The Road To Heaven (Allendale Four 3)

I shook my head. “There’s no way. He must have done some digging after I told him about us.”

Oliver’s head jerked my way. “You told him about us?”

“Not your names or anything specific. We were just killing time during a long session in my makeup chair.” I eyed them suspiciously. “Does he really train with you?”

“Yeah, three times a week,” Jackson replied, his eyes and voice softening. “I agree, it’s a weird coincidence, Heaven, but stranger things have happened.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, Allendale was growing, but it wasn’t that big of a city. I knew the internet was forever. If he dug around, he could find what he wanted. I sighed. If RJ was playing games…it was the wrong subject. Even though it had been two years, everything still felt raw. There was no doubt they felt it, too.

“Well, I’ve been waiting forever to meet one or two of you guys; I want to hear everything about everything,” Lea said, leaning eagerly toward Jackson.

I couldn’t do it. Not a chance. I couldn’t relive the stories, the good times or the bad. I’d worked too damn hard to get my shit together for these two to walk in and rip me apart again. My hand shook when I reached into my bag and found my wallet. I tossed cash on the bar. “With things going sideways like this, I’m calling it a night.”

“You’re leaving?” Lea asked, frowning.

“Same,” Oliver agreed.

“Dude,” Jackson said, but Oliver was already headed to the door without another word.

Jackson and I watched him go and it hurt. Fuck, fuck, fuck it hurt. He turned back to me and gave me a sad, lopsided grin. “It was good to see you, Heaven.”

“You too, Jackson. You look good, both of you, and I’m proud of you for opening the gym and figuring things out.”

He shoved his hands in his pocket. “I’m not sure any of us ever figured anything out but, thank you. Your approval means everything to us.”

Lea watched us like a tennis match, but I felt the wounds being picked at like a scab. It was time to go, so I left. Again.

3

Oliver

The warm city air hit me as I strode out of the bar. I ducked past the line of people trying to get in, a few women smiling in my direction. I only wanted one woman to grace me with a grin tonight, and she could barely muster eye contact.

I’d known going on a blind date was a bad idea, but Jackson assured me it was good for business and developing a relationship with someone as influential as RJ Malone. I saw his point, and it wasn’t like we were finding a lot of dates on our own. The business took up most our time, and thankfully, it left us with a valid excuse for our monk-ish lives. Things had never shifted back for either of us after the group split. Anderson was laser-focused, like always. Training. Competing. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Hayden spent the first year traveling across Europe before winning a spot as the first-string goalie on the Atlanta United Team. Increasingly, his face was everywhere from endorsements to celebrity events.

And Heaven? She’d been down the road from us but we kept our distance. We made a deal and despite the proximity, stuck with it.

Until tonight.

We should’ve known it was only a matter of time before we ran into one another, but a blind date? You couldn’t make that shit up.

It felt wrong going to meet another woman. It always did—had—since the day we forged our relationship with Heaven. We were just kids, but what we had? It was more. I’d known it then. I knew it now. Walking in that door felt like a betrayal, followed by a punch in the gut seeing her standing there; smiling, confident, and absolutely gorgeous.

It wasn’t the body of a girl that stood by the bar. It was one of a woman; it was like I thought I knew what she looked like, thought I knew her body, but there was a subtle difference—just enough to stop me cold. Long legs, the slight curve of her hips, the leanness of her arms, and sharp cheekbones were the make-up of an enhanced Heaven Reeves. I’d absorbed everything in a matter of moments, the way she wore her hair was up, twisted at the back of her head exposing the long, swanlike column or her neck.

I’d known I’d missed her, but not exactly how much until that moment, and now, after a bit of fresh air, I felt like a complete dick taking off like that. I’d never walked away from Heaven before. Not during the dark days. Not during the hard shit. Never—but that didn’t stop the wedge of time from separating us and changing everything.

We’d made a deal.

I reminded myself of this every damn day. I knew Jackson did as well. I know he floundered, brushing off the advances of our female clients, the accountant, the saleswoman that came once a month to demonstrate the new equipment. He’d had opportunities, we both had, and neither of us ever took the bait.

Except this one fucking time.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I expect it to be Jackson, but it wasn’t. Anderson’s name flashing on the screen. Did he know? I refused to believe Jackson called him. Not a chance.

“Hey,” I said into the phone, ducking into the alcove of a closed shop. I stood across the street from new, trendy lofts.