those evil Jackals out.
***
I ordered Jack and Coke, Pippa a Jack and ginger. Ella ordered a rum and Pepsi and Jenna wanted a vodka and cranberry. Just as Leanne, who was serving us, was about to leave, Pippa changed her order to a screwdriver.
I made an excuse to go to the bathroom so that I could finagle my way into the end seat when I got back, thereby ensuring I’d see him when he walked in.
It was as I was walking back to our booth from the bathroom that they arrived. Fork first, Brady at his back. And bizarrely, Fork’s eyes hit mine. For a second, everything stopped. Everything. There was no noise, there were no people, it was just us two. Period.
My lips parted as his baby blues stared directly into my eyes.
I’d stopped moving. So did he. I could swear everything around us was frozen. There wasn’t indifference. What there was, was heat as his eyes drank me in from head to boots, and then when his eyes swept back up to meet mine again, there was softness in his expression. And I don’t know which of the two expressions did a better job of shocking me to the depths of my soul.
And then one of the guy’s girlfriends, Deanna, crossed our path, heading toward the booth and interrupted the most perfect moment of my entire fucking life by grabbing me and hugging me.
“Hey you!” she said into my hair and in my head I was screaming because immediately, the spell was broken and Christian Forker’s eyes moved away in greeting to someone at the bar. He headed that way.
Brady’s eyes were on me and they looked concerned. He hadn’t seen Christian’s face throughout that exchange as he’d been behind him, but he’d certainly seen mine. He followed Christian as Deanna continued to hug me and then drag me back to the booth where Andie and Lulu had joined the group. Two prospects added a table to our booth, and I got the end seat this time.
As I sat, Jenna had her eyes on me, and I could see they were working out what she’d just seen. She saw it. She saw it all happen and she read it loud and clear. Her vantage point likely gave her a perfect view of him as well as me. I gave her a pleading look, hoping she would keep her mouth shut for now. She looked at me questioningly for a half a second and then her expression changed, and I knew she and I would be talking later. I could read her like an open book. She wanted to know what was going on with Fork and me. And I was hoping that tonight there would be something. The looks he’d given me… they said something.
And knowing Jenna, I could recruit her into my corner. Ella? Different story. But Jenna would definitely take my back. We hadn’t been friends long, but we got tight fast and she was definitely the ride or die type. And it was because of Ella’s opinion of her cousin that Jenna was keeping her mouth shut. I saw Jenna glance at Ella, but Ella was huddled over her phone with Lulu and they were laughing at something. Good. With the arrival of Lulu, Ella probably didn’t even notice her cousin was here.
I’d made an effort to look good tonight: extra spring in my curls, a little more POP with the eye make-up, my favorite push-up bra with a sexy polka dot blouse. But it was more than appreciation in his eyes. Things were about to turn a corner; I just knew it.
I would get that look on his face back. I wanted it, I thirsted for it. Not two words of what the girls around me said penetrated and then I found a reason to go to the bar where he was standing. I saw Marlena, a girl who was seeing our VP. We were all expecting Blow to make Mar his old lady, but he was taking his sweet time.
She hadn’t been around much since she’d only recently gotten out of the hospital after the brakes failed on her car, tampered with. She was a Jackals casualty during the war, and we were lucky she survived that wreck. She was by the door so I went over, using the opportunity to get to where I might be able to clock Christian.
I saw him at the same moment as I was close enough to