here with anyone, little moon? What do you say we get out of here?”
Setting the drinks on the bar top, I clasp a hand on Thomas’s shoulder, gripping tightly. He stiffens beneath my grip. “She’s with me.”
Slowly, Thomas rises from the stool, turning to face me with a scowl firmly in place. “Well, if it isn’t Endymion, the great.”
“Isn’t your girlfriend at home waiting for you? This is the last place you should be.”
“Holly could give two shits about where I am, but you know that already, don’t you?”
I press my lips together in a grim line, sparing a quick glance at Selene, who’s watching on, a frown marring her face. Thomas has always hated me. The moment I moved into town, and he was no longer the only guy women flocked to, he became angry. After I dated Holly for a few years, he went ahead and did the same, but Holly has never been the kind of girl who wants to be tied down, and I was never that guy who wanted to be tied down either. Our friends-with-benefits arrangement worked for us. Until it didn’t.
It seems Thomas still isn’t over it.
“Tommy, boy, you better not be starting no shit in here tonight,” Bert yells from the other side of the bar, obviously realizing this situation could get ugly.
Thomas shoots me a scathing glare, glances back at Selene one last time, letting his gaze linger on her exposed legs for a beat too long, before he’s gone. I have the sudden urge to clock him for looking at my girl.
My girl? Christ. I internally chide myself.
I take the now empty barstool and pass her drink to her. “You all right?”
She nods. “I’m fine. He hasn’t changed at all over the years.”
I scoff. You got that right.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask, after a beat of awkward silence passes.
She nods, sipping from the dainty straw.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
I see it, the moment her eyes flare with panic, and her body stiffens on the stool. I watch as all the blood drains from her face. “Tell you w-what?”
“About how you felt all those years ago?”
She breathes out a huge sigh, and her body sags in relief. I eye her warily, wondering what that was all about.
“What did you think I was going to ask?”
Avoiding my gaze, she sets the glass on the bar top, looking down at the rings of condensation on the oak.
“There were so many times I wanted to tell you, but…I don’t know. I think I just hoped you’d see me one day, and when you didn’t, I didn’t think professing my lov—professing my crush was the smartest decision.”
“How long?”
A crease forms between her brows. “How long what?”
“How long did you have the crush?”
“Oh, God.” She darts her gaze back down, avoiding me. “I don’t really remember.”
I chuckle, nudging her in the arm. “Just say it.”
Peeking up at me through her lashes, she inhales a deep breath and summons the courage to say whatever it is. “Do you remember the first time we ever met?”
I frown. She’s going to dodge my question with a question?
“The Grab-N-Go on our birthday.”
Her eyes widen. She’s obviously surprised by my memory. “Wow. You remember? I didn’t think you would.”
“So that was it?”
“Pretty much. You were the first guy I’d ever really taken notice of. This town…it was so quiet and boring before you got here. And it felt like I was the first of the town to ever lay eyes on you. In my small, childish mind, it felt like fate. Same birthday, buying the same cake. I guess, in my head, I convinced myself something with you would eventually be a possibility.”
Understanding begins to dawn on me. She’d harbored a crush since the moment we met. How could I expect her to profess her feelings when she always felt like she was just someone in the background?
“I wish you would’ve told me. Said something. I might’ve been able to pull my head out of my ass sooner.”
Her lips quirk in amusement. “Don’t give yourself too much credit, now.”
The grin that steals over my face makes my cheeks twinge with unused muscles. I haven’t smiled this often in years, if not ever.
“I did notice you, you know. That first day in the store. I thought you were beautiful in a wallflower kind of way. You intrigued me. The one thing I remember most is your moon necklace. How much the moon meant to you.”
She smiles. “Yeah, I had