, with pouched yellow bellies that hang over their belted chinos. But everyone has a drink in their hand and a smile on their face, assuring one another this blast from the past is going to be a damn good time.
We take our seats, not the nosebleeds, but not the orchestra pit either. It’s a perfect view of the stage, of the audience. Zoey and I sandwich ourselves between the two couples with Caleb on the other side of me. Both Ace and Reese, Caleb and Kennedy, hold hands and whisper amongst themselves, stealing kisses in the open as is their right. But something about seeing it—seeing couples soaring to that magical nirvana that I thought I was once a part of makes me long to have that again. I miss it.
“I love this!” Zoey gives my arm a deep squeeze. “I’m in it for the people-watching as much as I am for the music.” Her fingers lace around mine, and my heart lets out a quick thump. I had just spent the better half of dinner trying to convince both Ace and my brother that nothing was happening between the two of us, and here we are holding hands in the open. But I like it. I’m not a kid. Caleb isn’t my father. I can hold the hand of a beautiful woman if I want to. It’s innocent enough.
Those kisses Zoey and I have shared sear through my mind. Those may have been just a little more than chaste, but I’m not too worried about that either. Caleb isn’t some authority figure I need to hand in a report of what my dick has been up to.
I startle for a minute. I don’t know why I just dragged my dick into this.
“People-watching happens to be one of my favorite sports.” I pull her hand in and kiss the back of it, stunning us both into silence for a moment. I couldn’t help it, though. It felt natural. There’s something about Zoey that gets my heart racing in a way I haven’t felt since I was a teenager. That pretty much sums up how I feel around her, carefree and wild—having a good old time that to some people might be questionably forbidden.
Her eyes sparkle in the light as they widen, as aqua marine as the water at the falls. Zoey giggles softly as the opening band starts in, and we sit back taking in the show—our hands still openly conjoined.
