She drops down onto her feet and unravels her arms from around him, and shoves him. The smile she gives him is a shit one. I know that smile, it’s fake and usually mixed with a bit ofI don’t like you so I’m not going to talk to youin it. That’s the one she gives him.
Mine.
The golden boy is talking to her and she’s pretending to listen, but her eyes are on me. I know Lana well—too well. And she knows me just the same. But that look in her eyes, I don’t know it and it’s terrifying me.
“Shit,” Nico hisses at my side. “You're not gonna go get her?”
I only came back into this small town this morning and Nicolas was the first person I called. I couldn’t call her yet, I knew that, so I didn’t even risk it.
I called Nico who called Luca, Rowan, and Julian so we could all meet up again for the first time in four years, and Iwas hoping they hated me. I met them at a calm bistro in town for burgers but the only one of us who didn’t show was Julian—at least not tonight since he was taking care of his three year old daughter and still adjusting to single-father life. And, as it turned out, they didn’t hate me. They missed me and clapped me on the back and made fun of my car and suit.
They called me out on my bullshit, got angry with me, and cursed, but they don’t hate me. A part of me almost wants them too though. When they were done, I gave them my explanation and, like good friends, they heard me. Theylistenedand they offered every ounce of their help and support.
Although we’re in a bar on a Saturday night, I told them it was okay. I told them I could handle it because it’s been a year and a half, and I’m okay now. And even if I felt like I couldn’t trust myself, my friends are here and they know. So they wouldn’t let me eventhinkof it.
“I can’t,” I tell Nico. “Not yet.”
Rowan nudges me with his shoulder. “So you came here in your disgusting, dark purple McLaren—” Luca laughs and I roll my eyes. “—and with your stupid ass suit and fat wad of cash, but you didn’t come with a plan?”
“My plan was to get here and talk to her.” I shrug. My real plan was to wing it, but even that plan was inchoate. Hasn’t worked. “How come you didn’t tell me she was here?”
Luca shrugs but wears a knowing smirk. “Isa told me they were going out, I didn’t know they were coming here.”
“She’s your twin,” Rowan says. “You tell each other everything.”
Nico mumbles, “Almost everything.”
Ignoring that comment, Luca pushes my back hard enough to make me jerk forward. “Go, she’s walking out.”
I shake my head.Shehates me. “I can’t.”
Nico shrugs, lowering his beer from his mouth. “Alright, don’t. Levi is about to follow her I think.”
“Like hell,” I growl.
I leave the guys behind and push through the people in the bar, focused on one person. I follow her short frame and her long brown hair. I’d know her anywhere. In any crowded room—even blind folded and spun around a hundred times, when I point, my finger will land on her. Every time.
The door opens and she walks through it. I push it open again, just before it closes, and walk out after her. I look to my right and she’s disappeared.
“I knew it!”
My head snaps to my left and she’s standing there against the building, her arms crossed and hip cocked. She’s so fucking gorgeous, I could get onto my knees right now and repent.
But then her nostrils flare and her lips flatten into a line before she pushes off the bricks and shouts.Still gorgeous.“I knew it!”
Her legs bring her right to me and Lana shoves my chest, hard enough to make me stagger back. “Are you drunk?” She points her finger at me. “Answer me, damn it—Are you drunk?”
I hold up my hands in surrender. I wish she’d just slap me or punch me, or both. “No, Lana. I’m not drunk.”
“Then why the hell are you in a bar?” Lana yells.
“Because I’m seeing my old friends.”
Lana scoffs. “What friends? The ones you ghosted when you left?”
She isn’t wrong.
“Nico, Rowan, and Luca,” I tell her.
