“Right, boss, I’ll get it for you.” Her gaze went past me and straight to Jace. The look on her face told me that she had most likely been a hookup at some point.
Was she a regular?
Ugh. Stop it, Kin. You don’t care.
You aren’t supposed to care.
I fucking cared.
“Same, Wendy,” he told her without giving her a second glance.
Disappointment shadowed her eyes as she turned them on me, and then they grew cooler. “And you?”
I nearly rolled my eyes. Really? She was jealous of me? I wanted to laugh but just smirked instead. I figured smirking was safer than jumping up and scratching up her pretty face. Right? “I can get my own drink when I get thirsty, thanks.”
Lucy turned her head to me as the waitress walked away. “I thought you were thirsty?”
I shrugged. “From the frostbite I nearly got from Jace’s castoff, I’m pretty sure she would’ve spit in it. I’ll just take a drink of yours.”
Brown eyes widened. “If she did that, Harris would fire her on the spot.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m good for now.” I gave her a sassy wink that had her grin returning and I turned my attention back to my phone.
Jace shifted beside me, his fingers wrapping around a few strands of my hair that were on the back of the couch. “She isn’t a castoff,” he muttered.
I shrugged but didn’t look up from my phone, pretending like I didn’t care. “Sure she isn’t.”
“Kin, I swear on Kassa’s life, I don’t hook up with chicks that work at the club.”
I lifted my eyes then. Kassa was the most important person in Jace’s life. He would kill for her, so I knew that he wouldn’t swear on her life for a lie. “Okay,” I told him. “But she wants to be a castoff. Maybe you should take her up on the offer.”
“Maybe you should start returning my calls and texts,” he shot back, leaning closer. “I just want to talk, Kin.”
“I don’t think we have anything to talk about,” I assured him. “It’s all in the past now, anyway. I’ve moved on from it.” Lie. Such a huge lie. “I’m pretty sure you’ve already moved on, too. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself.”
His strong jaw clenched. “I don’t want to move on. I want you.”
My heart stuttered in my chest, but I forced my face to remain impassive. “You had me, Jace. Our story is already over, minus the happy-ever-after. I’m okay with that. Since you were the one who walked away without a backward glance, you should be okay with it too.”
The fingers he’d tangled in my hair tightened, tugging my head back ever so slightly so I was forced to meet his gaze head on. “I’ve looked back a million times, baby. Each and every day I’ve thought about you, hated myself for leaving you the way I did. Don’t think it was easy for me, Kin, because it sure as hell wasn’t.”
Lifting my hand, I pulled my hair free from his grasp and stood. “I’m thirsty after all,” I told Lucy. “I’ll be back.”
As soon as I was out of sight of the other three, I closed my eyes and sucked in a few deep breaths. He didn’t get to say things like that. That wasn’t fair. Jace St. Charles shouldn’t still have the power to slice me open with just a few words and leave me bleeding to death from the gaping wound. That he still could, that my heart was still racing after hearing words it had longed to hear for so damn long, only pissed me off.
I marched over to the bar. The place was overcrowded with a mixture of people in and out of costume. I pushed my way between a guy in a suit and some dude dressed like Dracula. I felt both of them eyeing me, but ignored them as Nate turned from handing over a beer to a sexy angel at the end of the bar.
There had been people waiting longer, but as soon as he saw me he set a glass of ginger ale in front of me. I wished it were a shot of tequila or Jameson, but I took the glass gratefully and took a thirsty swallow before reaching into one of my cop belt pockets and pulling out a tip for him. Nate knew I was with Lucy and he never made us pay for drinks. Harris probably would have lost his shit if the bartender did.
Nate took the five I offered, tossed it into the jar behind the bar that was already overflowing with tips, then turned back to face me. Leaning his arms on the bar-top, he let his eyes drift over me for a moment. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the way he looked at me. It was nice to have a guy look at me with that mixture of lust and appreciation, but without being all creepy about it.
If only Nate could make me feel half of what Jace did, I thought with a sigh as I leaned forward until there were only a few inches between us. “Hi,” I murmured. “Nice costume.”
He was dressed like a male stripper with just a pair of dress pants on and a bowtie around his neck. Which explained why his tip jar was overflowing even more than normal with large bills that would probably pay his rent for three months. Who wouldn’t willingly hand over a fifty or a hundred to see what Nate hid under his shirt? All those yummy muscles flexing as he moved around was enough to get anyone’s heart rate up.
He smirked. “Back at ya, babe.”
I blew out a frustrated breath and shook my head at the sexy bartender. “If only, Nate. If only.”