And, I love him for being that for her.
I’m so excited for the distraction that a night out with my best friend can bring me, I don’t notice the gift on my windshield until I drop my briefcase in the passenger seat of my car.
It’s another daisy. This time, the white petals are tipped in red dye. Unease washes over me.
I glance in my mirrors, scanning the parking lot, but other than a handful of employees leaving the county building, there doesn’t seem to be anything out of place.
I keep my head on a swivel, jumping out and tossing the flower onto the pavement before anyone notices my strange behavior.
No one is watching me. It’s all in my head.
* **
The neon strobe lights and the fog machine might be a bit overkill for a bar, but Casa Amigos is the only place within fifty miles that plays upbeat music and doesn’t smell like cigarettes and mildew.
“…So everybody put your hands in the air now.”
Thea and I launch our hands out towards the ceiling, jumping and screaming along to the song. We’re lost in our own little bubble, letting the beat and alcohol transfix us.
She didn’t drink in public for the longest time, but now we get to indulge in tequila shots and margaritas because of the man sitting at the table right on the edge of the dance floor.
Jesse watches Thea closely at all times, always with a disgustingly sweet smile on his face, ready to jump in to ward off stray attention.
Except this time, when I glance over at him, he’s not watching us. His head is crooked slightly, his eyes trained across the room in a dark corner.
I twirl around Thea, shimmying against her backside until he glances in my direction and catches my eye.
“Everything okay?”I mouth. It’s too loud in here to hear someone from across the dance floor.
He smiles easily and nods, but I notice the tension in his posture. I’ve won cases by reading body language alone.
“Bathroom,” he mouths back before weaving through the crowded bar.
“What’s wrong?” Thea asks, and I realize I’ve stopped dancing.
“I don’t know.”
She loops her arm through mine, pulling me towards the table Jesse just left, and cranes her neck looking for him once she sees that he’s gone.
“He said he was going to the bathroom.”
“That’s weird,” she remarks. We both know that man would not let Thea out of his sight in a public place, not even if nature calls. “Oh, he’s over there. He’s talking to someone.”
I follow her line of sight over the heads of the crowd, and my knees buckle. I see blonde hair that’s not so blonde anymore and not nearly as long as it used to be, and the eyes that I used to dream about.
But that familiar form across the room is also taller and stronger than the boy he used to be, and he sits like a predator in the corner, concealing how dangerous his presence is.
If my forearms weren’t resting on the table top, I would crumble.
“Thea…”
Chapter Four
Hayes
God, she’s beautiful. And, magnetic. Even if I didn’t know who she was, it would be hard for me to look anywhere else.
She throws her head back and laughs as she bounces around to the beat, and I feel the muscles twitching in my cheeks. I could watch her every minute of every day, and it would never be enough.
