“Okay.”
I walked away, though there was no distance where I couldn’t feel the weight of his stare as I struggled through the bottleneck to get back to the bar. The next band had struck up, and the already ear-splitting noise had escalated to deafening.
Tamar frowned at me as she slid drinks for the five girls I’d all but forgotten toward me. “You look green,” she shouted over the music.
“I’m fine.”
She released a chuckle of disbelief. “Liar.”
Arranging drinks on my tray, I fumbled through an incredulous laugh. “Am I that transparent?”
“Yep.” She gestured with her chin in the direction of the guys’ table. “When it comes to him, you’ve always been. Since the first night he showed up here.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Honestly, it’s nothing. I just got a…weird feeling.” I shook my head. “For so long my only focus had been coming here to earn enough to support my daughter and myself and then going home to her. It’s a little unsettling having my life so unsettled.”
She snorted. “Love has a way of unsettling you. Just be careful it doesn’t knock you off your feet.”
The warning hit me strange, inciting that ominous feeling that had been trying to make itself known for weeks. One I’d shoved down time and again, unwilling to give voice or time because all I wanted was this time with him.
The problem was, I didn’t want that time to end.
Tamar was on top of it, passing me the guys’ drinks, already knowing what they would order.
I smiled in appreciation. “You’re a rock star.”
“Ha. Not so much, but I’m pretty sure you have a table full of them waiting for you right about now. Get going, woman. You can’t leave them alone for long or they’ll incite some kind of riot. Lord knows Charlie will have a meltdown.”
Light laughter rumbled from me, because it really wasn’t that far from the truth. Trouble followed them everywhere they went.
I balanced my tray with drinks for both tables, careful not to slosh anything as I weaved my way through the throbbing crowd. Everyone had begun to move, energy alive as the upbeat country band roused the already over-eager crowd.
By the time I cleared a mob of guys blocking my path, all five party girls were standing around Baz’s table.
Hanging off the guys.
Smiling and flirting and making something I didn’t even recognize rise inside me.
God.
This wasn’t me.
Not even close.
But I had the overwhelming urge to throw the tray of drinks in the redhead’s face, because she was rubbing up against my man, whispering something in his ear, getting friendly in a way that made me want to rip her arms from her body.
But Sebastian.
Sebastian was just staring across at me, those severe eyes still caressing up and down, like they hadn’t stopped. Something like a smile ticked up at the edge of one side of his pretty, pretty mouth. As if he could read my thoughts like they were written in a book, a play-by-play of the possessiveness that crested in me, wave after wave.
But I felt his promise.
It was always going to be me.
Tamping down my insecurities, I approached, brow arched as I took in the raucous members of Sebastian’s pseudo-family. “Looks like you’ve all suckered in a little company. Guess you’re trying to make my job easy on me tonight. Shall I drop all of these here?”
Ash took an appreciative glance around the table surrounded by too much skin. “Sounds like a damned good plan to me, Beautiful Shea.”
I shouldered in between Lyrik and Baz and set my tray on the table. Maybe I shouldn’t have felt so smug when I jostled the redhead toward Lyrik, but hell, I was only human.