Not So Happily Ever After

by Christina Phillips

  Half an hour later, I take the remains of our meal into the kitchen and dump it on the workbench before returning to the sitting room. Mac’s dad and Margo are on one sofa, although they’re not touching at all, and Mac’s on the other sofa with Harry and Alice. I’m consigned to one of the chairs by the fireplace.

  Just as well. If I’d squeezed onto that sofa next to Mac, there’s no way I’d be able to keep my hands to myself.

  “That wasn’t too much of a disaster, was it?” Margo says.

  “Next time, let’s just have it in here.” Mac smiles, and I can’t look away. Her hair’s in a long plait that trails over her shoulder, and I can’t wait to tug it free with my fingers. Is it too early to leave?

  You wanker. She lives here. When I leave, I’ll be alone.

  Until tonight.

  Got to get through the party, first. I stifle a sigh.

  “You’ve got a deal,” Margo tells her before turning to Alice. “Are you traveling up to Durham tomorrow?”

  “Yes, Harry’s taking me. I can’t believe this is my second year already.”

  Their conversation fades into the background as I check out Mac. She has a small smile on her face, but she doesn’t say anything. Like when we were at Blitz, except now I know why she’s so quiet.

  I have the mad urge to change the topic to her art, but she wouldn’t thank me for it.

  My phone buzzes, and it’s a text from Lucas.

  Pick u up at 9

  I hadn’t planned on driving to the party, but I’m not stoked at the thought of going with him. Not that I usually care. It’s fun going in the limo he hires for this type of event, but if he’s picking me up, he’ll be taking Mac, as well.

  Doesn’t mean we have to get a lift back with him. We can get a taxi.

  A minute later, she checks her phone before shooting me an inscrutable glance. Lucas must’ve texted her. Don’t know why she’s giving me the side-eye, though.

  “You’ve been looking so much better this week, Mackenzie,” her dad says. “That break did you a world of good.”

  “Mmm.” She gives a restrained smile. I sink as far back into my chair as possible, but luckily no one’s looking my way. Why would they? As far as they’re concerned, that weekend was totally in the friend zone.

  “Oh, where did you go?” Alice asks.

  “Uh, Wales.”

  “Sometimes a change of scene is all you need to see things more clearly,” Margo says.

  It’s like they’re having a coded conversation. Except Mac doesn’t look as though she has any more idea what Margo’s on about than I do.

  When everyone leaves, Mac comes over to me. “Lucas sent me a text. He’s flying over with Violet, and they’re going to the party tonight.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I kept meaning to tell you that.” By the time we got back to my flat yesterday, I’d completely forgotten.

  “He’s hired that limo and is picking me up.” She pauses and glances toward the door, but it seems her dad and Margo are having a long goodbye. “And apparently you’re bringing a date.”

  I swear under my breath. “I don’t know what’s up with him. I told him I’m not seeing anyone.” At least, I think I did. I can’t remember what I said now.

  She traces the tip of her finger across my chest. It’s an oddly tentative gesture, not like her at all, but before I can comment on it, she takes a deep breath. “Did he ever know about your ex from Uni?”

  Okay. I wasn’t expecting that. “No. Like I said before, it was just a Uni thing.”

  “Just casual, then?”

  It’d be so easy to agree. It’d stop the questions I know she wants to ask. But it wouldn’t be the truth. “It was serious.” Don’t say it. But for some reason, I need her to know. “I thought it was serious.”

  “But she didn’t want to keep in touch after you graduated?”

  “It wasn’t that.” You know me, Will. I don’t do family shit. “She wasn’t expecting me to join the business. That had never featured in the plans we’d made together.”

  Comprehension dawns in Mac’s eyes, and she sucks in a sharp breath. “She left because your dad died?”

  It’s the first time anyone’s said that to my face, and it feels strangely right that it comes from Mac, the girl whose support got me through that first tough year.

  I could shrug it off. Change the subject. But it’s too late for that. And I don’t want to, anyway. “Yeah.”

  She cradles my jaw, and I cover her hand, sliding my fingers between hers. I don’t know why I feel so good when I’ve just spilled my guts, but I’m not about to challenge it.

  The door swings open, and Harry comes into the room. The three of us stare at each other, frozen in place. Why isn’t she pushing me away?

  “Huh.” Harry gives us a suspicious frown as Mac slowly drops her hand from my face. Not that she puts any distance between us. I rake my hand over my head and can’t think of anything to say. At least we weren’t kissing.

  She gives him a brittle smile, not that he seems to notice. “Did you forget something?”

  “My phone.” He goes over to the sofa and picks it up before turning back to us. “Am I missing something?”

  “Alice?” I suggest, which at least earns me a quick smile from Mac.

  He shakes his head like he’s trying to clear his mind. “Never mind. See you later.”

  As he leaves, their dad comes back in. “I just had a message from Lucas. He and Violet are popping in later. What a pity they couldn’t get here earlier for the lunch.”

  I don’t want to leave, but I can’t hang around now everyone else has left. It’d just look weird. “I’ll see you later,” I tell Mac, and she nods before walking with me into the hall.

  “Anyway,” she says, “thanks for coming today. It wasn’t too bad in the end, was it?”

  “You do realize the scariest woman on the BBC is a bit afraid of you, don’t you?”

  That makes her laugh. “That’s insane.” Then a small frown creases her forehead as though she’s just guessed I wasn’t joking. “You think?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Huh. That’s weird. But it does explain the dining room.”

  I glance over her shoulder, but there’s no sign of her dad. It’s a bad idea, especially when her brother’s picking me up later, but I still ask the question. “I suppose there’s no chance of you coming home with me now?”

  “I’d love to.” Regret fills her voice. “But I haven’t seen much of Dad this week. I’ll stay over tonight, though.”

  “Okay.” I risk a quick kiss, and her smile doesn’t make it any easier to leave.

  It’s only a few hours until the party. I’ll do whatever I usually do on a Saturday afternoon that doesn’t involve her.

  It won’t be difficult. This is only the third Saturday we’ve been together, including our visit to Jake in hospital, and last week we were in Wales.

  So why is it so hard to think of how my Saturdays were before Mac?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Mackenzie

  Remember rules number one, two, and three: don’t drool over Will.

  As the limo glides to a stop outside his flat, I force myself not to glance at his front door. Lucas texted him a couple of minutes ago to let him know we were here, and even though I’m focused on Violet, from the corner of my eye, I can still see him approaching the car.

  Stop hyperventilating.

  “Hey.” Will’s greeting to everyone in the limo shouldn’t cause my skin to tingle with awareness or send ripples of need between my thighs, but it does. And if that isn’t bad enough, my treacherous head turns in his direction.

  “Mac,” he says, with one of those guy nods, which is simultaneously firmly in the friend-zone and also ridiculously sexy.

  “Hi.” I give him a glacial smile, although inside I’m burning. My electrified hormones aren’t helped when he takes the seat next to me.

  You wanted him to sit next to you.

  I’m not sur
e why I thought that would be such a great idea when we can’t even hold hands. Then again, anticipation is so underrated. I’m already counting down the hours before we’re back at his flat tonight.

  “Hey, man,” Jax says from the other side of the limo, where he’s sitting with his date for the night. “Honey, this is Lucas’s oldest mate, Will.”

  I hold my breath as Will leans across me to say hi to Honey. He smells of sex and sin, and I curl my toes in the vain hope that it will help keep me centered. A wild vision of flinging my arms around him and giving him a big kiss on his delectable lips taunts me, and I metaphorically sit on my hands. Not going to cause unnecessary drama with my overprotective brother when this is my last weekend with Will.

  As he settles back into his seat, he catches my eye, and his mocking smile proves he knows exactly what’s going through my head and obviously finds it funny.

  “Thought you were bringing a date.” Lucas laughs and wraps his arm around Violet’s shoulders. “What happened? Did you get stood up?”

  “She came to her senses, did she?” Jax grins. “Can’t say I blame her.”

  Will stretches out his legs, and for a second, our gazes lock. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Must be serious if you’re not talking about her,” Lucas says. Guys are so weird. I can’t stop talking about Will when I see Brooklyn. He didn’t even tell Lucas about his ex from Uni, or what she did to him.

  How could she do that, though? Hot disbelief burns through me again, the same as it did this afternoon. It hadn’t occurred to me they’d split up in such a horrible way. I can’t even imagine how awful he must’ve felt.

  “Or,” Will says, “it means I’m not seeing anyone.”

  “This’ll make you laugh.” Violet grins at my brother before returning her attention to me. “When I first met you, I thought there was something going on between you and Will.”

  Lucas and Jax laugh as though that’s the most hilarious joke ever. Even Honey does, although she’s never even met either of us before.

  Why did I think it was a good idea to go to this stupid party tonight with my brother?

  Oh, that’s right. I didn’t. This bloody limo job was thrust on me at the last minute.

  “Why?” Will asks Violet, and it’s as though he really wants to know. I hitch in a strangled breath and reach for my water. I wish it was Scotch.

  “I don’t know. It was like you were giving off all these vibes under the surface.”

  I freeze, my bottle halfway to my mouth. We were giving off vibes?

  “You were right about Dad,” Lucas says. “But seriously, there’s nothing happening between those two. That’d just be gross, right?” He lobs that question at Will, who gives a careless shrug as though he’s already bored of the conversation.

  Violet gives me a funny look. Unfreeze your arm, idiot. I hastily take a sip of water, not that it helps with cooling me down. It doesn’t stop her from shooting a quick glance between Will and me, either.

  “You know Heath’ll be there tonight?” Jax asks me. “Guy has a serious crush.”

  Next to me, Will tenses. Surely, he’s not jealous of Heath. We’ve only met a few times and are just mates. I don’t know why Lucas and Jax have this stupid idea that we like each other in that way.

  I mean sure, he’s as hot as hell, and I love to hate his character in the trashy soap, Dominion Drive. Since it’ll look odd if I don’t respond to Jax’s comment, I say the first thing that pops into my head.

  “It’ll be great to see him again. He’s so much fun.”

  Is it my imagination or did Will actually growl? I bite down on my lip so I don’t laugh. At least no one else heard.

  “Wanker,” he mutters under his breath, and I can’t stop myself.

  “I’m sorry. Did you say something, Will?” I give him a sweet smile.

  You’re playing with fire. You know that, right?

  His smoldering glance doesn’t just suck the air from my lungs. It steals my voice and turns my brain into steamy lust. I grip my water so hard the plastic squeaks, but I can’t rip my gaze away.

  “Nothing important,” he says,

  “Oy,” Lucas says, and it’s a wrench coming back to the real world. What is it about Will’s gorgeous dark eyes that’s so mesmeric? I could gaze into them for hours. “What’s up with you two tonight?”

  “What are you talking about?” We haven’t touched or kissed. There’s no reason for my brother to be suspicious—unlike when Harry walked in on us earlier. But luckily, he didn’t seem to find anything odd about the way I was pressed up against Will.

  “You’re not glaring at each other. Are you guys friends again?”

  Before I can even process that, never mind come up with an appropriate response, Will replies. “We’ve always been friends.”

  Right. Good answer. Not that I dare glance in his direction, since everyone is staring at us.

  “Great,” my brother says before turning to Jax, and the conversation moves on to football.

  I glance at Will. He gives a faint smile, but although he doesn’t make any move toward me, I can read his message loud and clear. It’s the same one pounding through my own mind.

  How soon can we leave this party, so we can be alone?

  …

  Will

  “Are you up for that, Will?” Lucas asks. It takes me a second to realize he’s giving me a strange look. Probably because I’m not laughing and joking with the others the way I usually do.

  Yeah, well, usually I’m not sitting next to Mac and trying damn hard to keep my hands off her.

  “Sure,” I respond on autopilot. When stuck in the city, I’m always up for a party. Even if the prospect of a Halloween inspired event in a castle somewhere in Spain isn’t high on my list of priorities.

  Thank God it’s only twenty minutes before we arrive at the hotel on the Southbank where Atomic Fire is holding their party. I should’ve chosen another seat in the limo, as far away from Mac as possible. But it was like she’d left the window seat next to her vacant as a deliberate dare.

  I never could pass up a dare.

  Sure as hell, I’m paying the price for it now. Every time I breathe, her scent taunts me, a constant reminder of all the times we’ve touched. She’s done something different with her hair, which is piled on top of her head in messy curls, with irresistible tendrils trailing over her cheeks and nape.

  Resist at all costs.

  The limo stops, and the doors open. Lucas takes Violet’s hand, and Jax takes Honey’s as they leave the car and wave to the inevitable crowds that are hoping for a glimpse of their favorite celebs. I flex my fingers. This is a bad idea, but I’ve had worse.

  “Ready?” I hold out my hand, and after a second’s hesitation, she takes it. I swallow a groan, and since Lucas and Jax are signing autographs and taking no notice of us, I lean closer to her. “How are we going to handle this tonight?”

  She squeezes my fingers, which doesn’t help with the whole self-control thing I’m battling. “I don’t know.”

  She’s irresistible, and I kiss her before my brain kicks into gear. We both spring back like we’ve been electrocuted and glance outside. But apart from the chauffeur, who’s still holding open the door and ignoring us with stoic professionalism, we might as well be alone for all the interest anyone has in us.

  She lets out a shaky breath. “For a start, we can’t do that again.”

  “Agreed.” Not unless I want to spend the rest of the night with an inconvenient boner.

  The chauffeur gives a discreet cough, and we both glance in his direction. He’s not looking at us, but Lucas and Jax have finished doing their walk of fame and are making their way to the hotel.

  “You ready?” I ask.

  “You bet.”

  I leave the limo, give the chauffeur a nod of thanks, and only then realize I’m still holding on to her hand.

  She steps out of the limo. Damn, she’s so hot, in a long dress with a
split at the front. All I can think is, Are you wearing your sexy lingerie?

  We follow the guys up the red carpet. The crowd, after eagerly surging against the velvet security ropes, ignore us when they discover our faces aren’t famous. Same goes for the paparazzi, who are already swinging their cameras around to the next limo in line.

  As we catch up to Lucas, who’s chatting with the security guys at the door, Mac tugs my hand against her thigh. “Should we let go now?” Her whisper tickles my ear, and I have one crazy second when I almost tell her no.

  “Sure.” Without much enthusiasm, I loosen my grip on her fingers, and she slowly slides free. Lucas’s arm is around Violet’s waist. What would happen if I did that to Mac?

  Once inside, we’re swept up to the twelfth floor and directed to a massive room with a wall of glass that takes in the London skyline. The purple and blue décor gives it a faux regal feel, and the music is pounding. Lucas swings around and grins at me.

  “The payoff for having to talk Jake down from the ledge the other week.”

  Any other time I’d laugh and agree. I haven’t got my party animal rep for nothing, and Lucas and I made a good team before he fell for Violet. Sure, it was only one side of me, the city side, but I always had a good time.

  I should be loving all this glitter, the beautiful chicks, and the free-flowing booze. But as Mac saunters over to a group of girls she seems to know, I can’t take my damn eyes off her.

  I don’t want to spend the night chatting up random girls. I want to be with Mac.

  Two more days. When I take her to Oxford on Monday morning, that’s it. Over.

  Does it really need to be over?

  Light explodes behind my eyes, a revelation smashing through me. Since when have I ever given up on something I want? Yes, it will be complicated. Especially with the pressure she’s under. But we’ve shown how good we are together. We can figure this out.

  Chapter Twenty

  Mackenzie

  The lights of London glitter across the river as I gaze at the majestic backdrop of St. Paul’s Cathedral from the terrace. The party’s in full swing, and from the open doors behind me, music pumps into the early autumn night.