Ugh. The way he’d saidalways. The confidence of that man.
Yet another reason I couldn’t lean into him. Anton needed to be here, and I needed to build a life that was mine.
“Why weren’t you with him?” I ask Gabriel because they work together at Shadow Justice.
“It was just a client meeting, and I was helping this one with her best friend’s party.” He wraps his arm around Lara’s waist and tugs her into him.
“What’s the case?” I joke. “Farmer lost his pigs?”
He quirks an eyebrow. “Already wearing that cocky big-city vibe, are you?” Gabriel replies.
I slurp my watery drink and look at him coyly from under my brow.
Lara leans her head into the crook of his arm. “Didn’t feel like a small town when they found that body at the quarry…”
Gabriel’s jaw tightens.
I sit up a little straighter. “Oh my God. A body? The quarry on the way to the observatory?”
Gabriel’s voice is low, and he corrects Lara’s statement. “It was acarand a body. She went off the road.” A solemn expression fills his gaze. “She was only twenty-three. Whole life ahead of her.”
“That’s awful.”Poor thing.“Was she drinking or…”
Gabriel takes a pull of his beer. “I thought you were off duty?”
“You know how it is.” I shrug. “Curiosity killed the cat.”
Lara grabs one of the donut candies off the bar and unwraps it, popping it into her mouth and clearly not wanting to dwell on something so morbid. “We need some music to keep the party going. G, would you give Santi some quarters and choose something we can dry-hump to?”
He laughs. “Don’t have to ask twice.”
Suddenly, I wonder if Anton dances.
I glance at the door again.
Lara nudges me as if reading my mind. “You still have that thing for him, huh?”
I twirl my straw in the ice at the bottom of my empty glass. “I don’t have a thing. I have…a healthy appreciation for tall, broody men who know their way around a firearm.”
Lara laughs. “Honey, join the club.” She perches her small frame on a stool. “I guess you’ll have plenty to choose from in LA.”
“I’m done with men,” I say, half-heartedly, because judging by how I keep glancing at that damn door, it sure doesn’t look like it.
“Can’t say I blame you,” Lara says softly. She knows how badly my last relationship, if you could call it one, went down.
I swirl the ice in my glass again, pretending I’m not counting the seconds to Anton’s arrival. Saying that, counting is harder than it was an hour ago because the drinks are now heavy in my system.
I’m drunk.
Condensation slicks my palm; my pulse is loud in my ears. The cubes clink louder than they should. The mix of nerves, four different types of spirits, and anticipation fizz through me like carbonation.
The music stutters as someone fumbles with the playlist,and then, a cool draft from outside slips across my shoulders.
If someone’s coming in, it could be him.
The thought barely lands before my body moves. I turn my back to the door, smooth my hair. My fingers dip into my handbag on instinct. Lipstick, quick swipe. I press my lips together and let out a slow breath, like I’m steadying myself.
Why do I even care what I look like? He’s just a friend.
