Love Burns

by Greenleigh Adams

  “Great! Then let’s meet at Brady’s Pub at eight.” Cam clapped his hands together once and satisfaction swept across his face as his lips curled up.

  “Great,” she said, gritting her teeth together while she spoke and forced a fake smile on her face. I knew I hadn’t seen her in a few years, but I could still tell when her smile was genuine and when the upward tug at the corners of her mouth was a cover for hidden resentment. What does she have to be so angry about?

  “Great.” I returned the same half-smile half-scowl in her direction. I didn’t want her to think I was happy about hanging out with her, but somehow, I needed to convince my brain of that, too.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the bar at five minutes after eight. I went along with meeting the twins, but I certainly didn’t have to be on time. I didn’t want to look eager about seeing Charlie again, even if I kind of was. I wasn’t exactly sure when that happened. Initially, when I returned to town, I was determined to avoid her or at least ignore her for as long as possible. I hadn’t always felt that way. We were pretty inseparable early in life.

  Cam and I became friends in kindergarten. We’d met on the school bus, and we were in the same class. Charlie had a different teacher that year, but during the time we attended elementary school, there were a few times that the three of us were in the same class. It really didn’t matter, though. We were together all the time—before school, after school, during school, during summer vacation, and any other time possible.

  Charlie was quite the tomboy, so she always followed us on any and all of our excursions. Living our whole lives around water meant that we weren’t happy unless we had at least one foot in at all times. We would fish. She would bait her own hook, even though most girls didn’t. We would swim in the lake, and a lot of girls thought the water wasn’t clean enough. She didn’t care. We would race in kayaks. She’d never win, but that didn’t deter her from trying.

  Sometime during high school, I began to notice her as more than just my best friend’s sister. Puberty set in, and in my heightened hormonal state, I began to realize she was developing into a woman. I’d kept those feelings buried deep within me, trying my best to remain her friend, knowing that she wouldn’t feel the same about me…until that night senior year.

  That night, I’d spilled my guts to her, and she rejected me. I wished I had never told her how I felt. And now, all these years later, things were still awkward. We couldn’t go back to just being friends again. Releasing those bottled-up feelings had somehow gotten her pissed off at me, and we didn’t speak to each other again until today. She tried to call me a few times, but I couldn’t bring myself to ever call her back. I didn’t need to hear again that she didn’t reciprocate my feelings.

  I thought I had convinced myself that I didn’t still have those feelings for her, but somehow, seeing her today—at my house, not at the grocery store—brought all those suppressed feelings to the surface. And again, it was apparent that she didn’t feel the same. When she crushed me five years ago, I swore to myself that she would not be able to do that again. I assured myself that I would never let her have that much control over my heart again. I figured it was probably better that things ended before they could begin. If we started dating back then, she would’ve broken my heart at some point, far worse than what I’d truly experienced that night.

  Deciding that I would no longer be affected by feelings I had years ago, I stepped out of my car and shut the door before slipping inside the pub. I scanned the tavern, and it only took a moment to locate Cam, who was waving at me from a high-top table near the bar.

  Charlie wasn’t at his table. Maybe she wouldn’t show. It would be great if that were the case. I could spend time with my childhood best friend and not have to live through more torture of seeing his sister again. So I let myself relax and took the seat next to Cam. Within a moment of my butt hitting the wooden chair, a waitress was next to me, ready to take my drink order. I liked that my beer order was taken so quickly.

  “Will my beer land at the table as quickly as the waitress appeared when I sat?” I asked Cam while looking over my shoulder at the waitress walking away. She sashayed toward the bar, successfully grabbing my attention.

  “I like it here.” Cam displayed a wide grin and raised his eyebrows up and down after glancing at the tight skirt clinging to the backside of our waitress. “Charlie will be here soon. She texted me that she was running a little late.”

  How can he switch from admiring our sexy waitress to talking about his sister?

  Great. Just when I thought tonight wouldn’t be that bad after all, he managed to conjure up the image of Charlie, and that picture completely invaded my mind. I couldn’t even think or look at our waitress anymore.

  I still managed to enjoy the time Cam and I had before she arrived. I caught him up on my life over the last five years, and he told me about his. I soon regretted that I hadn’t kept in touch, but spending time with him tonight was like no time had passed. After we engaged in at least twenty minutes or more of good conversation and a couple of beers, he rose to his feet and waved in the direction of the door.

  I swiveled on my stool to look at who he was summoning, and I found my eyes drawn to her for the third time today. She had her hair down in loose brown curls that hung below her shoulders, and she wore a purple T-shirt that dipped into a V and fit snugly to her torso, exposing just enough cleavage to cause an abrupt inhale from me. I think my new favorite color is purple. It only took that brief encounter for me to realize how difficult it would be to stay angry with her if the mere sight of her caused such a strong reaction from me. But I forced myself to remember that night, and I firmly decided to remain detached.

  Watching her white jeans cling to her long, lean legs was difficult to ignore as she approached our table.

  “Hey, Cameron.” After a quick glance at her brother and a brief nod in my direction, she sat alongside Cam and me. “Louis.”

  “Charlene,” I retorted.

  Heat visibly rose in her cheeks and the warmth reddened across her face. Whenever I called her Charlene when we were younger, she would punch me in the shoulder. She did not like to be called by her given name. I guess it still bothered her.

  Thankfully, the waitress appeared before our reintroduction became any more awkward. Charlie ordered a beer, which intrigued me. I guess she was still one of the guys…even though she didn’t look like it.

  “So can we talk about the elephant in the room?” Cam turned his head between both of us, expecting one of us to speak up.

  Charlie sighed and broke the silence from the standoff that had held on for over a minute. “I don’t know what to say.” She stared at the beer that was delivered and set in front of her on the table.

  “I don’t, either.” I honestly didn’t know how to tell her that I felt like a fool for admitting my feelings for her all those years ago, then walking away from our friendship. Losing her as a friend hurt me more than the embarrassment of knowing she didn’t feel the same way about me that I did about her.

  “We used to be the three musketeers,” Cam reminded us. “We were best friends—the three of us. Then you told Charlie you loved her, and she didn’t feel the same way.” His eyes stared at me while he nudged his sister with his elbow. “You both have moved on, so it’s time we forget about the high school drama and become friends again.”

  I may have moved on as far as dating other women, but I never shared my heart with any of them, even if sometimes I shared my bed with them. He must be referring to Charlie in regard to moving on. She moved on the night after I confessed my love to her.

  “I still don’t know what to say.” A nervous giggle released from Charlie no louder than a whisper beneath her breath before she pressed her bottle against her lips and took a long swallow of her beer.

  “Can’t you both just forget the whole thing?” Cam’s pleading voice was drawn out as he continued his attempt to smooth things over between the two of us.

 
; “That’s fine with me.” Offering no more than a shrug to my friend, I glanced over my shoulder at the waitress who brought my first beer. Once our eyes met, I pointed to my bottle. She acknowledged my gesture with a nod and headed to the bar, hopefully to retrieve me another bottle. I would need more alcohol if I was going to be able to forget the whole thing.

  “I’m good with that. I can try to forget the whole thing, too.” Charlie continued to focus on her beer as her fingertips picked at the label before indulging in another long swallow. I watched her throat move up and down, and as she did, red warmth spread along her neck and face again. In contrast to the warmth on her exterior, her chilly disposition had me no longer thinking she was nervous or embarrassed. As her cold stare darted at me, I was pretty confident she was angry with me. Why the hell is she mad at me?

  “Great!” Cam slapped his hands together and practically jumped off the barstool. “I’m going to run to the john, and then let’s play some pool when I get back.”

  Charlie’s piercing gray eyes only grabbed my attention for a moment before she and I both found something else to look at instead of each other. This is ridiculous. I wished that night had never happened.

  “I wish that night never happened.” A quick rush of warm air blew into our close space with her contemplative sigh.

  I whipped my head back around toward her. She just said what I was thinking. Can she read my mind? “As do I.”

  “We ruined everything.” Her eyebrows scrunched together while coldness rolled off her shoulders as those wintery eyes bore into me.

  “You mean I ruined everything.” I was fully aware of the role I’d played in the exchange that night. I didn’t need the accusation she was throwing at me with her silent actions to feel guilty. I already accepted the blame.

  “Are we really going to do this here?” She waved her hand around, emphasizing we were in the presence of a bar full of people.

  “I thought we were going to forget the whole thing.” After all, that was the agreement we had just made with her brother.

  “I know what we said to Cameron, but it wouldn’t be the first time we told him one thing and did something else.” I saw her lips turn up ever so slightly, as if she was trying not to smile. “How about all the times we played hide and seek in the woods without him?”

  She was trying. I’d give her that. If she could smile, then maybe I could bend a little. “Or go fishing without him?”

  It only took that one comment for a smile to sweep across her face. I hadn’t seen her smile in years. I hadn’t seen her in years. We used to be friends. I used to know everything about her, and she knew everything about me. Now I was looking across the small cocktail table at the smile of a girl I used to know, and the beautiful woman that I didn’t know at all. And she was truly beautiful.

  “It hurt when you left, you know.”

  Her bright smile faded when her teeth hid behind her lips as they pressed together into a thin line.

  “I had to get away.” A deep inspiration forced me to look up. Then with an extended exhale, I tilted my head back down as I forced air out through my nose. The conversation was beginning to get a little too deep, and Cam would be coming back from the bathroom at any moment.

  “If I knew I was going to lose my best friend, maybe I would have considered your proposal.” A glossy sheen coated her gray eyes as water covered her steel-colored orbs.

  “Proposal?” I scoffed. I had to lighten the mood. “I asked you to prom, not to marry me.”

  Her clenched fist connected with my upper arm, and I flinched. She truly punched me in the shoulder. Nostalgia struck me, and I was overcome with memories of similar interactions between us during our friendship. “I told you I wasn’t interested in you that way…” Her voice wavered, and I wasn’t sure if that meant she was going to cry or yell. “…because I didn’t want to lose you as my friend.” And then the collection of water held by the rims of her eyes broke out of their confinement and flowed down her face in two rivers of tears. “But I lost my friend anyway.”

  And now I really didn’t know what to say.

  3

  Charlie

  How do I go from being angry at Louis to crying because of him? That revelation was enough to make me angry by itself. And why did those words come out of my mouth? I never had any intention of telling him the truth. Since that confession left my lips, he sat silently staring at me.

  Thankfully, Cam showed back up before the full-out sobbing I felt rising in my chest was ready to pour out. “Hey, why don’t we grab a pool table…” My brother’s voice trailed off as soon as he observed the tears streaking down my face. “Actually, I left my phone in the car. I’m just going to grab it, and I’ll be right back.” And then he left. He walked out of the bar. My brother fucking left me crying on a barstool.

  “He’s so subtle,” Louis mumbled beneath his breath. The swishing sound of the beer in his bottle from him swirling it around was louder than his declaration.

  But even as soft as his comment resonated, it drew a chuckle out of me. My brother was certainly anything but subtle. I wiped the tears off my face, raised the glass bottle to my lips, and chugged my beer. “I really should be going.” Once the amber liquid finished its descent down my throat, I slammed the empty bottle back down on the wooden table, creating a vibrating clang.

  With a quick exit in mind, I began my descent from the barstool, but before my shoes could meet the floor, a warm hand clasped around my wrist. “Please don’t go.” I had my gaze focused on the door, so I wasn’t facing him when his throaty, husky whisper sent a delightful shiver through me. Has his voice always been this incredibly sexy?

  With salty tears still stinging my eyes, I stopped myself from moving away from him and turned to meet his stare. “I feel like a fool. I want to ease away from here with a little dignity.” But I made no attempt to pull my wrist out of his hold. Now with my feet firmly in place, I just stood in that spot and admired his beautiful face. Those amazing blue eyes held me captive, and I couldn’t walk away. It was like he had a magnetic hold on me that I couldn’t escape. His chiseled jaw made him so ruggedly handsome, and the way his short blond hair was styled in that just-out-of-bed look had me completely mesmerized. “I am completely embarrassed.” I was surprised that I could even squeak out whispered words by that point.

  “Don’t be embarrassed.”

  I knew he was trying to reassure me, but I just wanted to run away from the situation. That was if I wasn’t completely frozen in place, of course.

  “Come on, Charlie. Sit down.” The stool screeched across the smooth tile as he pulled it out and patted the seat.

  Once he released his grip on my wrist, my butt fell onto the stool with a loud plop. That was unquestionably not graceful. What’s happening to me?

  “I miss our friendship, too. It would be nice if we could go back to being friends.” His gaze remained fixed on my eyes as the comforting sound of his voice provided me with the reassurance I desperately sought. Maybe he didn’t hate me for what I did to him. At least maybe he didn’t hate me anymore.

  A buzzing sensation erupted from the back pocket on my jeans as my phone vibrated in response to an incoming text message. I pulled the device out of my denim-clad pouch, not because I was really interested in the text message, but it allowed me to pry my eyes away from his piercing gaze. The text was from Cam. Text or call if you need me. I rolled out. You two looked like you needed to work things out…just the two of you.

  “Cam isn’t coming back.” I sniffed back another sob at the declaration of my brother’s permanent departure.

  “You knew that as soon as he walked out the door.” He cocked his head at me as if it was completely obvious that my brother had ditched us.

  “Yeah, he’s very uncomfortable in front of crying women.” I shrugged knowingly. “That’s how I always got my way.”

  Louis flashed his megawatt smile in my direction, and somehow the comfort I briefly felt envelop me was rep
laced with an overwhelming feeling of emptiness. I had really missed him. I missed us. The waitress arrived with the beer he requested with his silent gesture. “She’ll take another, too.” He bounced his pointed finger from me to the empty bottle sitting on the table, causing the waitress to throw a dramatic eye roll before she walked back toward the bar. Louis gave her a brief glance but quickly returned his gaze to me. “She was a lot more attentive before there was a girl sitting at this table.”

  “I could go.” I knew he didn’t want me to go, but I needed to mess with him a little, so I stood up from my stool again.

  “You never were very good at playing games, Charlene.” Irritation rang through his clipped words. I knew he was annoyed with me, and he retaliated by throwing out my birth name. Calling me by my full name was always a surefire way to irk my nerves.

  As childish as it sounds, I regressed to pulling my arms in a crisscross pattern over my chest and stomped my foot against the floor. Then his laughter rang out loudly. His amusement was not expressed with a lighthearted snicker. It was a full-out belly laugh. It was mere seconds before snorts escaped his nostrils, and he grasped at his sides while attempting to maintain his balance on the barstool. I found the combination of hilarity from his display of merriment mixed with the tickling echoes of his wails contagious. So before I even realized what was happening, I was laughing too, complete with my own snorting and side-splitting pain. Somehow a calming presence once again washed over me, and I plopped onto the barstool next to him. It felt good to laugh that hard. My very soul was ecstatic to be with Louis after so many years of being without him.

  Our fit of laughter eventually subsided, and we exchanged several long, cleansing breaths before he managed to be the first to speak between us. “I have missed you.” There was that sexy voice. Even with the tail end of a laughing fit, his voice was low and husky.