My adoptive father’s eyes are on me. I go and take a stand at my usual spot at the end of the bar so we can talk, but as soon as my elbows touch the counter, he shakes his head at all the questions roaming through my mind.
“The less you know, the better,” he grumbles, placing a bottle in front of me.
“Is he dead?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Ethan.”
“No.” He knocks back his drink. “But as far as you’re concerned, you are to him. You won’t be seeing his face ever again.”
I snicker at the empty promise. We both know it’s a fairy-tale just waiting to blow-up in my face. Mustering up all the courage I need to tell him I’m leaving, I push the stack of cash I took from the trunk of my Chevy stored in his garage his way.
“What the hell is this?”
“Everything you need.”
And like he already knows what my next step will be, he pushes it back. “No.”
“I’m not asking for your permission.”
“Good, because I’m not giving it to you. Get the fuck over there and spend some time with your friends. We’ll talk when I close up.”
“I won’t be here when you close up, Ethan.”
He ignores me and walks away.
The phone in the front pocket of my hoodie vibrates again. I expect it to be Aaryn, but as I glance at the screen, I see Vince’s name, so I open the message.
Vince: My little sister just walked in. Keep an eye on her for me. I’ll explain later.
I frown at his text. What am I, a goddamn babysitter?
Me: Get in here I need to talk to you.
I don’t hear anything back, but a few seconds later a girl I’ve never seen here before drags a heavy chair to sit at the bar, and I swear everything about her calls to me. She’s fucking beautiful.
Ethan walks over to her, has a quick chat and comes back with another beer in his hand. He places the bottle in front of me. If I didn’t know him better, I’d think he was trying to get me drunk. “Is she yours?”
I shake my head. “Bankes’ younger sister.”
“She wants a blue moon.”
My jaw clenches.
She can’t possibly be that clueless. She’s a hot piece of ass sitting alone in a bar filled with horny men just waiting for a chance to have their way with her. The last thing she needs right now is alcohol in her system.
“Give her water.”
“That bad, huh?”
I ignore his snarky remark and push back the envelope. “I’m leaving as soon as Aaryn gets here. You have enough money to pay for my rent and utilities. Keep whatever extra for yourself.”
“I don’t need your fucking money, child.”
Anger sears through me, and I shoot him a scalding glare. “Don’t call me a damn child, Ethan.”
“Why? Are you going to punch me? Use me to lash out ten years of bottled-up anger? Kill me, maybe?”
“Fuck you.”
“I told you I took care of it, Micah. He’s not coming back.”
“How? You paid him off? Threatened his life? If you think anything you throw his way will be enough to keep him away, you’re damn delusional. He’ll be back, Ethan. Trust me. If I leave—”
“Only cowards run away from their problems.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I roar. “I’m not running away from my problems, I am the problem.”
Ethan follows my eyes as my attention wavers again. I’m trying to ignore her, but I can feel her watching me. No matter how hard I’m trying, I can’t seem to shake her off, and things are just worse now that a guy from Vince’s class takes a seat beside her.
My teeth grind together. Fucking Jake Sanders. He must say something that makes her smile because her eyes are lighting up the damn room.
“Yo, Lambert,” he calls out. I hate that he’s making her laugh right now. “Did you know Bankes had a twin?”
A twin? Are you fucking shitting me?
I run my hand over my jaw and lock eyes with her. Blueish-green eyes that practically glow in the dark. They remind me of fireflies, which reminds me of Lillie, which is why I’m better off pretending she isn’t here.
Ethan must notice the shift in the tension because the corner of his lip curls upward. He grabs the stack of money and backs away. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Present
The front door to the bar opens and the line goes dead. “You coming in or what?” And like he knows I will, he walks back inside without waiting for my response.
The bar is practically empty, entirely normal for an early weekday. Three tables are busy with regulars, the rest is dead quiet.
Ethan watches me with wary eyes as I take a seat facing him, and too numb to say anything, I stare at my hands. “What are you doing here, Micah?”
The million-dollar question. What am I doing? The answer is pretty simple, saying it out loud is another. I need to cool off. I’m infuriated with Aubrey, worried about Vince and the guilt of what I had let happened is too raw to withstand. I can’t for the life of me stand being in my own skin right now, so instead of being where I should be, I’m hiding at the only place where I feel safe.
“You can’t run away from this, kid.”
My eyes narrow to slits. “I didn’t come here to be lectured, old man.”
“Sometimes being lectured is what someone needs to get some sense knocked into him.” Ethan grabs the white rag beside the cash register and starts wiping down the already clean bar.
“Are you speaking from experience?” I jeer. “Because in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not you.”
He leans forward on his forearms. “You aren’t him, either.”
I glare at Ethan for a long time, and when I can’t stand the intensity of his clear blue eyes anymore, I shift my attention to the backyard out the window. “Dan out back?”
“Aaryn,” he answers. “She showed up here saying something was wrong with her bike about an hour ago. Dan offered to take her home when I told her to leave it in the garage so I could look at it in the morning, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Does she ever?” I smirk.
“Along with a few other irritating aspects of your personality, you two have that annoying point in common.” He hands me a bottle of water. “Go to the hospital, Micah, your fiancée needs you right now.”
I get up from my chair with a clenched jaw and walk out the back door. The smell of burning weed invades the pathway to the garage, and when I open the heavy metal door, any hopes of surprising her is ruined because of the noise. I pace in search of her familiar face, but she’s nowhere to be seen.
“That shit will kill you,” I say to no one.
“This shit relaxes me. You should give it a try, it might help relieve the tension you got here.” Her fingers graze my shoulder and I smile. I haven’t seen Aaryn in months, but I’m not surprised to see her here. If there’s anyone who knows me and what I need, it’s her.
I turn around and she throws herself right into my arms, embracing me with a much-needed hug.
“Who the fuck knew just how much I’d miss seeing your ass,” she exhales, blowing the smoke she was holding in into my hoodie.
I chuckle in the crook of her neck. “Nice to see you too, Walker.”
“I heard congratulations are in order.”
I set her down and purse my lips. “News travels fast, I see.”
“The old man wouldn’t shut up about it.”
“And you don’t sound so thrilled.” I’m not surprised. Aaryn isn’t a huge fan of Aubrey’s. She’ll never say it out loud, and I never really understood why, but the mistrust in her eyes every time we met up made it hard not to notice.
She makes her way to the worktable and snickers. “You know me, Micah, whatever makes you happy.”
“Thanks… I guess.” I follow her to her CBR. “What’s wrong with your bike?”
“Spark-plug.” There’s hesitation in her answer. “So, lover-boy, tell me, why
aren’t you out celebrating, snuggling up with your future wife?”
I eye the worktable behind her. No tools, just a backpack and her burning joint laying on top of a beer can. “You’re a bad liar, Aaryn.”
“And you aren’t very good at answering questions.” She pops a brow. “So, what’s up?”
“I’m ready.”
“I don’t think you are. I think you might be—eventually. But not yet.”
“You don’t know—”
“Of course I do. Just like this stupid career choice you made. I know you, Micah. And just for the record, I told you. I warned you that one day it would hit too close to home. I told you that someday something like this would happen and you didn’t fucking listen.”
“You know.” It’s a statement, not a question.
“About the fire?” she snorts. “Of course I do. And I also know about your partner.”
“Keeping tabs on me?”
“Just when I need to.”
“Aaryn—”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Lambert. I heard it on the radio, made a detour, saw you, saw him, saw her and the way she was looking at you and came here.”
“Why?”
“To do what we always do: be there for each other when the other one needs it. You know what that’s like, don’t you?”
I sense the bitterness in her tone and eye her cautiously. “Are you?”
“I wouldn’t have made the trip if I wasn’t.” Her reply is interrupted by the vibration in my pocket. Aaryn climbs on her bike, turns the ignition, and it purrs like a baby kitten, just like I knew it would. “You should check that,” she mutters.
I glance at the screen and sigh.
Firefly: Where are you?
“Need to go?”
I nod. “I’ll call you.”
“I’ll be ready when you do.”
Ethan is leaning on the old pick-up truck in the backyard when I open the garage door. He watches me with narrowed eyes and presses his lips in a disapproving line before he speaks. “It’s a mistake.”
“Nope,” I reply, tossing him a set of keys, anger and resentment bleeds into my voice. “The mistake was to believe the delusion.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Micah
Present
It takes Aubrey a while to realize that I’m standing in front of her. Enough time for me to notice the tears swimming in her eyes, the streaks of mascara staining her cheeks, and the blotchy blemishes scattered on her face.
She’s sitting alone in a hallway filled with too many people, twiddling with her ring while hugging her knees like she’s the only person she can depend on, and I can’t even bring myself to feel bad about it.
“What took you so long?” Her question is a barely audible whisper. Eventually she peers up, but it only takes a second before her eyes lower back to her hands. “I thought you were right behind us.”
“I was.” I clear my throat. “I stopped at the station to change, grabbed my stuff and my bike. I got stuck on Elms for a while.”
Her wet eyes move to the clock over my head. Stuck in traffic on a Tuesday at a little past nine o’clock in the evening is highly unlikely. Yet, rather than calling me on my bullshit, she stares at me for what seems like an eternity and drops her gaze. “You don’t need to hide it, Micah. I can smell it on you.”
I frown, wondering what she’s talking about, and then it dawns on me: Aaryn. “Aub, I’m sorry. I just—” I stop and let my voice die down with my thoughts. Another lie was out of the question and in this case, making a point of proving her wrong is useless.
She would hate the truth anyway.
I take the empty seat beside hers and shut everything out. The second I do, all I can see is Aubrey standing near the fire on Moore’s Drive. I hear her cries, see her tears, feel her pain…
The same damn images keep replaying in my head over and over again.
With each inhale, my lungs tighten, with each exhale I’m trying to catch up on my next breath. I remove my cap, run a desperate hand through my hair before placing it on backward and turn to her. I want to scream. The truth is, right now, nothing is killing me more than her silence. “Please say something.”
She doesn’t.
She doesn’t scoot my way in search of the comfort I desperately want to give her, she doesn’t speak, she doesn’t even sneak a glimpse my way. Her face remains stoic, fixated on her engagement ring, constantly twirling it around her finger like she’s been doing since I first walked through the hospital doors.
I can just picture what she’s thinking but doesn’t have the guts to say.
Blame and mistrust.
It’s all I can see while she disregards me. It’s the only thing I’m able to focus on.
What had started as a perfect night ended up being my worst fucking nightmare. “If you don’t want it anymore, you can just hand it back.”
Her feet fall off the chair, smacking hard against the tile floor. Her nose crinkles, her lips pucker into a mousy pout as if she’s actually considering the idea, and then her teal eyes move, finally locking with mine. They’re ice-cold, challenging, unapologetic. “Do you want it back?”
My jaw clenches. Definitely not the answer I was expecting.
“Are you shitting me right now?” She gets up and furiously starts pacing in front of me. “My brother is lying on an operation table somewhere in this hospital, fighting for his life and you’re here talking about pulling out of our three-hour old engagement?”
“No. I just—you’re not talking to me, Aub.”
“Because I don’t know what to say—because there’s nothing I can say,” she yells. Heads veer our way. I reach out for her hand to get her to calm down because I know that deep down she hates all the attention she’s drawing to herself, but she smacks it away and gives me a scolding unapproachable glare before plopping her ass next to me where it belongs. “I’ve been here alone for almost two hours. Fucking clueless, worried as shit… I don’t even know what happened for Christ’s sake. Did I mention I was ALONE?” The tip of her toes start bouncing uncontrollably, making the floor under us squeak. “They rolled him in, disappeared behind those doors and walked out without saying a word. The paramedics wouldn’t even look at me when they came out. So, tell me, Micah, what the fuck do you want me to say? Because I’ll be honest with you: I’m all out of encouraging and loving words right now.”
I clamp my mouth shut and grind my teeth together because it’s the only way I know I’ll be able to bite back the load of curses wanting to expel out of me. “Did you call your parents?”
She nods, and her index and her thumb are back to rolling the goddamn ring around her finger. “They should be here any minute now. They had to stop by Leah’s to pick her up. She was a mess when I called.”
I place a hand over her bouncing knee and interlace my fingers with hers. “Aub?”
She takes the longest time to meet my eyes. “If it’s okay with you, I want to wait before we tell them.”
If it’s okay with me? I give her a bitter mirthless laugh. Of course it’s not fucking okay with me.
I must have said my last thought out loud because the daggers she shoots my way are murderous
“Do you think I want this?” she hiss-yells.
“To be fair, Aubrey, I don’t have a damn clue what you’re thinking because if you ask me this” —I wave my finger around the busy room— “has nothing to do with what’s going on between us.”
“What I’m thinking? What I’m thinking is that I’d like for you to be in the right state of mind when I tell my parents we’re engaged.”
I crack my neck, doing as best as I can to tame my anger. “Don’t accuse me of shit I didn’t do, Aubrey.”
Her eyes narrow to slits. “Don’t take me for an idiot and we wouldn’t have an issue, Micah.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means: your shirt reeks of burnt weed.”
“Look at me.” I snatch her chin when
she doesn’t. “Look at my eyes, Aubrey. Do I look high to you right now? Do you truly think I’d be stupid—never mind stupid, but selfish enough to get intoxicated while my best friend is on an operating table fighting for his life?”
Her head does a quick shake, I almost miss it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop her from undoing the clasp of her thin white-gold chain, it doesn’t stop her from taking off her ring and sliding it next to her firefly pendant, nor does it stop her from hiding it under her shirt.
Without knowing, Aubrey just shattered the little humanity I had left in me.
“I want to wait and see what happens to Vince—”
“Or what?” I stand up and cage her in, forcing her to lean against the backrest of her uncomfortable chair. Cocking my head to the side, I dare her to say the words I’ve been so desperately waiting to hear escape her daunted lips. “Why, Aubrey? Why would we need to know what’s going to happen to your brother before telling your family you want to spend the rest of your life with me?”
Come on Aub... tell me. Tell me this is my fault. Tell me I’m responsible for this and that you hate me for it. TELL ME!
She stammers. “I don’t know, Micah. I just—”
“Aubrey?” Leah calls out.
I glance sideways and see Vincent’s fiancée rushing past the twins’ parents who are hurrying through the ER doors hand-in-hand. Vivian and Austin stop to scan the waiting room in search of their daughter, but it’s Aubrey’s dad who spots us first. His concern transforms into a scowl in a matter of seconds.
“Fuck. Fuck, fu—” Aubrey tugs at the collar of my hoodie. “Micah, kiss me.”
Broken Promises (Burning Mistakes Book 1) Page 9
