Chapter Seventeen
Luke
I sipped warm beer from a tiny glass as my uncle droned in my ear about networking, free food, and an open bar.
“Take it while it’s there, son. The amount we pay the bloody council in business rates.”
“Ipay the council,” I corrected mildly. “And nothing here is free. We paid for the tickets.”
A fact that was leaving an increasingly bad taste in mymouth. Why the fuck was I here? The local business gala was everything I hated—bad clothes, bad food, and bad company if Jon didn’t shut the hell up anytime soon. I fiddled with my collar. The Navy had conditioned me to ridiculous outfits, but it had been a while since I’d worn anything but jeans, and the shirt and tie combo Fran had forced me into was making me sweat. Or maybe it was the two hundredpeople crammed into the town hall, none of whom I had a single thing to say to.
“It’ll be fun,”Fran had said.“And you might get some business out of it.”
Fun. What the fuck ever. I’d say she needed to get out more, but she’d barely been home since Billy had politely—for him, at least—evicted us from his bedside. And I knew why. Social activity was her cure for rejection, whereas minewas to stay in my house and sulk.
I tuned Jon out and picked idly at the rubber chicken breast someone had dumped in front of me a while ago. It was probably the worst thing I’d eaten in recent memory, and after three days of McDonalds, that was saying something. I gave up, pushed it away, and surveyed the room instead. People watching had always been a thing of mine. I wasn’t a great talker,but I could observe other fuckers doing it for hours, wondering if the crap that came out of their mouths was anywhere close to the truth. If the heated gaze they sent across the room was to someone it shouldn’t have been. Fran said I had a gossipy old woman’s soul beneath my stoic facade, but in truth most people bored me, and I lacked the inclination to pretend otherwise.
I’d figured atleast three couples to be having affairs by the time Jon nudged me.
“Off for a smoke,” he said. “You coming?”
It was tempting, but I’d packed it in a few weeks before Mia had come back, and regretted it ever since. Smoking calmed me, and gave me something to do with my jittery hands.Fuck it.
We abandoned our table and slipped outside. It had grown dark while we’d eaten crap food andgot slowly pissed on weak lager. Navy life had taught me to tell time by following the sun, but my brain felt empty right now, at least of anything useful.
Jon passed me a fag. I sparked up and leaned against a wall while I blew smoke to the moon. The nicotine felt way too good as it burned a path to my lungs and I tried to savour it, but the cigarette went down far too fast. I consideredpoaching another, or dashing across the road to buy my own. Or even sacking the whole night off completely and chipping home. The last option held the most appeal, but I wasn’t drunk enough to get away with that just yet. Jon was worse than Fran when he wanted me somewhere, andhewasn’t drunk enough to evade yet.
I smoked another cigarette, enjoying the buzz. Jon went back inside, but I remainedslouched, poking around on my phone for something to do. A pleasant haze settled over me. I was half a world away when the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end.
Startled, I froze, then glanced up to scan my surroundings. There was no one nearby save a couple of old geezers from the gala who weren’t paying me any heed, but the sensation of being watched crept over me until thecigarette between my fingers began to burn for real.
“Fuck.” I flicked it away, hoping my unease would go with it, but the creeping feeling remained. I pushed off the wall and took a few steps forward. A black Focus parked up the road caught my attention. It wasn’t an unusual car; there must’ve been dozens of them in Rushmere. But still. I stared at it, squinting to see if there was anyonebehind the wheel, until it revved its engine and drove away.
Cheap beer bubbled in my stomach as I frowned after it. Logic told me I was drunk and paranoid, but despite spending most of my life angsting over shit I couldn’t change, I didn’t do dramatic. I didn’t getfeelingsand omens. If I thought some arsehole had been eyeballing me, they probably had. But why? I had no damn idea, and Idrifted inside on autopilot, straight into the back of someone...hard enough to get a mouthful of their rose-scented, silky blond hair.
Mia.
Jesus Christ.
I caught her as she stumbled, my fingers digging into her slender forearms, all the while cursing my fucking existence. Seriously? She washere, of all places?
She’s a business owner, dickhead.
Yeah, for all of five fuckingminutes.
I set her right and took a step back as she whirled around ready to deck whoever was manhandling her from behind. “Get the fuck—oh. It’s you.”
Of course it was me. No other fool would’ve missed her standing in their path. No other fool would be itching to walk away from her for the thousandth time. Especially when she was wearingthatdress. Sometimes I wondered why I thoughtof her most often in old jeans and one of Gus’s T-shirts. Sometimes I just wonderedwhy.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Sorry.”
“Luke—”
“Fuck’s sake, Mia. I said I was sorry.” I pushed past her and strode back to my table, throwing myself into my seat.
Jon eyed me. “I remember you squabbling with that one when you were a lanky scrote. You still not cracked her?”
I didn’twant to know what he meant by “cracked.” I necked the whisky he’d left next to my beer and turned slightly to block him with my shoulder. “Mind your own business.”
Thankfully, some old git from the council saved me from further conversation by standing up to make a speech.
I heard nothing but white noise, and every part of me vibrated with tension as I tried to locate Mia without givingaway the fact that I was searching for her. A second sweep of the room found her two tables away, ten feet, if that. Had she been there all night? Damn it. I couldn’t figure out what was worse: the possibility that she’d been so close and I hadn’t noticed her, or that she’d seen me and chosen to ignore me.
Even though I’d legit told her to fuck off the last two times we’d spoken.
God,I was a walking ball of dick right now.
Like she’d heard my thoughts, Mia shifted in her seat and met my gaze. Her expression was unreadable. Filled with self-loathing, I looked away. The scrape of a chair and the click of high heels reached me a second later, and when I glanced back, she was gone.
