Starting From Here (Starting From #3) - Lane Hayes Page 0,34
keep our distance.”
I made room for him to slip by, then headed into the lobby. “Agreed.”
“Hmph.”
I pulled my valet ticket out as I stepped outside. Declan followed me to the kiosk. I fixed him with a harsh stare when he reached into his pocket. I cautioned myself not to linger on his mouth for too long. Or any body part for that matter. His eyes, his ears, his hands…every piece of him evoked a memory. And I hated that they didn’t all make me want to clobber him.
“You’re not driving.”
He pulled out his cell and shook it meaningfully. “No shit. I told you I need a ride. Want to save me Uber fare and continue this lovely discussion?”
“No thanks,” I huffed.
He must have taken the exchange as an invitation. He closed the distance between us like a panther…or a tiger. I noted the way his gaze flitted from my eyes to my chest and maybe a little lower. To the casual observer, the look might have been mistaken as interest. But Declan had a habit of sizing up his prey before he went for the jugular. He was no match for me physically. He might be fit and strong, but I was a brick wall, comparatively speaking. There was no easy way to get around, which meant he had to use charm. Fortunately, I was immune.
“It wouldn’t kill you to quit acting like you hate me.”
“I do hate you,” I assured him, gesturing at his cell. “Call an Uber.”
He knit his brow together and shoved his phone into his pocket. “Asshole. You don’t mean that.”
“You’re right. I’m ambivalent. Better?”
“No. Your problem is that you wallow in the past. What’s the point in punishing me for—”
“Don’t fucking say another word,” I hissed, abruptly ending any pretense that we were just a couple of buddies having a chill conversation.
I skewered him with a death glare before handing my ticket to a lanky young man with glasses who flashed a killer smile when I slipped him a few extra bucks to speed things along.
Dec moved beside me and growled in my ear. “You’re fucking unreal. I can’t believe you convinced yourself that it was all my fault.”
I cast my gaze around the swarm of people huddled near the entrance, waiting for their cars. No one was paying attention, but that seemed weird too. This was a moment, for fuck’s sake. A huge one.
Declan was actually calling me out…publicly. No, worse—he was bringing up shit that needed to stay buried if we were gonna survive under the same label. Maybe it was the alcohol talking. But he seemed pretty damn coherent.
“We’re not doing this now,” I replied in a low voice, glancing over his shoulder when I spotted the reporter from the bar. What was her name? Penny or Polly…It didn’t matter.
“And that’s the problem. You always walk away,” he taunted. “It would be nice if you admitted that maybe you had something to do with what went down.”
“What went down,” I repeated in a calm voice. “Yeah…I remember what went down. And I remember what you did. In fact, I can’t fuckin’ forget it.”
Dec gritted his teeth, sidling closer when a bystander shot a curious look at us. Couldn’t say I blamed her. Tension bubbled ominously between us. We had to get out of there before the reporter noticed us and wrote some crap story with a scandalous headline like “Battle of the Bands” or “Gypsy Coma, Part Two.” I wasn’t letting Dec drag this ship down with a poorly timed temper tantrum.
“Same here, T. The difference is I didn’t fuck my best friend,” he whisper-hissed.
Or maybe he yelled it. I couldn’t hear well above the fire engine siren and the warning bells going off in my head. And when someone peered over Dec’s shoulder as if to get a better view of the train wreck in progress just as the valet drove up with my Highlander, I made one of those split-second, off-the-cuff decisions that had “regret” written all over it.
I grabbed Dec’s sleeve with enough force to tear the fabric and pushed him toward my SUV. “Get in. Don’t argue, and don’t make a fucking sound.”
I managed a harried smile as I slipped a tip to the valet, then hopped behind the wheel and buckled my seat belt. I shifted the gear into Drive just as the passenger door opened. Dec stared at me for a long moment before cautiously sliding onto the faux-leather seat.