My face flushes with guilt. He still doesn’t know that I’ve been here three days already, pretty much avoiding him. I don’t want to get into details with Blair staring me down, though. “It was just a hard situation I needed to get away from.”
The waitress brings our drinks back and I act as if I’m preoccupied with that. I take a big swig, automatically remembering how the drinks are watered down, but it still feels like home to me anyway.
Austin reaches his hand out and I know he’s going to put it over mine. He’s done it a thousand times in the past, but for some reason this time, I pull back. I don’t know why I do, and I can tell he doesn’t like it, but it doesn’t stop him or sway him from what he wants to talk about. “What happened?”
Instead of answering him, I look at Blair and she’s looking down at her shirt, opening buttons on her already low cut blouse and it’s clear that she’s not happy about me being here. When she sees me looking at her, her hand slides across Austin’s chest and down his stomach, disappearing under the table.
I take another swig of my beer and avert my eyes. She’s going to give him a hand job right here. I’m done.
I stand up, pulling money from my purse and tossing it onto the table. “I’m going to go, Austin, so you and Blair can finish your date.”
I look between his face and Blair’s disappearing hand and back again. It’s like he didn’t even notice that she’s wanting to give him a—well, you know—right here. But when he sees me staring, he holds on to Blair’s arm and removes it before standing up. “You don’t have to go.”
“Tomorrow. We can get together tomorrow,” I assure him, already walking toward the door.
“We can all go. I’ll take Blair home and then we can talk.”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, Blair looks as if she’s going to start a cat fight right here and I’m the one she’s gunning for.
I can feel the explosion in the air and I’m just waiting on the attack, but then the guy from earlier, who I’m sure I recognize from high school… Shawn maybe… comes over and offers to take me home. He must have been close to know I was leaving.
I leap at the chance to miss Blair giving Austin a public hand job. I smile at him. “Shawn, that would be great but I only live like ten minutes away, and I can walk.”
Shawn slaps Austin on the back. “Are you kidding? I don’t mind walking at all. The fresh air will do me good. See you soon, buddy.”
I say goodbye quickly before Austin can do anything but accept it.
But Austin is faster than I remember and is up out of his seat and pulling Shawn aside as I keep walking. Even though I’d never admit it aloud, I’m relieved to see that Blair wasn’t successful in trying to initiate a hand job. That fact seems to have really pissed her off if I’m going by the glare she gave me.
Poor Austin, he’s going to get an earful after I leave.
I no sooner get out the door and already Shawn’s caught up with me.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” I ask him.
He looks confused. “Do we know each other? I mean before tonight?”
He looks dumbstruck when I mention Mr. Todd’s computer lab we had together. “You used to cheat off me.”
He stops in the middle of the sidewalk. “That was you? Wow! You’ve gotten really sexy.”
I’m blushing and tongue tied by his admission. He’s so blunt, he’s probably too loaded to be making such declarations, but I’ll take the ego boost.
4
Austin
Instead of going home with my date last night, I dropped her off saying I had to work early this morning. I’m a mechanic and a great one at that, so it isn’t hard to sell it to Blair. Besides, I’m done messing around with her. I’ve told her from the get-go what she can expect from this, but she’s already too possessive and in my face.
It was late when I did get home. I showered and went straight to sleep with a smile on my face thinking about what a great surprise it is to have my best friend back in town.
I wake up early and even though I very well could go into my mechanic shop early and get work done—there’s always work to be done—I want to touch base with Laney. Seeing her last night put me at ease. At least I know she’s okay, and I don’t have to keep worrying about her. She’s home and she’s safe. Right now, that’s good enough. But I’m determined to find out what happened. And I understand with Blair there last night Laney hadn’t been able to really let me in on what was going on. But I can’t just let that hang in the air and wait around for her to fill me in.