“I’m off in an hour.” She glances at the clock. My eyes follow hers and see it’s just a little past eight in the evening.
“My place or yours?” Chad asks, once again entering the conversation after throwing me under the bus. I’m beginning to wonder if I should trust him with my six after all.
“Uh, yours,” Shayne replies with a flush to her cheeks.
“Everything good?” Chad asks her.
“Yeah. My place is just small, so yeah, yours is better.”
“You know Mom and Dad would love to see you,” he tells her.
“I just had dinner with them the other night.” She smiles at Chad.
He nods. “Good.”
There’s something there, something I’m missing. I know Chad said she had shit parents and that she was dealt a rough hand growing up. Is she safe?
No. Stop it, Gregory, I mentally chastise myself. Chad and his parents would never let her be in a situation where she wasn’t safe. I’m just apparently losing my fucking mind over this girl.
“We’ll just hang out here until your shift is over.” Chad peers around the bar, and the crowd is already starting to thin compared to when we got here.
“All right, but no more of these if y’all are driving.” Shayne points an index finger at each of our beers sitting in front of us on the bar.
“Yes, ma’am.” Chad salutes her, making her laugh. I wish I could bottle the sound and carry it with me always. The sound of her laughter sure could brighten up the hot sandy desert we spend so much time in.
Over the next hour, Chad and I devour our wings and switch to water at Shayne’s insistence. Chad tells me stories of him and Shayne and his sister, Cassie, growing up and the hell they used to raise. Apparently, when he was sixteen, he and Shayne, with Cassie in tow, dropped a round bale of hay in the center of their small town and set it on fire. How they didn’t get hauled off to juvie for that one, I don’t know.
“All set,” Shayne says from behind us.
I turn to look over my shoulder and suck in a breath. Her hair that was pulled up is now down, hanging over her shoulders. It looks like it’s silky soft with the way it flows down her back. I want to touch it. No, I need to. Unable to stop myself, I reach out and rub a piece of the silky strands between my thumb and index finger.
“So soft,” I murmur. I hear her quick intake of breath as her eyes land on mine. I can’t pull my eyes away from her. My breath stalls in my lungs as I allow myself to get lost in her gaze.
“Come on, Casanova,” Chad jokes as he places his hands on my shoulders and guides me out of the bar.
“I’ll follow you,” Shayne tells him.
“Wait. Shouldn’t we follow her? What if she breaks down?” I ask Chad, watching Shayne walk away. I don’t tear my eyes off her until she reaches a silver older model Honda Accord and climbs inside.
“She’s a big girl, Ford. Get in the truck,” he orders. His tone is filled with humor. “Seriously,” he says once we’re in the cab of his truck. “Shayne has lived here all of her life.”
I nod, forcing myself not to turn and gaze out the window to make sure she’s behind us. Instead, I look into the side mirror, hoping Chad will think I’m taking in the sights.
“Enjoying the scenery?” he asks after we travel about halfway to his house in silence.
“Yep.”
His laughter fills the cab of his truck. “It’s dark out, Gregory,” he points out. “You can’t see shit.”
He’s right, and I know I’m busted. Running my hands over my face, I groan. “What the hell is wrong with me?”
“You’ve been hit by the bug.”
“The bug? What do you mean, the bug?” I ask, thoroughly confused.
He slows down to turn on what I recognize is his road. He glances over while he waits for a car to pass. “The looovvee bug,” he sings.
“Fuck off. I’m not in love with her.”
“No?”
“No, but damn, man, she’s gorgeous.”
“Of course she is. She has Anthony blood running through her veins. What did you expect?”
“A man, for starters. Fuck, you should have told me what I was walking into.”
“And what do you think you walked into?”
“A bar to meet your cousin, who just so happens to be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. And while we’re on the subject, why didn’t you defend her?” I hate the thought of no one looking out for her. I would have thought that Chad would have had her back.
“Trust me. I was keeping an eye on the situation. I was ready to intervene, but you beat me to it. I trust you with my life, so in turn, I trusted you to take care of it. I was watching and listening if you needed me.”