Her eyes were vivid with determination, and I knew, even without her saying so, she was pushing me to share things about visiting her father.
“If you’re looking for an apology—” I started.
She cut me off with a harsh laugh. “I’d never expect an apology from you.” Her voice rose before she grabbed her water and gulped some down. “You’re trying to get a rise out of me.”
I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure if I was or not. For the first time in a long time, I was on unstable ground with someone.
Her face flushed like she’d disappointed herself. “It’s Jay’s night. Let’s just forget about us and be cordial.”
“Formalities were never my strong suit, Peaches.”
She sighed and her bottom lip pulped out just a little. “Well, lesson number one. It isn’t formal to call someone by a childhood nickname at a social function when you haven’t talked to them in years. Brey is fine.”
“I don’t think I ever called you that.” I consciously made the effort not to flex my jaw.
She turned toward the crowd but I caught her little smirk. I turned with her to find my brother and her friends trying to act like they weren’t watching us like we were their favorite guilty-pleasure TV show. Someone may as well have brought them popcorn.
She leaned her elbows back on the bar as she cradled her drink, and I watched her chest push out just a little. Her strapless dress was barely decent. Damn it, she couldn’t have worn a fucking turtleneck? Then again, I’d have found that indecent too. She’d filled out everywhere, and even though most women in the room were showing a lot more skin than her, I wanted to cover her up.
“Well, everyone calls me that now, Jax.” She may not have meant it as an insult but her grouping me in with everyone else felt like a sucker punch to the gut. I wasn’t supposed to be everyone. I was supposed to be the only one.
As she stared at her friends, I saw her smile at Roman. He watched our movements like a hawk, never taking his eyes off her unless he was staring me down. I stared back, letting him know my place.
What he didn’t understand about me was I’d been there before him, and I was starting to think I’d be there after.
Even if Aubrey wanted nothing to do with me.
Even if I told myself I didn’t need to have anything to do with her. Being in her proximity showed me otherwise.
I didn’t come here expecting anything with us. The plans I’d made were to come to this town and support my brother while looking into my app launch. If I got to explore the remnants of our relationship in the meantime, that was a bonus. And I needed to make sure she’d be fine through the shit I was about to stir up with her father.
We’d grown apart, I’d hurt her and she’d moved on. I’d moved on. And we were fine. Everything would stay just damn fine too, once I got all this shit straightened out over the summer.
Aubrey was right, we should be cordial. Nothing more, nothing less.
If I decided to fuck her in between to scratch the itch we both had for one another, then it would be nothing more and nothing less.
So, I convinced myself what I was feeling wasn’t jealousy when I looked at Roman glaring.
The pain in my chest was just from gulping down the rest of my drink too quickly.
“Well, Brey,” I emphasized her name as I slid my empty tumbler onto the bar. She looked surprised and then somewhat pleased that she’d gotten me to listen. “Let’s get you back to your friends, shall we?”
With that, I nudged the small of her back through the crowd and watched the goose bumps spread across her nape.
I smiled to myself.
We both had an itch to scratch, all right.