she leave than a body falls into her seat.
Axel Collins lands across from me, pushing a basket of fries my way. “I just hopped over to have a congratulatory beer. It’s always sweeter when someone else pours it for you.” His dark brows rise into his forehead, a gesture that used to make my stomach pinch with lust—still does, and at the moment, I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Mojo pours the drinks at The Pelican.” I steal a fry from his quasi-peace offering of a basket.
“Touché. But at the Black Bear I have the anonymity of not being the boss. It’s not always fun being in charge.”
“Join the club. I’ve just learned the same lesson.”
He blinks over at me, a careful pulling tight on his lips. “With Serena?”
“That would be the one. She wants to be friends.” I grab the ketchup and squeeze a ball in the corner of the basket. “I’m used to being the boss.”
“It’s no fun being the boss when no one wants to listen.”
“Hear, hear.”
He raises a fry to mine, and we tap them like swords.
“You know, being friends with your sibling is a special thing.” Axel zones in on the floor and goes somewhere else entirely. His affect grows dark, and instantly I know.
“You’re thinking about her, aren’t you?”
“I am.” He scratches the back of his neck a moment. “Emilia was the first real friend I ever had.”
“She was a good one. You know, as hokey as it sounds, Emilia was the first friend I ever had, too. She could make a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and we’d talk for hours about anything and everything. In a weird way, she reminded me a lot of my mom—the good parts.” My throat tenses with a knot.
“Lex”—Axel reaches across the table and takes up my hand—“you don’t know how much that means to me to hear that. Thank you. I know Emilia would have appreciated it, too.”
“She was family.” I give his hand a squeeze, unable to let go. You hear of people getting stuck to a livewire, and that’s exactly what Axel Collins had become in my life, a livewire I couldn’t let go of if I tried—I don’t want to. “You are, too.” His eyes flicker to mine. The muscles in his jaw redefine themselves as he looks to me with renewed hope.
“Lex—do you forgive me?”
“For that Abby Wilcox disaster?”
He gives a slight nod.
“Not on your life.”
“Geez.” He ticks his head back a moment. “What is it going to take to—”
“I’m not forgiving you because there’s nothing to forgive. You could latch yourself to a thousand blondes in a single night, and I’d still know that you love me. I’m not the same insecure little girl who dumped you all those years ago. I’m not afraid of people leaving me. I’m not afraid that you’ll leave me. And if you do, I know that I would be okay.”
His eyes bear hard into mine, and I feel that erotic gaze right down to my core. Axel is penetrating me far more intimately than he ever has before. These truths have incubated for six long years, and here they were being birthed at the same table—the nexus of where we began.
A lump the size of the planet lodges in my throat, and I power past it.
“I may not be okay—but in a weird way that would be okay, too.” I shrug. “I don’t have all the answers.” A searing tear spills from my left eye like a betrayal. “I’m still in love with you, Ax. I don’t know why or how, but in a world where I cut off everyone who isn’t family, you always seem to buoy to the surface of my heart. You must be the family I’m seeking out.” I lean in, and he does the same. A smile flirts with his lips, and I’m enamored with it, with him. “I love you, Axel Collins. I love you with my entire being. I don’t want to hold onto all of the anger and the hurt anymore. You’re not my mother. You didn’t leave me. You went to school, to get an education, to better yourself. And if you wanted to get laid by a blonde while we were unofficial, I shouldn’t hold it against you.”
He gives a brief nod. “Only that’s not what happened.” Tears well up in his own eyes, but Axel holds strong. “She was my buddy’s roommate. It was her birthday. We met. He was there. Nothing