Page 34 of The Scars We Heal

The notes to some Backstreet Boys song began to play, and Hayden did a little shimmy with his hips before belting out the first verse. He had to be drunk, or at least a little buzzed, but then again, maybe Sierra just brought out a wilder side to him. Before they got back together, he had been the quietest in our group of five. However, the bar was pretty low to begin with. Our friend group was a rowdy bunch who liked to have fun.

Mikey had pulled Juniper away to the bar, Reid went outside to answer a phone call, and Sierra was completely enamored with Hayden’s performance, leaving me and Cait sitting next to each other in silence.

Our stools were close enough that our shoulders brushed and our knees were touching. If I reached out under the table, it would be so easy to rest my hand on her thigh.

She leaned in, her lips nearly brushing my ear as she whispered, “He’s not that bad a singer.”

“Normally he’d never sing karaoke, so he’s gotta be drunk.”

“I think I’m more curious about this alter ego of yours,” she teased.

I masked a laugh by shaking my head slightly. “It’s nothing special. Just a stupid thing that happens when I’m having too much fun.”

“I think it is special. You have this way of bringing out the playfulness in people. Making them feel comfortable enough to be themselves.”

“You think so?”

She nodded. “I just remember being in college and you were always the life of the party. Anytime I was feeling down, you had this way of knowing how to make me smile or laugh. Trust me, I needed that a lot my senior year.”

Neither of us said anything, letting whatever energy there was between us crackle in the air for a minute. In the heat of the moment, I inched my hand closer to her leg, fingers nearly brushing the denim fabric covering her skin.

My fingertip brushed against the side of her thigh, and her head snapped toward me, eyebrows raised and mouth slightly parted.

“Jake—” she whispered. “What are you doing?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Mikey and Juniper came back before anything else could happen, and the moment ended.

“Jakey over here with the lovey-dovey eyes.” Mikey made kissy noises with his mouth, and I immediately pulled my hand back.

Caitlin’s cheeks flushed, and I imagined I had a similarly guilty expression on my face, as though I was a horny teenager getting caught and not a grown-ass adult who could make my own decisions.

If my heart pounded any harder, I was sure it would break its way out of my chest, falling directly into Caitlin’s palm. If I was being honest, I wouldn’t have minded giving it to her. Still, I flattened my voice, giving him a noncommittal shrug to feign disinterest like the idiot I was. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ ’bout.”

In my peripheral, Caitlin pursed her lips, eyes darting away.

“Ah, don’t be fucking dense, giving me that shit,” Mikey groaned. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Luckily for me, Juniper and Caitlin had started their own conversation, allowing me to lower my voice and growl in Mikey’s direction to shut the fuck up.

Before he could say anything else, Hayden’s song ended and the DJ saved me from more of this ridiculousness.

“Come on up to the stage, Jake!”

Before I turned around, I shot Cait a flashy grin. When I had the microphone in my hand, I lifted it to my lips. Pointing in the direction of the table, I murmured, “This one’s for you.”

The song played, and it only took a few seconds for recognition to flash across Caitlin’s face, followed by a smile she tried to suppress by rolling her lips between her teeth.

Mission accomplished.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

caitlin

Keep pushing, everyone! Pedal like there’s a bear chasing you!” The young, college-aged cycling instructor yelled out her questionable words of encouragement as bass music pumped out of the speakers, vibrating the floor and walls.

“I’m not sure I want to imagine a bear chasing me,” the woman next to me—a brunette with her hair tied back in a French braid who appeared to be in her mid-twenties—muttered.

A soft laugh escaped me. “I’d be dead if there was a bear involved. Cycling is harder than I imagined.”