regret it. And it’s because of you that I had that time with her. She told me I healed her just before she passed,” his Adam’s apple bobs painfully. “She wasn’t afraid.”
A tear slides down my cheek as he looks through me, somewhere in the past with her. “I’m so happy you got that.” I take the glass from him and pause it at my lips. “I want the same thing, you know? Some peace of mind after all that was lost.”
“I’m pulling for you,” he says. “But just tread lightly.”
“I’ve done that long enough,” I say defiantly.
He stands and kisses me on the cheek. “Gotta run.”
“No, please no, stay,” I beg. “I’ll buy you a bottle of your own. I’m a rich woman now. Did you hear?”
He nods, pity lacing his gaze.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine.”
“If you say so. Please, just be careful.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
He flashes a boyish grin. “You’re still the same, insanely beautiful, smart-mouthed, hard-headed woman you were years ago.”
“You act like that’s a bad thing.”
“I really have to go.”
I stand and pull him to me. He wraps his arms around me, and I press off my toes and whisper in his ear. “I missed you too, ya know. When I left, I feel like I lost you, too.”
“Same,” he whispers before releasing me.
“Please stay. One more drink?”
“I can’t. I’m flying out of Asheville in an hour.”
“You don’t live here?”
He shakes his head. “I haven’t in years.”
Years. “Are you going to tell me what you’ve been up to?”
“Little of this and that.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know why I asked.”
“It’s always better if you don’t.”
“I would say, don’t be a stranger, but I know better.” He pulls me into his hold one last time and releases me. “I wish you well, Tyler, be happy, okay?”
“I’ve got your back, Cee. Always.”
“I know.”
He winks, and like most of the other men in my life, he disappears.
I shake my emotion away, knowing I’m being watched. Pouring another shot, I wrap my hand around the glass lifting my middle finger, my intent for those prying eyes clear and swear I hear a chuckle come from a few of them. Another sip in, it becomes easier to ignore the watchful gazes of the men lining the bar.
Minutes pass, and I kick back, rocking to my music, to Sean’s music, my limbs growing heavy with the buzz. Within the next few minutes, I’m digging through my purse, pulling out Sean’s Zippo. I flick it open and closed, eyeing the guy closest to me a table over.
“Hey,” I say with a smile.
He returns it. “Hey.”
“Look, I know this might seem out of the blue, but would you happen to know where I can get a little weed?”
He grins and lifts from his chair, his beer in hand, and walks the few feet over to get to me. “I may be able to help you,” he says, his eyes lighting as I scan his arm. No ink, and completely ignorant he’s just stepped in a ring of fire.
“Oh yeah? How much?”
“Free, if you smoke with me.”
I shake my head, regretting my decision to start the interaction. Ryan is right. I’m being stupid and reckless. But after today, I’m finding less and less fucks to give. It’s the look in the stranger’s eyes that has me on edge. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
“It’s all good. I don’t bite.”
“Well, I do. And I’m saying no, thank you. Forget I asked. It was a bad idea.”
“Sounds like a good one to me.”
“Trust me. It’s not.”
He inches closer, his eyes roaming over me, and I know he hasn’t heard a word I’ve said.
“Seriously, never mind.” As he draws near, my sixth sense kicks in, and bells begin to ring in warning. “I mean it, stay away from me.”
“Don’t be like that,” he says, setting his beer on my table and leaning toward me with a clear look of intent. “We’re just getting to know each other.”
“Jack,” Eddie speaks up from where he stands behind the bar, “you don’t want to mess with that one.”
“Yeah, Jack,” I say, a faint if not imagined itch stirring on either side of my spine. “You should go.”
Jack eyes Eddie and then me before pulling back, contemplating the warning while picking up his beer, but he’s too late. Standing at the entrance of the seedy bar is the most lethal and beautiful of devils, and he’s brought hell with him, the summoned flames dancing in his eyes.