“For fuck’s sake.” These two were something else. They’d been doing this dance for a long time, and now they didn’t want to cop to having feelings for one another. “If this was a good thing,” I began, “and you’re both happy about it, then why does there have to be an issue?”
“Isn’t that the way it works?” Blaze snorted. “No matter what, there’s always an excuse? A reason things can’t work out?”
I was about to add my two cents, but then I thought about Jake. No matter how I felt about him, I was still trying to put distance between us. Despite the fact I wanted to see him because I hadn’t seen him since we’d gotten back to town on Sunday, I hadn’t bothered to call or text him. I was withdrawing, and I knew it was shitty to do, yet I couldn’t seem to help myself. Jake scared me in so many ways.
Except I did have an excuse. A legitimate one. He had all but admitted that he’d been pursuing me because his editor had told him to. Since I inspired his ability to write, I was merely a means to an end.
The thought made my chest tighten.
Instead of being a hypocrite, I kept my mouth shut and took a long pull on my beer, glancing around the room, adding to the awkwardness that had settled at our table.
“So how was the weekend really?” Gavin asked, circling back to the original subject.
“It was good.”
“Get any drawing done?”
“A little.”
“So, Jake does provide you inspiration, huh?”
The safe answer to that would be yes, but I didn’t want that to be the case. When it really dawned on me that the last time I’d been inspired was when Adrian and I had dated, I definitely didn’t want to think that I’d come to rely on a guy like that.
I shook my head. “I don’t know what he provides me.”
Realizing I’d spoken those words aloud, I looked up to see my two closest friends staring back at me.
“You’re serious about this guy,” Blaze accused.
“What?” I grimaced. “No way. We had a good time. I hardly know him.”
“Hardly know him?” Blaze gave Gavin a look that said I was off my rocker, then she turned her attention back to me. “You’ve been seeing him for what? A month?”
Not quite, but it wasn’t like I was counting, either.
Blaze shook her head. “You know him better than you think you do.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because you trust him,” she announced. “And we all know that you don’t come by that easily. He’s the first guy you’ve trusted in a long time, Pres.”
True. He was. And it was true; I did trust him. More than I wanted to admit. I still had my doubts, but I didn’t think he had any malicious intent. We liked each other, the sex was phenomenal, of that I was certain.
“But they’re all the same,” I told her. “He’s rock star famous, which means it won’t last. We all know what happened the last time I lost my mind and went that route.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” Gavin said sadly.
I started to argue, but I realized Gavin wasn’t simply making conversation. He was stating a fact.
I studied him, waiting to see if he would elaborate.
Oh, my God. He knew.
Blaze’s head turned from side to side as she looked from one of us to the other. I didn’t know what to say to that, didn’t know if I should explain myself or not. Gavin made it simple for me when he placed his hand over mine across the table.
“Adrian’s my brother and I love him, but he’s a pig, Presley. The worst kind, at that.”
“You know what he did?” I asked, keeping my voice low but unable to contain the anger.
Gavin nodded.
“How?”
His eyes lifted slowly, coming to rest on mine before he said the words that nearly ripped me to pieces.
“I sent you over there so you’d catch him in the act.”
My jaw nearly scraped the table as I stared back at him. “You’ve let me go on this entire time taking the blame and you knew all along that he was fucking other women?”
“No one made you take the blame for that,” he said defensively.
“No, maybe not,” I countered. “But I care enough about you that I wasn’t going to let that asshole come between us.”
“Why would you think he would?” Gavin shouted, his eyes blazing. It was almost as though I’d offended him.