Chapter
Fourteen
Fox
I know why I’m sitting at one of the tables in the outdoor dining area. I don’t know why Bear is with me. No, I do know why. He’s been grilling me off and on for the last few days about Kitten.
She’s the one good thing I have in my life. But there’s no future with Fox. Hell, at the moment, there’s no future for Ryan either.
I still don’t know what I’m going to do about my meds. I mean, I have few options, and all of them are awful.
So obviously, I’ve got other things on my mind. But still, Kitten has been taking up the rest of the space in my brain that isn’t consumed with life and death.
Bear reaches over and steals some fries off my plate—they’re already getting cold and soggy but weirdly crunchy at the same time.
“Are you going to call her?”
“Fox talks to her all the time. It’s Ryan that’s been radio silent.” I show him my burner phone. “See.”
Kitten: This is just a physical relationship, right?
Kitten: Because I guess it would be hard to go out to dinner with you. The mask might make it difficult to eat.
Bear looks at the screen and then back at me. “You didn’t answer her.”
“Because she’s right. We can’t have both.”
My best friend rolls his eyes at me. “But Ryan can. You can. Take her out, make her laugh. Then fuck her until she can’t walk straight. This is a no-brainer, man.”
“There are too many unknowns. Keeping feelings out means that she can be safe.” I’ve run the scenarios over and over. Every outcome ends with heartbreak, for me and for her.
Fox normally answers her in an hour, but we’re rolling on four. I can imagine her checking her texts, the disappointment when there’s no notification one way or another. She knows I’ve seen the message. She probably thinks I’m just messing with her, teasing and edging her. Not that I’m having a crisis right now.
Bear pushes the phone toward me and juts out his chin behind me. “She’s coming this way.”
She’s walking into the dining area and heads to the soda machine, her face buried in her phone. She frowns and slips it into her pocket, taps her credit card, and the can rumbles through. Amber turns to head back inside when she sees me. Fuck, her whole face seems to smile at once. How is that possible?
She gives me a little wave and starts toward us. Today she’s wearing a gray pencil skirt with a light-pink blouse. Her hair is up in a messy bun and my cock hardens just thinking aboutdigging my fingers into that bundle of hair to guide her mouth exactly where I want it.
It’s Bear who talks first. “Hi, you must be Amber.” Judas! What is he doing?
“I am. And you are?”
“I’m Brandon, but everyone calls me Bear.” He shakes her hand. “I’m the one who’s been cursed to listen to this mother-fucker rave about you constantly for days now.” He pauses and rubs his chin. “But he isn’t doing you justice.”
Fucking asshole. Stop flirting with her. Bear is tall, dark, and handsome in that anime-boy kind of way. His suit always fits and he’s got the swagger that is the root of all my insecurity. Hell, he was sort of the baseline model for Fox in my head.
She turns to me with a smirk. “Oh, you’re talking shit about me?”
“No, he’s the one who’s full of shit. I did the appropriate amount of talking about the woman who thinks hippos could beat great white sharks.”
Our eyes meet and there’s an instant connection. I’ve stared into her eyes hundreds of times, but this is the first time she’s looking at me, really seeing me. Her cheeks redden and she pushes hair out of her face, a reflexive habit of hers.
Bear clears his throat, breaking our moment. “Now, Amber, I have a very important question for you.”
She glances at him with a raised eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Do you eat dinner?”
