A Stone in the Sea

by A. L. Jackson

  Interesting.

  That term didn’t even come close to describing Shea.

  I lifted a casual shoulder, while my blood pressure shot up by about a hundred points. “Nah. It’s just a bar where Anthony hangs out at when he’s in town. It’s cool. There’s usually live music.”

  “Hell, yeah. Let’s go check it out. Anything is better than this,” Lyrik said, climbing to his feet and flinging back the jet-black hair clinging to his face.

  Ash stood and drained his beer. “Let’s do it.”

  Zee grabbed the keys to the Suburban. “I’ll drive.”

  Shit.

  “Let me grab a shirt,” Lyrik said before he ran upstairs, and I followed him, tapped at Austin’s door. I cracked it open. “Hey, man, we’re going to run into town and grab a drink. You good?”

  Lying on his bed in the dark, he pulled his headphones from his ears and rolled his head back to look at me. “Yep. I’ll be here.”

  I hesitated. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

  He smiled a tight smile. “I’m fine, Baz. Don’t worry about me.”

  Like that would ever happen. But he was an adult and I couldn’t go coddling him like a little kid anymore, as much as I wanted to.

  “All right. Get some rest.”

  I clicked his door shut and bounded back downstairs. Excitement and dread were making a play for the win on my feelings. Excitement was rarely an emotion I was familiar with anymore, and it left me feeling all fidgety and on edge, not quite sure what to do with myself.

  Everyone was gathered at the front door, ready to head out.

  “I’m gonna take my bike. Need to clear my head.” More like try to regain my cool. Here I was about to lead my loser friends off to invade my sanctuary. It was bad enough worrying about being discovered night after night.

  It was that redheaded bartender that set me off-kilter. The girl screamed L.A. Every exposed inch of her, and I could only assume the sparse bit that she didn’t put on display, was covered in tattoos, all leather and high-healed boots, snark painted all over her too-perfect face.

  She stuck out in that bar worse than I did.

  But it was the way she looked at me that had me betting she knew exactly who I was.

  Still, she’d never called me out. She just watched me watching her girl, trying to get a read on me.

  Was wondering if that rule would remain true when I paraded through the door with the entire crew in tow.

  Zee’s brow lifted in concern. “You sure you’re fine to ride?”

  The Keeper.

  “Yeah, man, I’ve had half a beer. I’m good.”

  “All right then, we’ll follow you out.”

  I felt a tug of dread, all mixed up with a barrel-load of eager anticipation.

  I STRUGGLED TO BREAK THROUGH the bottleneck close to the stage, delivering some drinks at a couple of tables and taking the order at a few more. It was Saturday night and Charlie’s was packed, which was common for a weekend, but especially so when Carolina George was playing. Their music was country, but took on a distinct pop edge. Their guitar player, Rick, was something to look at, and the women seemed to flock in just to stare at him all night. The singer, Emily, was completely gorgeous and had a voice that made me get a little lost in my thoughts.

  I loved when they played, their songs leaving me feeling bittersweet, a sense of nostalgia locked deep in the center of my chest. It was both beautiful and upbeat, and brought people out in droves on the one night a month they played here.

  I made my way back up to where Charlie, Tamar, and our weekend guy, Nathan, worked frantically to keep up with the six waitresses working the floor, plus the slew of people taking up the actual bar. There wasn’t a single stool vacant.

  I flashed a harried smile at Tamar and slid her the napkin where I’d jotted down my orders. “It’s crazy out there.”

  She grinned, not missing a beat as she filled three chilled mugs from the tap, shaking up a cocktail in her left hand before she poured it over ice. “I love it when it’s like this…the energy’s so thick you can taste it. And when the band strikes up? It’s going to get wild.”

  Playfully, I rolled my eyes. “I swear, you should be the one up there, the way you get all starry-eyed every time a band takes the stage.”

  “Why do you think I work here? Love the vibe.” She shot me a wink. “But I can’t sing to save my life. Believe me, we’re all much safer with me slinging the drinks than trying to entertain.” She set a drink in front of me and waved her hand dramatically around her. “I’ve met my calling.”

  “Thank God for that, because I’m not sure what we’d do without you.”

  “Hey now,” Charlie cut in, knocking her in the shoulder with his as he moved around her and passing a couple beers to another server while looking at me. “What did I tell you about filling up this one’s head any more?”

  She swatted at him. “Oh, you hush, old man.”

  “You better watch yourself, Charlie,” I warned, arranging drinks on my tray. “One of these days she’s going to have enough of you and take off. Then what are you going to do?”

  He slapped his hand across his chest. “And break my heart, like that? Tamar wouldn’t dream of it.”

  She bumped him with her hip. “Keep it up, and you’ll find out.”

  I began to tray the rest of my drinks, when the front door swung open for what had to be the millionth time that night. But this time, I took note. Because there was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t stop the involuntary shudder that slipped down my spine in that moment when I felt compelled to glance to the right. He stood just inside the door, and his gorgeous face was caught up in a halo of light from the swinging lamp hanging from the rafters, all hard planes and shadows and mystery.

  His presence sucked the air from the room and filled it with all his strange intensity, an overwhelming sense that I was shackled to him somehow, every rational part of me knowing I should stay away from him, yet all those silly, absurd, tingly places thrilling whenever he came near.

  Something like butterflies scattered in my stomach, a jumble of frantic wings that fluttered hard and fast, taking flight in my veins. Soaring high. Dipping low.

  Chemistry.

  Is that what this was called?

  I hated and loved it all at the same time. The rush of nerves he coaxed from me, the feeling he had control of my emotions, and there wasn’t one single thing I could do about it.

  Two days had passed since the last time he’d been here. Tonight, his absence had begun to wear on me, and each time the door swung open and it wasn’t him, I was hit with a jolt of panic, struck with the fact I might never seeing him again. He didn’t live here. That much was clear. Chances were, one day he’d just be gone.

  As much as I knew it was dangerous thinking, I couldn’t help the dread it caused. I’d begun to cling to these nights that had become something special. Something secluded and secret and forbidden that transpired at the very corner booth of this bar.

  Something that only belonged to us when we were really nothing at all.

  But there he was, staring at me. Usually he headed straight to his booth without acknowledging me, but he just stood there watching me, fully aware I was watching him.

  Three guys stepped in behind him. A super tall guy with a shock of ebony hair said something to him. He nodded and said something back.

  What the hell?

  Funny how I’d come to think of him as his own entity.

  A ship in the night that only I could see.

  Alone.

  Lonely, even. Just like me.

  This only served to remind me how little I really knew about him.

  “You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Tamar muttered, just loud enough for me to hear. Her attention was trained on Baz and his friends who were gathered at the door, eyes scanning for a place to sit in the chaos abounding in the massive room.

  “What?” I asked, almost having to shout.

  She was
super weird about Baz. Continually telling me to be careful, tracking him like she thought I wouldn’t notice. But we both knew he’d been coming back for me. And we both knew I liked it, even though I refused to do anything about it.

  Since the second night he’d been here, he hadn’t asked me out again. He’d sit back in the plush booth—vibrant, larger than life, enough to cloud my head and stir up my heart—and talk to me as if it were the most casual thing in the world and he hadn’t lit my body on fire in the hallway just days before. But beneath all his ease was a severe intensity, a magnetic force pulling me in.

  Tamar looked at me with wide, incredulous eyes, before she shook her head like the four of them were the most shocking thing to ever have walked through Charlie’s doors. “Nothing,” she said with a short, disbelieving laugh and a quick shake of her head. “I’d just come to think your boy there was a loner.”

  “Not my boy.”

  “Right.” She quirked a sassy grin. “The two of you have me feeling sexually frustrated watching you play cat and mouse night after night. I’m about to take matters into my own hands.”

  “You’re gross.”

  She chuckled. “And you are blind.” She grabbed a bottle of tequila and poured it across four shot glasses she had lined up. She glanced back up at me. “What are you waiting for? One of the other girls is going to grab them if you don’t get your ass over there. Last thing I need is to deal with you pouting all night because someone stole your man.”

  I almost corrected her then bit my tongue.

  Because when he was here?

  Everything about it felt like he was my man.

  I weaved my way through all the bodies, focusing on keeping the drinks balanced on my tray from sloshing while I was doing my best to keep my feet from falling out from under me. The way Baz was looking at me as I approached had energy vibrating me all the way to my bones. Like he wanted to devour every inch of me. With each step, my stomach flipped, and those butterflies took off in a mad frenzy.

  Butterfly.

  The thought gave me pause. A reminder of the one thing in this world that was truly important to me.

  I edged forward, and my voice wavered a little when I said, “Hey,” not sure if I should act like I knew him or pretend he didn’t have my knees knocking.

  My wary gaze was pulled to the guys he was with.

  If I thought Baz was trouble before, I was sure of it now.

  The four of them standing there together looked like they belonged on the cover of some heavy metal magazine, all of them covered in tattoos, wearing tight, tight jeans, torn-up Vans, something like mischief and malice strewn all over their attractive faces. They were all beautiful in their own destructive way. Each stuck out in this bar as if they’d been drawn in with the sole purpose of taking a hit on the ego of every other man in the bar.

  But none of the other three were quite like Baz.

  Because achieving that would be impossible.

  His hands were shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans, the muscles in his forearms twitching with discomfort, and he rocked back on his heels. “Hey,” he returned, hoisting up a shoulder without withdrawing his hands. “Brought some friends with me tonight.”

  Right. I hadn’t noticed.

  I lifted a brow. “Four?”

  “Yep.” He almost sounded like the fact irritated him.

  Looking over my shoulder, I scanned my overflowing section near the stage. I’d just delivered a bill to an older couple who were getting ready to leave. “I should have a table opening up in a second. Let me go save it for you guys. Unless that’s too close to the stage and you’d like to wait for something more private to open up?”

  With that, I turned my attention to Baz, and a little smirk hinted at the corner of his pretty, pretty mouth, because we both knew I was talking about his spot. It was too busy tonight for me to be able to keep it open for him, unsure if he’d even show.

  The shorter guy who was all kinds of dimples and wavy blond hair—and just cute enough to delude you into thinking he was less trouble than the rest of the guys—clapped Baz on the back. Blue eyes glinted at me, everything about him confident and cocky in an outright flirty way. “No, darlin’, up close will do just fine.”

  My eyes darted to Baz, who was gnawing on the inside of his bottom lip, like he was debating whether to punch his friend in the throat or laugh at him.

  Good Lord. I was going to have my hands full tonight.

  “Okay then. Let me get it ready for you.” I sucked in a calming breath when I turned away, thankful for the second to clear my head.

  I delivered drinks to my tables, then fought to make my way toward the stage to the table the couple was leaving. Quickly I stacked the empties on my tray and wiped down the table. I waved the towel in the air to get Baz’s attention, though I knew it was unnecessary. His heated gaze was already locked on me. He signaled his friends to follow and began to make his way through the throng. Though the waters seemed to part for him, not one person in the room exempt to the force of him and his friends.

  “Thank you,” he said under his breath as he pulled out a stool and took a spot at the high-top table.

  “No problem.”

  He waited until the rest of the guys took their seats then lifted his hand in a casual gesture. “So I was telling my friends here about this cool bar down by the river that I’d come to a couple of times. They wanted to check it out.”

  “Ah. Well you picked the best night. One of my favorite bands is playing tonight.” I let my eyes wander over the four of them. “Although I’m thinking it might not be your style.”

  The flirty one barked out a laugh. “What, you think we don’t fit in?”

  I quirked a teasing brow. “And you do?”

  “Oh, sweetheart, I fit in anywhere I go. I’m Ash.”

  He shoved his hand out in front of him and I shook it. “Nice to meet you, Ash. I’m Shea.”

  Baz pointed at the super-tall black-haired guy. “This is Lyrik.”

  Lyrik tipped up his chin without saying anything, just scratched at it, flashing the tattoos that covered the back of his hand and bled down his knuckles. Everything about the guy seemed menacing, though he cast me a small smile to say hello.

  Baz waved his hand at the guy who had to be a few years younger than the rest of them. His green eyes were bright and almost excited, and his shaggy brown hair seemed to fit his personality perfectly. “And this is Zee,” Baz said.

  Zee grinned. “It’s a pleasure.”

  Ash tossed a playful glare at Baz. “And just how do you know our Beautiful Shea, here?”

  Baz shrugged. “Like I said, I’ve stopped in a couple of times.” He leveled his gaze on me, those strange grey eyes swimming in warmth yet still freezing cold, which seemed to pump me full of the confusion I’d been feeding from for the last two weeks. “This one’s hard to forget.”

  My entire body flamed, red rushing up to grip my face. It was completely unexpected for him to compliment me this way in front of his friends. And Lord, I liked that, too.

  Ash winked at me. “Ah. I see the draw of this place now.”

  I forced the lightness into my tone. “You mean the band that’s getting ready to play?”

  Laughter ripped from him. “Oh, I like you.”

  “So what can I get for y’all tonight?”

  A wry grin spread across Ash’s face. “Why don’t you bring four shots of Jager for me and my boy Lyrik here?”

  “Not messing around tonight, huh?” I asked, scribbling it down on a napkin.

  “Nope. We’ve been cooped up for the last two weeks and we’re ready for a little fun.”

  Huh.

  I wanted to ask him more, but from the scowl that hit Baz’s face, I figured it was none of my business.

  Lyrik punched at Zee. “And bring this asshole a Coke. He’s driving tonight.” His eyes narrowed at the younger guy. “Payback, bitch.”

  Zee just cracked up. “Whatever, dude. If it makes y
ou feel better about losing all your dough, I’ll drive.”

  My gaze traveled over the angles of Baz’s strong face. “Your regular?” I asked.

  I took a strange pleasure in knowing his regular. I may not know much about him, but I did know that.

  “Yep.”

  Ash poked his tongue into his cheek, a knowing smirk growing as he glanced between Baz and me. Baz’s expression got all dark and dangerous. Discomfort rolled through me, and I took a step back. “Give me a second to get these filled and I’ll be back.”

  As I walked a way, I peeked back at Baz. Feeling his weight. That heavy blanket of severity that rolled from him. Stare unyielding. Posture straining in rigid awareness. Like he was trailing me across the room even though he hadn’t moved an inch.

  God, what was wrong with me? Because the only thing I wanted in that moment was to bury myself in it.

  By the time I returned to their table with their drinks, the band had taken the stage. A riot of applause erupted, and the energy Tamar had been talking about burst through the crush who’d vied for a better position up front. A guitar rang out. Rick took his spot in front of his mic, a light giggle slipping from Emily as she glanced at Rick, and then he called out into the crowd, “Good evening.”

  The entire bar went wild.

  “Popular?” Baz asked, shouting to be heard above the noise, waving toward the stage as I set their drinks in front of them.

  I leaned toward him so he could hear, and every pore on my skin came alive with his proximity. “Yeah, around here at least.”

  Like he wasn’t all that impressed, he gave an offhanded shrug. “Cool.”

  “Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll be around.”

  I slipped back into work, filling orders, Emily’s sweet voice tickling my ears while the time quickly passed. When she began to sing my favorite song of theirs, I paused at the edge of the dance floor and just took it in, lightly swaying as I got lost in the hypnotic feel of the music. My mouth moved with the words but my tongue remained silent, unwilling to allow my voice to be heard.

  The twinge of sadness in my soul reverberated with the lyrics. It was a sad kind of song, and my chest swelled with longing. I squeezed my eyes shut and let myself live there for just a little while.