She glanced over at Lucien’s table. He was engaged in quiet conversation with his date, but it was the look of him all grown-up and important . . . Nope, he definitely wasn’t the boy he used to be. She paid her bill, but as she left the restaurant, she was certain she felt Lucien’s stare follow her out.
“A group of us are going to an improv club tonight. Do you want to come?” asked Tara. Darcy was surprised to see her because this was Tara’s first day off in the two weeks since Darcy had started.
Something feeling remarkably like gratitude moved through Darcy at being included. “Yeah, that sounds great.”
“We’ll grab a bite before, say around six thirty?”
“I’ll be ready.”
Peacock was a little hole in the wall where the drinks were watered down, but the music was incredible. Darcy sat at a table with Tara, and Chloe and Tommy who waited tables at Allegro. They’d had dinner at a vegan diner, sitting in a booth eating veggie burgers and drinking “milk” shakes while gossiping about everything; nothing was off-limits. Now they were more mellow, tuned in to the band.
Darcy listened to the music while she looked around the place. It was during her sweep that she saw the tall man in the corner, his back to her. Her heart immediately moved into her throat and her body started to pulse with excitement.
Lucien wasn’t dressed in his normal work clothes, but in faded jeans and a tee; the sight of him made her mouth water. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and the stage lights were pulling out the red highlights. She hadn’t yet seen his arms because he was always wearing long-sleeved shirts to work, but now she could see his well-defined triceps and biceps bulging underneath the black tee that was stretched taut across his muscled back. Her eyes moved lower to his denim-covered ass and thighs, and she had to catch herself from whistling in appreciation.
And then he moved enough for her to see that he was talking with a woman, a beautiful woman who was eying him like a piece of candy. Darcy should have turned her eyes from them, but she couldn’t. It was like a train wreck—brutal and disarming—but she was morbidly curious.
Their heads were close, and though she had no idea what they were talking about, she saw a lot of smiling and touching.
“He’s up next,” Tara said, making Darcy turn pink from the embarrassment of getting caught staring like a drooling moron at her boss. And then she realized what Tara said.
“Who’s next?”
“Lucien.”
Darcy had no idea what Tara was talking about, but it wasn’t necessary to ask her to clarify because in the next minute, Lucien was climbing onto the stage with a saxophone to join a band that was just setting up. The woman he had been talking to settled behind the piano.
And then the music started and Darcy sat transfixed. They were good, fantastic even, but that was not why she couldn’t pull her eyes from the stage. Her eyes were completely on Lucien as she discovered yet another part of him. He was so comfortable and clearly doing something he really enjoyed because, even from her distance, she saw the sheer contentment on his face.
“They’re fantastic, aren’t they? People can’t get enough of them,” Tara said from her side, which made Darcy look from the stage toward the audience, and sure enough, they were captivated. She couldn’t blame them because she was just as guilty.
In that moment the magnitude of what she had walked away from came crashing down on her. She tried to convince herself that they might not have worked out and so she hadn’t missed out on as much as she feared, but she knew the words didn’t ring true even as she thought them. Had she met him that day, they would have had fourteen years of memories, of smiles, of touches, and of love. Instead she got to sit and watch the life he had made for himself without her.
Darcy stood.
“Where are you going?” Tara asked.
“I need a drink.”
Darcy wasn’t a big drinker, limiting herself to a glass or two of wine, but she wanted numbness. She took a stool at the bar and flagged down the bartender.
“Patrón, straight up.”
It burned all the way down her throat. She was pretty sure it was even now disintegrating her stomach lining and yet it didn’t stop her