Kimmy winked at her good-naturedly. “He attached like Rider and Shade are?”
Ginny felt like a rag doll sitting so close to Kimmy, even though she had made her best effort to be attractive. Kimmy, however, was gorgeous in any outfit. Meanwhile, Ginny had to spend an hour trying on clothes, endeavoring to achieve the same look of appreciation from Gavin that the men had showered on Kimmy. Her efforts had been a complete waste of time. She could have been dressed in a playboy bunny outfit, and he wouldn’t have noticed. The surge of jealousy she was experiencing was confounding and made her disappointed in herself.
“Yes.” The lie rolled of her tongue, making her feel like a terrible person, yet she made no effort to revise her answer. Placing Gavin under the category of “already taken” might not have been the brightest idea in the world, but it was the fastest one she could think of with Kimmy’s interest.
Alone, with the one-sided conviction that she and Gavin were meant to be together, she felt like a failure as a woman. She didn’t know how to flirt or use her feminine wiles. Heck, the one and only time she had tried to use false eyelashes made her look like a racoon.
Each time she felt a small crack opening to initiate anything romantic between them, he put out a no-trespassing sign physically and emotionally to shut her out immediately, and then she would have to start all over again. This morning, the air had a distinct chill when he was waiting for her outside her apartment door. Brusquely asking for the plans of the day, he severed any attempts of normal conversation. She reluctantly stopped trying to engage him five minutes into the fifteen-minute drive to the nightclub when he started texting on his phone. Arriving at the nightclub, he headed directly to the spot he was at now.
Ginny noticed the other security personnel gradually edging away from him, putting more space between them. The security’s team wariness emphasized the isolation that Gavin wanted from others. Gavin’s appearance alone would put the fear of God into any sane person, coupled with the aloofness he wore like a second skin by overlooking them, broke her heart a little piece at a time. One word or overture from him would ease their apprehension. They’d be able to look underneath the tattoos, imagine his hair neatly trimmed without the wacked off hair, and with a warm smile from him beckoning them closer, they would see the man she saw, the man she fell in love with on first sight.
She still felt the tingle in the palm of her hand when she had touched his jaw and saw the beautiful soul that couldn’t be hidden no matter how hard he tried to disguise himself. He was and would always be Gavin to her.
“Why is Alec standing on his head?”
Ginny looked at Alec, Kaden’s head of security talking to Kaden, and saw that he certainly wasn’t standing on his head.
Kimmy grinned. “Just checking. I see I’m not the only one appreciating your new candy.”
Blushing at getting caught, Ginny fiddled with a button on her cream jacket.
“I have a thing for tats myself,” Kimmy whispered conspiratorially as one of the light technicians approached their table.
“Morning, girls.”
“Lawrence,” Ginny greeted him, looking away when he bent and kissed Kimmy’s upturned lips.
It was everything Ginny could do to hide her disgust when Lawrence raised his lips to send a smug look toward the men in the room, observing them before sitting down next to Kimmy and placing a proprietary arm around her shoulders.
“Where were you this morning? You told me you’d pick me up at nine.”
Kimmy frowned up at her boyfriend. “You told me that you didn’t know how long it would take to make the changes Nick wanted, so you’d drive yourself.”
Lawrence frowned back. “I did, but after Nick called and said that the changes weren’t major, I told you we could ride together.”
“I must have forgotten. I’m sorry.”
“No harm. Just didn’t want to have to deal with Kaden if I missed the meeting. He fired Bruce for missing the meeting last month. I have a bills to pay and a girlfriend to spoil.”
Ginny wanted to gag. The only one who wanted to be spoiled was the man who was trying to guilt-trip his girlfriend.
Ginny couldn’t understand what Kimmy saw in Lawrence and why she was dating him. Ginny had shot him down each time Lawrence had asked her out. The situation changed, though, when they moved to Nashville. Personally, Ginny believed Kimmy started seeing him to deal with her loneliness.
The only person who disliked Lawrence as much as she did was Nick, Kimmy’s brother, who constantly begged her to stop seeing him.
“Bruce wasn’t fired for not coming to the meeting,” Ginny spoke up to correct the untruth. “He was fired for being drunk during the show the night before. He didn’t show for the meeting because he knew Kaden was going to fire him.”