There may have even been glitter. Seriously.
As they passed the bar, they invited Jack and Devon to join them in their booth.
Which the guys did.
What the hell?
I let out a long breath and asked Brenda to handle their drink orders. Heading to the kitchen, I smacked the door open with my palm.
The girls were giggly and ridiculous as they fawned all over Jack and Devon for the next interminably long time. Jazz’s friend, her name was Ashley, I remembered now, had gorgeous long blonde hair, and she slung her arm around Jack’s shoulder as she snuggled up to him.
“Quite a spectacle isn’t it?” Brenda said next to me sometime later.
I realized I was staring and quickly looked away. “Yep, unreal.”
“Rumor has it you two had a thing,” Brenda said curiously. “I didn’t even know he’d been to Butler Cove before, but I guess it makes sense with his friend having a place here. Is it true?”
I sighed. What did it hurt to tell anyone now? “Yeah. Had.”
“Wow.” Brenda looked impressed. “Not that I didn’t think you could attract a hottie like that … but I didn’t expect you to be attracted to someone with that kind of career.”
I let out a half chuckle with none of the amusement one would expect. “Me neither, but …” I looked over at Jack who moved his mouth over to Ashley’s ear. What the hell? I couldn’t handle this. Watching him was making my insides churn. I knew what she was probably feeling right now—a little shivery with hormones racing up and down her body. “I thought for a while he was a different person. Anyway,” I tried brightly, “looks like he’s moving on though, huh?”
To see him tête-a-tête like that was an eerily familiar sight from the tabloids over the last few months. My skin heated. What was it with him and blondes?
“Honey, if you only knew the way his eyes track you all over this restaurant …” Brenda sighed. “You may have moved on, but this boy, this famous, gorgeous man who can have anyone, anywhere with a crook of his finger, is all about you.”
Swallowing, I involuntarily flicked my eyes back to Jack, whose eyes were indeed on me. Yes, I’d felt them all night long. I wished there was some way to translate what was going on in his head. Why his eyes were saying one thing, and his actions another? It was dizzying, and I hated it. Thank goodness the night was almost done.
Soon, the rest of the restaurant had cleared out, and it was just Jack’s table left. Sheriff Graves had stopped by to make sure people weren’t loitering outside the entrance, and as it was well past closing, to nudge Paulie to close up.
Blonde Ashley picked up her phone and did a selfie of her and Jack, unaware he wasn’t looking at her camera, but at me. Still. I was beginning to feel a little like prey on the forest floor at night.
“Case in point,” said Brenda as we passed by each other again. “Do you think you could leave some available men around for the rest of us?”
I nodded but was unable to look away from Jack. His eyes looked black from here. If he’d been pretending not to track my every move earlier, he wasn’t hiding it anymore.
“Colton Graves is available,” I answered Brenda. “We broke up today. If we were even technically dating.”
Jack’s eyes flicked to my mouth as I spoke. There was no way he could lip read from there. And frankly it felt like he was touching my lips not reading them. I licked them without thinking, and his gaze narrowed.
“Good to know, good to know,” murmured Brenda next to me. “I’ll … um … leave you to molest each other with your eyes then.”
Her words registered. Pulling my gaze from Jack’s was like trying to break a piece of saltwater taffy. I shook my head and headed to the bar. “Paulie, how soon do you think we can get these folks out of here so we can lock up?”
“I don’t think the guys are gonna make a clean get away. If they want to ditch these girls, I’ll need you to take ‘em out the back and give ‘em a ride home, okay?”
“What? No, Brenda can do that,” I said, panicking.
Brenda passed by again, her hands full of plates. “Sorry, hon, I could kick myself, but I walked. No-can-do.”
“Paulie,” I pleaded, grasping at straws. “If they walked here, they can walk home. Can’t they? Or you take them, I’ll lock up. And maybe they don’t want to ditch those girls.”
“I really ‘preciate that Keri Ann, and you know I trust you with locking up, but I want to make sure those girls go on home and safely. I don’t want none of them hanging around here and causing trouble when they realize them boys’ve gone. ‘Sides, the guys already asked me for help in leavin’. We need to give ‘em a quick getaway, not send ‘em home on foot so they can be followed.”
A loud cackle stood out from the round of laughter at the table.
Paulie lifted a hand and signaled to Devon, who nodded at Jack, and they both excused themselves from the table.
I tensed.
“Aw!” said the girl on Ashley’s other side. “You guys gotta go to the restroom in pairs? I thought only us gals did that?”
Devon just laughed. “Nah, Jack’s gotta go, I’m just going to see Paulie about us maybe staying here with you ladies a little longer.” Clearly, he was a practiced hand at extracting himself from these situations.
I exhaled a resigned breath and headed to the kitchen before Jack could catch my eye again. I was about to be alone in a confined space with him, I didn’t need to get any more psyched out. I knew I was beaten. The sooner we got this over with, the better.
I grabbed my bag, and saying a quick goodbye to Hector and the other guys in the kitchen, jogged out the backdoor into the cool spring night to get my truck. It roared to life, and I did a quick turn around and brought it to idle with the passenger side lined up to the door I’d just exited. One row, three people. Someone was going to be extremely close to me.
I rolled down my window and breathed the sea air, tainted with restaurant refuse, deep into my lungs. Then I closed my eyes and counted slowly, trying to bring my pulse back to some sort of resting rate, and waited.
Devon came out the back door of the restaurant first and ducked to take a quick look inside the truck. Making sure it was me, I guess. He winked, like he was in on some huge secret, then opened the door, stepping aside so Jack could enter first. He hesitated for a split-second before climbing in.
I turned my face and looked stoically out the dark windshield in front of me, as if every cell of my body and senses weren’t attuned to Jack settling his tall frame inches away from where my thigh rested on the seat. My knuckles turned paler on the steering wheel. My skin actually felt hotter on that side of my body.
“Thanks, Keri Ann,” Devon said as he got in and slammed the door closed, causing a breeze, laced with Jack, to wash over me.
God.
I threw the truck in gear and pulled out of the parking lot onto the dark street, the headlights sweeping over the palmettos lining the sidewalk.
Closer To The Edge by Thirty Seconds to Mars came on the truck radio.
“No problem,” I croaked. I was weak at the moment. I was tired, and emotionally spent, and totally on edge. And worse? I was aroused. I had been all evening. For some reason, my body hadn’t gotten the memo that Jack was not to be involved with me in any way. I’d managed to find the strength that morning to push him away, even as my body had been responding. Responding to the memory of how it felt to be with him, which was far more potent now that it was a real memory, than when it had been just a concept so many months ago. God, I wanted to shut my mind down, but I needed it to keep my wits about me.