EIGHTEEN
Luke
I didn’t want to go out with the guys to The Landing, but they insisted. After the week I’d had, I needed to unwind so I let them drag me to the only bar in town and prepared to get drunk. Baker drove, though he assured me he would be drinking and Rainey had told him she could be our designated driver. I felt at least a little safer.
It was still Friday and I’d only learned of what Joe left me in his will earlier that day. The Landing was packed when we showed up at half past nine. Wolfe paid our cover and we found a table near the band. It was loud so conversation was nearly impossible. It worked for me, though. I didn’t want to discuss the events of the day, or hell, even the week. I just wanted to forget.
Rainey and Gabby joined us at the table shortly after we got there. Almost immediately, Baker asked Rainey to dance and they left me alone with Gabby and Wolfe. It was beyond awkward. They wouldn’t even acknowledge each other. When Mallory walked in, beer burst out of my mouth onto the table. She walked right up to the table as if she wasn’t breaking my heart and said something in Gabby’s ear. Gabby nodded and then Mallory asked Wolfe to dance before she even ordered a beer. Wolfe looked nervously at me and I gave him a nod.
Mallory was a free woman without attachments. She’d made that perfectly clear. So it didn’t bother me one bit when Wolfe twirled her on the dance floor and she gave him a huge smile. Nope, not one bit.
Oh, who was I kidding? I was more jealous than I’d ever been in my life and she had an unfair advantage, since she wasn’t the one in love. I took another swig of my beer and glanced at Gabby. She was watching them, too. I thought she looked annoyed, but when she caught me looking at her, she grinned.
“Want to dance?” She shouted above the heavy bump of the bass. I nodded and held out my hand to her. It was completely platonic, since she was technically still married and Wolfe was quickly becoming a good friend. Not to mention his left hook was dangerous. I rubbed my jaw subconsciously. There weren’t any bruises, but it was still sore.
I spun Gabby around and the beat thumped around us. Near the end of the song, Gabby stepped away to dance with Baker and Wolfe grabbed Rainey’s hand. With them paired off, I looked at Mallory. She seemed to have an inner battle before she reluctantly took my hand. Almost immediately, the music slowed and changed to a romantic love song. It was an older song, too. I recognized it as the song Mallory and I had claimed as ours when we were young. I pulled her close but I looked over her head to where our “friends” danced a few feet away. This was all just some scheme on their part.
But I wasn’t going to be the one to back down. I looked at Mallory and she moved closer to me so that our slow dance wasn’t like a junior high dance with several feet between us. Her amazing scent, berries and vanilla flooded my senses. Lust hit me like a brick wall. I shifted back as discretely as I could so she wouldn’t notice. I gulped and vowed I wouldn’t breathe for the rest of the dance, even if it killed me.
She was dressed to kill in that short jean skirt and a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail and the long tresses hung down her back. Her makeup was dark, much darker than I’d seen her wear before. Her mascara was thick on her long eyelashes and her lips were painted pink and then glossed over. I resisted the urge to kiss those pink lips.
She stared up at me with her bright blue eyes and it took everything within me not to kidnap her until she fell back in love with me. I could use sex to do it, just as Baker had suggested. But she wouldn’t be happy. The city life made her happy, and I didn’t want to intrude on that life. I didn’t want to bring her down.
We danced through the song but didn’t speak. Our bodies moved in unison we’d danced to this song so many times. Even though it wasn’t a super slow song, it described our relationship to a tee. The lyrics were all about finding a reason to be a better person, a reason to change. I sang the words aloud as we danced our final goodbye. She was moving on with her life and I was going to change.
It wasn’t that I was going to become someone different, I just suddenly wanted something more. I didn’t know what, but I knew it would come to me. In the meantime, I enjoyed the dance with Mallory. When the song ended, we separated and I went back to the table. Another fast-paced song fired up and the girls all opted to remain on the dance floor while Baker and Wolfe made their way back to where I sat.
“Sorry, man,” Baker yelled to me after he sipped his beer. “They put us up to it.”
“Yeah, it was Rainey and Gabby’s idea, Luke. They insisted,” Wolfe piped up. “We couldn’t say no.”
“You mean you couldn’t say no to your wife. What a sally you turned out to be.” Baker laughed. “Remind me to come to divorce court with you so I can watch as she takes half your stuff and then some. That way I’ll be able to tell how she does it so I don’t make the same mistake with Rainey.”
“Low blow, Baker. Especially coming from a man who’s been shut off,” Wolfe replied. “I hear Rainey hasn’t been giving it up since the first night she slept with you.”
I looked at Baker in surprise. He brushed it off.
“We realized we were going too fast and decided to slow it down,” he muttered. He swilled his beer and I saw his eyes flash.
“Yeah, slow down by stopping completely. I heard that,” Wolfe raised his bottle. I tapped mine against his just to irritate Baker and we laughed.
Half an hour later, the ladies rejoined our group and I noticed Mallory chose a seat between Gabby and Wolfe. She was avoiding me. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. We were over, shouldn’t she at least not want to be around me anymore? Shouldn’t she scream at me and demand I leave her friends?
But she acted so comfortable, as if my presence didn’t bother her at all. She didn’t try to make me jealous, either, which I figured would have been her number one priority. She should want to never see me again. It was so confusing.
Across the bar, Carrie caught my eye and waved me over. I excused myself from the group, where the conversation had turned to Rainey and Baker’s “relationship.” Definitely not a conversation I wanted to have. Again.
I walked over to Carrie, who sat at the far end of the bar where the music was low enough to invite conversation.
“Hey Luke,” she greeted. She patted the barstool beside her and I sat.
“Hi, Carrie. How have you been?” I asked politely.
“Oh, the same. I just wanted to check in with you and make sure you’re doing okay. I know Joe meant a lot to you. I tried to talk to you at the funeral reception, but you acted like you didn’t hear me and then you drove off in a huff. I figured I would run into you eventually. Small town and all,” she laughed. It was obvious she’d had more than a few drinks.
“Yeah, I was a little upset,” I told her. She leaned toward me and put a hand on my thigh.
“You know, Luke, I miss you. A lot,” she squeezed. I gulped, certain I couldn’t go through this again. Breaking up with her had been hard enough the first time. I didn’t want to do it again. I almost laughed aloud when I realized I could have been thinking about Carrie or Mallory. That was my life—one big comic show. I pushed her hand away.
“No, Carrie, we aren’t doing this. Have a nice night,” I got up from the stool and walked away before she could reply. When I arrived back at our table, Mallory was nowhere to be found. Rainey and Gabby glared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“We saw you hitting on Carrie,” Gabby pouted. Were they insane? Carrie came on to me. And I pushed her away. I wasn’t about to get involved with anyone else. At least, not right now.
“Where’s Mallory?” I asked. It all suddenly clicked in my head.
“She took off,” Rainey said. “She said she was going to walk home.” Walk? It was after eleven at night and she lived several miles from the bar. I sighed.
I was never going to understand women.