“Tasha and Sandra? They’re best friends andsuperclose, if you know what I mean.” Travis responded, waggling his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, they’re not here for the wedding. There was an issue with their flight back home, and they had a one-night layover in Toronto. They wanted to check out the old home town that inspired so many songs before they left,” he added, seeing Brock’s angry expression.
Dark hair flitted by, and I wasn’t overly surprised to see that Becky was leaving the bar. She didn’t like staying out late, even when she hired a babysitter.
“You’re such a dog,” Gordon laughed, standing up to give Travis a hug of his own. He looked over his shoulder at the bar where the girls were still placing their drink orders. They seemed to be having a hard time with the specialty drink menu. My guess was that they were trying to find a beverage that contained less hops and more fruit. “Damn, they’re fine! Where do you pick up these chicks?”
“These ones are from Vegas,” Travis replied with a smirk, pleased that someone was impressed with his find.
“Is the media going to be a problem for us?” Brock scowled, still unimpressed.
He was probably worrying about the wedding details getting leaked to the media. That would create quite the shit storm for him and Tessa. They wanted a small, intimate wedding, not a wedding paparazzi would crash just for pictures of one of the groomsmen.
“No, Brock, it’s not going to be a problem. Everyone thinks I’m just here for the show at the stampede.” Travis frowned. “Speaking of brides, where is that gorgeous Tessa?”
“Right here,” Tessa sounded far from impressed as she approached, flanked by an irritable Elle and a starstruck Krista. Tessa came to a stop in front of our table and Travis. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot against the old hardwood floor, her eyes narrowed. “And just what in God’s name do you think you’re doing, Travis Channing? You’re making a goddamn scene!”
“Oh come on Tess,” Travis grinned playfully, looking past her to the bar. “O’Riley’s is practically empty tonight.” It wasn’t exactly true—Monday nights were dart club night, which meant an abundance of middle aged folks sat around drinking beer and throwing darts at the only dart board. Right now, the majority of males from the dart club were admiring the fresh sight of Travis’s friends—and they were loving every second of the attention.
Tessa arched a delicate brow. “And who are the Playboy bunnies?” she added, her frown intensifying. “If I recall, the invitations saidplus guest, as in singular, notplus double penetration twins.”
Travis threw back his head and howled with laughter until tears formed in his emerald eyes. He tossed his arm around Tessa’s shoulders and pulled her to him. “This is why I love Tessa, because she’s hilarious and witty.”
“Unlike the two high-class call girls you brought home?” Elle challenged, rolling her eyes. “What Travis, you can’t find girls with IQs in Hollywood? As if you had to bring more trash into this town.”
I’d been smiling up until Elle finished speaking. I was pretty sure that was a personal dig at me. It stung, but I deserved it and I knew it.
“Easy Elle,” Tessa said, sending her a warning look. “Play nice. We don’t know what their IQs are.”
“Where’s Becky tonight?” Travis asked, ignoring Tessa and Elle’s commentary and glancing around the bar.
“She just left,” Elle said through narrowed eyes. “Unlike some people around here, she has responsibilities.”
“Ouch,” Travis drawled. “She’s feisty tonight,” he added, glancing at me—as if I could somehow put a muzzle on her. That was an interesting thought...one that made me ache with the need to see if all my previous methods of keeping her quiet and making her smile still worked.
“That she is,” I added, my eyes sliding over to land on hers. Elle smirked, as if reading my mind and the dirty thoughts running through it. I licked my lips slowly, and her smirk fell away.
For a moment, and just a moment, her mask of cold indifference fell away too. Her brown eyes were heavy with hurt and something akin to longing, and the set of her plump lips called to me like a siren. Then, the fleeting moment was over and Elle’s mask was back in place. She turned her head away from me, slicing our eye contact as effectively as if she’d used a knife.
“Let’s go, I think we’ve done enough planning tonight,” she said to Tessa, nodding to the door.
Tessa looked at her friend for a moment. Something passed between the two of them, an unspoken conversation that I had a feeling had a lot to do with me.
“Alright, later everyone,” Tessa said. Brock stood up to hug and kiss his bride-to-be goodbye. She indulged him for a moment, kissing him back with just as much passion as they’d always had, her entire body leaning into him like they were one being. Then she pulled away and fixed those amber eyes on his. “Brock, get your groomsman in line,” she warned.
“Yes ma’am,” Brock grinned, kissing her again before they separated. I watched Elle and Tessa head back to their table to collect their things, my heart growing more hollow with every step Elle took as she walked away from me without so much as a backwards glance.
* * *
Throughout the next day, I couldn’t get Elle out of my head. My thoughts were consumed with her lips, her smile, her eyes, and her body as I worked.
Originally when I came back to town, I’d thought my position at Chuck’s Garage would be temporary, until I found a job in my field. But a little over a month after I returned, Chuck had a heart attack.
When he was recovering from triple bypass surgery, Chuck had no choice but to finally heed my advice to hire another part-time mechanic. He’d also bestowed more responsibility on me—and he’d given me a pretty good raise. “I don’t trust anybody like I trust you, Miller,” he’d told me when I tried to refuse the nearly ten dollar jump in my hourly rate. It was hard to deny him when he looked so frail in that hospital bed, and I found I didn’t want to. I enjoyed my job, working on vehicles gave my hands something to do while my mind ran wild with possibilities.
Now I was acting as shop manager, overseeing the new mechanic, Miles, that he’d hired fresh out of college. I was still swamped with all the work coming in, but Miles was a fast learner.
I was under old Mrs. Winston’s station wagon, replacing her break lines, when two heels appeared beside my legs. One foot nudged me, and I rolled out from underneath the car.
I sat up, and scowled at Melissa. Since my return, she had been pursuing me tirelessly. I was getting real sick of it. I’d tried everything from politely expressing my unavailability to flat out ignoring her. It wasn’t my fault Melissa wouldn’t take the hint. Hell, I was being a hell of a lot nicer than I would have been in high school, that’s for damn sure.
