After a long hot shower and coffee, I felt the same.
I’d texted my sisters, but they were busy with work or plans. Jackie had suggested I go get a matcha at Pine and Grind, but I hated spending money on frivolous things.
Live a little.I could make out Jackie’s voice in my head as if she were right behind me. Grabbing a sweater and my keys, I headed to town to do just that. Maybe not spend money on stuff I didn’t need, but I could check out what classes were offered at the gym?
Try and live a little. I could do that. All without deleting Austin’s number for some reason.
2
austin
“What’s up with you?”Onyx asked, taking a seat next to me on the bench in the park after our morning run.
“Nothing,” I mumbled. The cold morning air and five-mile run had done nothing to help out with the thrumming energy I hadn’t been able to shake off since two nights ago, when my life had blown up in my face.
Elizabeth.
“Hmm…” he grunted. The intuitive motherfucker knew something was up. I looked up from my water bottle only to connect with the asshole’s assessing dark eyes.
“What?” I asked, trying to bat away the guilt I felt at keeping something from him. I’d never kept anything from anyone. Shit, I was an open book.Until some gorgeous brunette with the prettiest lips screwed up my head.
“You know…” he said slowly, catching his breath, “when my sisters say nothing is wrong, it usually means something is wrong.”
“That’s women for you,” I muttered, running my fingers through my sweaty hair. I needed a cut. The auburn strands were a little overgrown on top, and my jaw was too scruffy sinceI’d been up and moving every damn morning way too early, all to catch sight of the woman who’d messed me up going for her daily run.
“Men, too.”
“Yeah,” I agreed way too easily. “Last couple months, you kept saying nothing was wrong, but it turned out you were in love and waiting around with a finger up your ass to make a move on Kandy,” I pointed out, and when he frowned, I cracked a smile. “Were we not talking about you?” He rolled his eyes.
“I had my reasons,” he muttered. I had no idea why the hell he’d waited so long, putting himself and his poor kitchen through hell with endless coats of paint his now soon-to-be wife had mixed for him.
But who was I to say anything?
Kandy was perfect for my best friend, and I was genuinely happy for him.
“And because I had my reasons, I’m guessing you have yours, too?” he asked, his gaze skating across the street from the bench we were sitting on, homing right in on the very woman who had made sleep unbearable.
“How they hell did you?—“
“I love you, Austin. You’re my brother from another mother to me. Both you and Bash are, but you’re not subtle, man.” He chuckled softly. “So… who is she?”
“Elizabeth,” I answered. “Local,” I added and didn’t miss the surprise in his gaze.
“Interesting.” His eyes moved back to where she was. Scrolling on her phone, a green drink next to her as she read whatever she’d written in a journal. “Wait, didn’t we go to school with her?” he asked, and something inside of me bristled.
Did he date her? Kiss her? Touch her? Held her hand?I knew myself. I wouldn’t care that we had a lifelong friendship;I’d punch him right here and now. I grunted my response, and he rolled his eyes.
“Relax. You know everyone I hooked up with in high school… Plus, you know high school was decades ago.”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “If I told you I kissed Kandy or even thought about her—“ Of course, he didn’t let me finish my sentence before he waved his hands in front of him.
“Okay, okay, okay. I get it. Point made.” He sat back, spreading his legs further. “So, what is it? You don’t…likeher, like her, do you?”
“I think I’m in love,” I replied gravely, the tone dire, like I’d just told him I had some kind of terminal illness.
“Wha—“ he started to say with a shit-eating grin, but when he studied me, it died on his face. “Shit. You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack.” I swallowed and watched him open and shut his mouth at least twice before he looked at the woman who had screwed me up. If I weren’t feeling like I had somehow fallen into a deep-ass hole, I would have found his little goldfish impression amusing.
