out to lick the salty sweat off her lips. Joe’s was shut down for renovations, so Lance suggested we go here. Hoping not to be suspicious, I readily agreed, though now I regretted not suggesting something else.
My eyes followed her everywhere she went. It was like gravity, the weight of the atmosphere pulling me to stare. She tipped her head back and laughed at something a guy in her section said.
I wanted to know what that fucker said.
I wanted to hear her laugh, but the music was too loud.
“So what do you think?” Lance asked. I snapped my eyes back to him.
“I think that’s great,” I effortlessly answered while kicking myself for not paying attention.
“You think I should go with him to his grandmother’s funeral?” Lance asked, his eyes dipped in confusion. Shit. I definitely should have been paying attention.
I rolled with the punches. “Does Sean want you to go?” I asked.
“Yes,” Lance replied.
“Do you want to be there to support him?” I pressed, already knowing the answer. Lance would be there for anyone and everyone.
“Well, of course, but it’s all so new. We aren’t official or anything. Isn’t it weird to attend a funeral with someone you’re just...fucking? And what about Blakely? I just got back, and I can’t leave her all weekend. I haven’t told her about him, and you haven’t even met him yet. Shouldn’t we do your usual interrogation before I take a trip with him?”
Shit—fuck—damn. I was slipping. And an entire weekend with Blakely? A war started in my brain, half of me was plotting things to do all weekend to keep out of the house, and the other half kept seeing her lips parted, eyes closed, stars falling under her skin as her back arched in ecstasy.
“Blakely is a grown woman. Just explain to her the situation, and she’ll be understanding,” I promised, though I wanted to slap myself. Blakely wasn’t a grown woman—not really. She was entirely off-limits. “And I’d like to meet Sean eventually, but I think it’s time I start to trust your instincts, Lance.”
“Oh. Okay. Yeah. Right. I’m going to do it. I’m going to tell her,” Lance convinced himself, just as Blakely strutted up with a tray on her shoulder and a tentative grin on her face. Stray blonde strands of hair framed her cheeks in frazzled waves.
“Tell who what?” she asked before setting the tray down on the bar top. It was full of bare plates and food scraps.
“I have a boyfriend,” Lance choked out, his cheeks red and his eyes wild with fear.
“When do I get to meet him?” Blakely asked without skipping a beat. There wasn’t an inch of shock on her face. Good girl.
“Well, his grandmother died unexpectedly today,” Lance explained while dipping his index finger into his whiskey and swirling the mixture around before pulling it out.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Blakely replied before looking over her shoulder at Rose then back to Lance.
“The funeral is this weekend in New Mexico, and I’m going to go with him. Is that okay? I know I’ve been gone a lot lately.”
“Of course. I have shifts here and a ton of homework. Be there for your man,” she offered with a sincere smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. I wanted to dig behind the plastered facade to hear her thoughts underneath. Was she mad that Lance could go to a virtual stranger’s funeral but not their mother’s?
“Perfect. Wow. Okay. I should go call Sean, then,” Lance said with a smile while looking at me. Then, he got up from his spot at the bar and headed outside. Blakely followed his back with her eyes before turning her attention to me.
“Let’s keep our hands to ourselves this weekend, okay?” she asked before reaching for the tray of dirty dishes before I could even respond.
A delicate war raged in my mind, aching to reach out and wrap my arms around her or toss away my dismissal with a kiss. I watched her forearms flex as she picked up the full tray and spun on her heels to head out, but shouting stopped her in her tracks.
“What the fuck you say to me?” a balding man in his late fifties asked a scrawny college kid. I stood up as Blakely took a step back.
“I said back the fuck off!”
And then punches went flying. Blakely’s tray went crashing down, glass and leftovers coated her creamy skin with sludge as a hard body was knocked into hers. I reached for her