4.
***Jayden***
Ilaughedandleanedback in my seat. “So. That was the wealthy boyfriend?”
“Oh, god.” Violet covered her face with her hands and let out a quiet cry. “This is humiliating. I can’t believe I lied.Obviously, I lied. And it was such a dumb lie. I was just so embarrassed when my aunts were picking on me that I claimed to have a boyfriend. I knew you knew I was lying, and when I saw you here, I just gave up. There was no way I was going to be able to make that guy play along with being my boyfriend.”
“Ididknow you were lying. Which is why I followed you here like a creep. I wanted to know what you were up to.”
She tilted her head as she stared at me, and I wondered if she was noticing the differences in my face, too. “You followed me here?”
“Complete transparency?” I leaned even farther over the table. “I damn near broke my neck trying to get away from your family so I could see where you went. I wanted a chance to talk to you, and I don’t exactly have your number.”
“I think that should technically lessen some of my embarrassment. I’m a liar, but you’re a stalker.” She shrugged out of her sweater, nearly short-circuiting my brain as she revealed a set of tits that definitely hadn’t been quite as large a decade before. “Why don’t I feel less embarrassed?”
I took a long pull from my beer and forced my eyes up to hers. “It’s probably just a lingering sense of embarrassment from shouting the word ‘dicks’ across the bar.”
Her laugh was stunning as she settled into our little corner. With her head back, her neck bared, and her breasts bouncing right along in her dress, she could’ve been a goddess. She’d always been beautiful, but she’d settled into her features as she’d gotten farther away from her teenage years. “I’ll never be able to come back here.”
“Is this where you bring all your awkward first dates?”
She picked at the label on her beer and smiled shyly. “That was my first date in over a year. As mortifying as my family was, they weren’t too far off the mark. There have been no men at my door in many, many moons.”
“Many, many moons, huh?” I took a long pull from my beer and studied her over the bottle. Those curls did something to my brain and fingers that made me want to touch them. “Why’d you tell them you have a boyfriend?”
“Like I said, I was embarrassed. I didn’t expect to show up and see you there today. It was a shock, to say the least.” She licked a drop of beer from her bottom lip and then scowled. “They’re always like that. I’m the butt of the family joke, and that’s fine, normally. Well. Notfine, but it’s tolerable. Having them point out all my flaws in front of an ex? God, no. It was like watching a train crash into my house and run my puppy over. I don’t have a puppy, but I can imagine how terrible it would be, and that’s what it felt like sitting at that table today. I didn’t want to be the screw up, so, I invented a boyfriend and then hid in the bathroom and set up a date with the first male who would have me. And now, here I am, the screw up, once again. At least I have beer now, though.”
I motioned to the bartender for two more bottles. “You do have beer. All the beer you want. I’m buying.”
She stood up and smiled down at me. “That’s great, because I was lying about how great my business is doing, too. Now, I’m going to the bathroom and I’m going to regain the composure I lost several hours ago. When I come back, can we pretend that I haven’t been fully exposed as a loser today?”
I nodded. “Whatever you want.”
She stopped next to me and met my gaze with a curious one of her own. “I’m sure you’re only being so nice to me because you watched my bones get chewed on by my family today, but thank you. You’re one of the last people I deserve kindness and understanding from. But, hey, I bet you get why I refused to introduce you to my parents now. Told you it wasn’t personal.”
Watching her figure as she moved across the bar, I drained the rest of my beer and quit bothering to try to convince myself that I wasn’t still a fool when it came to Violet. There’d always been something about her. The moment I’d first spotted her, I’d known it. Time hadn’t dulled that reaction in me one bit, but it had softened the memory of the pain I’d felt after she left. That was a dangerous game, but there was no way I could walk away from a night out with her.
I was nursing my new beer and tracing the condensation running down the neck with my fingertips when Violet slipped into the chair across from me again. My stomach tightened and a wave of awareness hit me hard as I noticed the outfit change she’d pulled. Gone was the pretty and proper dress. She wore a T-shirt that advertised a local baseball team, and the worn material clung to her like a second skin. There wasn’t a bra cupping her breasts under the Tate’s Bakes logo, and every breath she took stole mine.
“I can’t stand wearing those dresses for longer than I have to when I’m with the family. I was planning on changing in the car as soon as I got out of there tonight, but I wasn’t sure my almost-fake-boyfriend would be into leggings and Uggs.”
“If he had eyes and a preference for women, I’m pretty sure he would be into it.”
With a snort, she drained the last of her first bottle and pulled her second closer. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has said to me all day, and it’ll be the thing I’m thankful for today. Some Thanksgiving. Although this part is great. Not exactly how I thought my night would end, but I’m not complaining.”
“I fully expected to spend the night drinking myself stupid while listening to Anthony and your sister talk about wedding shit.” I shuddered. Rose seemed nice, but she also seemed like a pain in the ass when it came to the wedding.
“So, you’re saying hanging out with an ex is marginally better than listening to my sister rant about her wedding?”
“Marginally, yes.”
She tipped her beer at me and shrugged. “I guess I deserve that. I wasn’t the best to you. I’m sorry. For how I acted in the end, I mean. How have you been?”
“In the past decade?” Laughing, I nodded to the bartender and held up two fingers while pointing at the shelves of liquor. “We’re going to need something harder if we’re going down that memory lane.”
Violet sat up and opened her mouth, as if to protest, but I shot her a challenging gaze and watched as she snapped her mouth shut and her lips tipped up at the corners. “I’m not any better at drinking liquor now than I was when we were together. Despite knowing that, I can’t make myself walk away from the silent challenge you just threw down.”
Heat traveled through my body. The memories of Violet in bed after a few drinks never failed to cause a reaction in me. The quirky girl turned into a wild woman after a few shots, and I’d left sore the morning after a few times, but never without a shit-eating grin on my face. Violet was luring me deeper with every word she spoke, without a single clue.