I finish my fourth glass of wine and am halfway through my fifth—no, I’ve never had this much to drink before and yes, I think I’m going to end up with the mother of all hangovers tomorrow, but I don’t really care—when I work up the nerve to ask him about Ash.
“What was he like?” I wonder. “Before the accident.” Instinct tells me Z isn’t the only one who’s changed in the last six months.
“Different.” Luc grabs his tequila, drains it. He’s got a half-snarl on his face the whole time, like he can’t stand the taste but is drinking it anyway.
“I figured that much. But how?”
“So that’s how it is, huh?” He raises a brow at me. “You and Ash?”
“No! Of course not. I’m just curious.”
“Yeah, right. You’re ‘curious.’ ”
“Excuse me, but I’m not the one hitting on other girls just to make Cam jealous.”
“No, but maybe you should. That’d be hot.”
I roll my eyes, reach out and shove his shoulder. “Somehow I don’t think I’m her type.”
He snorts. “Yeah, neither am I.”
He acts like it doesn’t bother him, but the fact that it does is written in the little lines around his eyes, the tension in his muscles. Normally, I’d tiptoe around it, but I’ve drunk enough that my inhibitions are pretty much gone. Plus, I really want to know. “So what’s your story? What’s up with the two of you?”
“I asked you first.”
“So? I asked you last.”
He just looks at me. “Do you really think that’s going to work?”
I’m hoping it will, but the smirk on his face says otherwise. “Fine. There’s nothing between Ash and me. I just …”
“Wish there was?”
“No! It’s not like that. It’s just … I made a total ass of myself in front of him and I can’t forget it.”
“Oh, no.” Luc flags down the waitress, gets another drink. “You don’t get to say that much and then just leave me hanging. What happened?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Believe me, I do. And if you expect me to talk about Cam, I need some kind of incentive.”
He’s grinning at me, but it’s an empathetic grin, not a sympathetic one. He doesn’t feel sorry for me, isn’t trying to placate me. He’s just interested and kind and … and I can’t help wondering if I’ve actually made my first friend out of the cancer ward. It’s a good feeling. Strange, but good.
So I tell him everything. About the storage room. About Logan pretending to be Ash’s agent—which he already knew about. About the fight in his kitchen and me agreeing to sleep with Ash only to have him toss my agreement back in my face.
“Yeah, well, you should be glad he turned you down,” Luc says. “It’s a lot better than waking up the next morning and being told all the reasons the best sex of your life didn’t mean anything.”
Ouch. “That’s what happened with you and Cam?”
He tosses back half his glass of tequila, grimacing the whole time. “Yeah. Me and Cam.”
“That sucks.”
“It pretty much does,” he agrees.
“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking …”
“Nothing much. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that she’s been in love with Z forever.”