The bartender smiles and nods as nerves begin thrumming through me that I might be getting in over my head.
“Morgan!” I laugh, grabbing the other glass as she smiles at me and does a little wiggle dance. “Let me pay for one round at least.”
“You can get the next one!” She winks at me and grins. “These, however, are my treat—well, Cam’s technically, but he’d agree that you deserve a few after that phone call.”
A knife cuts through my heart at the mention of what just happened. I know it was only minutes ago, but my mind is already trying to block it out. I think these shots will help that along, and if not, oh fucking well. I’ve been through worse.
“Changed your mind on the water, huh?” Jensen’s smooth voice fills my ear, his warm breath sending goose bumps dancing down my shoulders.
Ignoring him for just a second, I lift the glass, signaling Morgan, who tips her shot glass back with me and downs it. My throat burns and warms, but it disappears after a second, the taste of pineapple juice remaining.
The bartender slides the next shots over to us.
“Lain?” Jensen murmurs into my ear, his voice deep and concerned.
Holding my pointer finger up, I silence him and sigh. “Hold on.”
Morgan laughs as she grabs one of the new glasses, and I grab the other. We quickly take the second shot.
Morgan pulls me in for a hug and murmurs in my ear, “Cam mentioned that you and Jensen have some kind of past. Honestly though, anyone with eyes can see that. I’ll give you guys a few minutes. I’m going to head back to the table, unless you want me to stay?”
Honestly? I have no clue.
I feel like everything in the last few minutes has been the climax of my time in New York—or rather of the last six years—the pivotal moment everything has been leading up to, and now I don’t know what my next step is.
The one thing I do know is that I owe Jensen an apology, so I’ll start there. Maybe another shot would help. Or two.
CHAPTER 13
JENSEN
Morgan pulls awayfrom Lainey and faces me, giving me a look of warning. I didn’t even know they knew one another, let alone were close enough for Morgan to warnmewith a glare, as if she has a closer friendship with Lain than I do.
I nod to her, my lips pressed together. She has no idea how far back Lainey and I go. I would never hurt her, no matter the issues between us.
Morgan walks past me, probably heading back to the table, but I don’t watch her leave. My gaze is locked on to Lainey as she takes a deep breath and turns around to face me, craning her neck back to meet my stare.
Her eyes are bloodshot, like she’s been crying.
My heart aches, and I act without thought, cupping her face and stroking her cheeks.
Baby, don’t cry.
It doesn’t matter what the state of our relationship is; I’ll kill whoever created these tears—and if my suspicions of who caused this are correct, I’ll even have fun with it.
Leaning down so she can hear me better, I calmly murmur, my jaw clicking with reserved anger, “Tell me what he did.”
She laughs, the kind that’s humorless and pained, her eyes turning upward.
Gently, she wraps her hands around my wrists, and I expect her to shove me away, but she doesn’t, and my heart does backflips in my chest as her delicate fingers tenderly squeeze me.
Without a word, she shakes her head, not wanting to tell me, probably because she knows I’dactuallybreak his leg this time around.
But then she parts her lips and says three words that I’ve been waiting years to hear. “We broke up.”
I want to pretend that I’m sad, but the truth is that this has been long overdue. Even if nothing ever happens between us, I’m glad that she’s at least getting rid of him.
She doesn’t say anything, and all of the things I want to say aren’t going to make her feel better about the situation; they’d only add complications. This is her game; I’m just trying to read her and act accordingly.
