Chapter Nineteen
It was just two days until the grand opening, and Sheena was excited, and a little bit of a wreck, and apparently hosting
her sisters for a sort of pre–grand opening thing tonight at the axe throwing bar.
Denver had promised to handle all of the logistics.
And when she drove her sisters to the location, she could see that he had been serious about that.
There were four trucks in the driveway, and she could see people moving around inside.
The Kings and their various spouses. Plus Denver.
“This is the place,” she said.
“This is incredible,” said Whitney.
“Thank you,” she said.
They walked inside, and there were big foil pans filled with meat and sides laid out along the bar. Bix was behind the counter,
drawing beer.
“As the brewmaster, I am here to make pairing recommendations with whatever meat people want. I figure people should get good
and drunk before they start throwing axes,” she said.
Everybody seemed happy with that.
They piled up plates of food, and her sisters were introduced to everybody.
This was like . . . It must be what it was like when people had big families.
But they aren’t your family.
She had to remember that.
They ate, and talked, and then some competitive games started in earnest. All of the throwing lanes were full of different
pairings of people, and Sheena gave a quick group instruction, which had everybody crying with laughter because of all of
the inherent double entendre in said instructions.
She opted to compete with her sisters, and of course destroyed them soundly.
She looked around the room. This was what she had worked so hard for. This was . . . this was it. Her baby. Her ticket out
of here.
Except . . . it was beginning to feel like home. They really were all beginning to feel like family. And it was beginning
to feel like less and less of a goal to get the hell out of Dodge.
That thought made her feel tender, a little bit bruised.
“Hey,” said Denver. “I . . . Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure,” she said, her heart going tight. For some reason, she was suddenly overcome by dread. By the possibility of what he
might have to say to her.
What if . . . ?
What if. Today was a good day.
He wouldn’t do anything while your sisters were here.
That was true. If she knew anything about him, it was that.
So he took her outside, and she let him.
She remembered that day when she had walked back here and he had come upon her in the forest.
The impact of him.
“I got something for you. And I was going to wait until it was a gift exchange, or whatever. But now . . . I don’t want to wait.”
Her heart skipped. This was not what she had been expecting. “You got me a present?”
After she had been such a jerk to him yesterday teasing him about how she had bought him one.
“Yeah,” he said. “I did.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
He reached into his coat pocket, and took out a flat, silver package.
“What is this?”
“You’re gonna have to open it.”
So out there, in the dark, she did. She tore open the silver paper, and then found a white box inside. She opened that, and
found a velvet black box.
For a second, she felt disoriented. She thought of Alejandro talking about getting her sister a ring. But this was too big
to be a ring box. And why her brain should go that direction at all . . .
No. It just shouldn’t. Because she knew. That wasn’t what this was.
“Open it,” he said.
Because of course he was completely unaware that for a second she had stopped breathing.
She opened the box slowly, and inside was the most beautiful, perfect necklace. It looked like her tattoo. If he had designed
something for her on purpose it couldn’t have been any better.
“How did you . . . ?”
“I drove to Gold Valley last night. It’s not like I preplanned this. So don’t go thinking that it’s . . . You know, that I’m that nice or anything like that. It’s just . . . I didn’t like that you didn’t have a present so I went and found you one. And she just happened to have this.”
She shouldn’t be upset that he was downplaying it. He was trying to be humble, or something. But it sounded almost like he
regretted giving her jewelry. Like he knew that it could be taken the wrong way.
“It’s really pretty.”
“Let me . . .” He reached out and grabbed hold of the necklace, taking it out of the box, the chain looking so delicate in
his hands.
“Turn around,” he said.
She swept her hair to the side and turned, and he draped the necklace over her head, before clasping it behind her. The gem
fell with a heavy weight against her collarbone.
And his hands felt warm on her neck.
She closed her eyes. And waited for him to move closer. But instead he took a step back.
A wave of disappointment crashed through her, and she couldn’t even quite say why.
“Thank you,” she said. “It really is beautiful.”
“I thought you could wear it to the grand opening.”
“I’m going to owe you a lot more money back. This must’ve been expensive.”
The look on his face was unreadable, but it wasn’t happy.
But he was the one that had pulled away from her. He was the one who had given her a necklace and then wanted to downplay
it. He was the one who was being weird, not her. And she had said that because she thought that was the direction he was moving.
And she didn’t want . . .
“I’m kidding,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “It was a gift not a payment.”
“Great. Thank you. I love it.” She knew she sounded mad about it, but there was really nothing she could do about it right at that second.
She felt vaguely mad. Which was odd, because she didn’t think a person should feel vaguely mad while they were receiving the
most gorgeous jewelry they had ever seen in their lives.
“We better get back.”
“Great,” she said.
They went back inside, and she did her best to paste a smile on her face.
Because she didn’t understand what the hell that was. Or why it was making her feel so imbalanced. She didn’t . . . she didn’t
need this. It was stupid.
They were supposed to be having fun. Having sex. Being . . . this thing that they were. This friendship, or whatever it had
turned into.
Where he gave her jewelry, and she thought about him all the time. And she hated being at her house when he wasn’t there because
it reminded her of what life had been like before Denver. Not before he was leaving money in her mailbox, but before he was
holding her at night in bed.
She . . .
She refused to think it all the way through. She just did.
She went over to the bar and leaned in. “Have another drink?”
“Holy shit.” Bix’s eyes went round. “That’s a gorgeous necklace.”
“Thank you,” she said.
Bix narrowed her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m . . .”
“You don’t have to explain. You’re with a King. I get it.”
“Daughtry and Denver are not the same.”
“They’re a little the same,” Bix said. “Daughtry’s exterior is his bulletproof vest and badge.
Mr. Do Everything by the Book. That’s his shield.
Denver’s is different. But there is one.
And I think underneath that they have quite a bit in common.
Which means . . . they are occasional pains in the ass. ”
She laughed. “Yes. That’s exactly it.”
Except she had a terrible feeling that right now the problem was her. Her feelings. And the fact that she didn’t quite have
a handle on them the way she wished she did.
She also didn’t think it was fair for Bix to try and draw comparisons between her experiences with Daughtry, and Sheena’s
experiences with Denver, because she and Denver were not headed in the same direction as Bix and Daughtry.
Bix and Daughtry were married. They were forever. They were in love.
She and Denver were sleeping together. And were occasionally mad at each other. And sometimes not mad at each other.
So whatever that was.
She had her drink, and pushed through the rest of the evening. Everybody having fun until it was so late they were all exhausted.
She still felt uneasy. And she couldn’t say exactly why. It was whatever this thing was with Denver. The necklace that was
sitting heavily on her neck.
“I can give them a ride back,” Alejandro offered when everyone was ready to go.
She wasn’t quite ready to leave. And she couldn’t say how her sister’s almost fiancé had guessed that. Only that he had, and
that made her like him even more.
Because he paid attention. And he would pay attention to her sister.
“Thank you.”
Everybody piled out of the bar, and left her there alone.
She had told Denver that she would wait for him to put the animals up, but she was feeling kind of angry and spiteful.
She went into the employees-only room, where the animals were kept.
Then she took them, along with a stepladder, out into the main part of the bar. She brought it up underneath one of the long shelves that ran along the wall that wasn’t completely covered by throwing lanes.
She put up the woodchuck, and looked at it.
“You’re perfect,” she said.
She heard the door open, and footsteps behind her.
She sighed. “Yes?”
“You really are mad at me,” he said. “Putting those up without me.”
“Do you blame me?”
“No,” he said. “I acted like a dick. I’m sorry.”
“Okay. Well. This was fun.”
He frowned. “It’s not over,” he said.
“Do you get to unilaterally decide that?”
“No. I just mean . . . We’ve had plenty of fights.”
“Sure. Fights. This was different. You gave me a present, and then you were weird and standoffish about it.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t . . . I don’t really know how to do things like this. I wanted to get you a present. I didn’t like that
you didn’t have something under a tree. Then I thought maybe it was too much. Then for some reason I was standing out on the
street in Gold Valley thinking about Las Vegas.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. The point is, I don’t actually know how to behave. And that’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I was worried that it
was maybe too heavy of a gesture.”
“Do you feel like it was?”