Chapter 20 Miller - Should I be scared? #2
Beth walks over to the speaker still blaring music to turn it down. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you. You were just lost in your head there for a minute. Not surprised though when she’s on your mind.”
“She’s not…I wasn’t…Okay, yeah. You got me,” I admit.
“Want some sage advice from an old bat?”
I give my best harumph. “Beth, you’re not old.”
“Says the spry twenty-something-year-old.” She points her ladle at me. “Anyway, I love Red like one of my own. Rock her world, kid.” Beth winks and turns back to the pot of soup she’s tending to.
“Uh…” The chair scrapes against the hardwoods when I spring to get up. “Yeah, cool. Umm you have my number and stuff. Please—” I bump into the hutch as I walk backwards toward the front door. I can’t get the fuck out of here fast enough. “Call me. If Penelope needs anything or—”
Beth doesn’t even look up from the stove top, but I can hear the smile in her voice. “Goodbye, Miller, my boy. Your girl is safe here with us. Go have fun now.”
“Goodnight, Penelope Grace! I love you!” I call up the stairs.
I wait only until I hear her echoey reply, “Love you, Daddy!” and I throw myself out the door to suck in a giant gulp of fresh air.
Did Beth Rivers just tell me to rock Gwen’s world?
I walk down the top two steps of the porch and halt. Wait. Penelope is sleeping here. At Beth’s. I’m sleeping…not here. Nope. I most definitely am not sleeping at Beth Rivers’ house.
And Gwen is…I mean, I guess I can’t totally speak for her, but I’m pretty sure is also not sleeping here.
Are we about to spend the night together? Like, me and her not accidentally falling asleep half sitting up on the couch, jolting awake to an alarm at 1:00 a.m. to sneak her out the back door like teenagers?
Hooooooolyshit.
I snatch my new Rivers’ River baseball hat off my head to tug at my hair.
Continuing down the steps, I pace the front yard while I wait for Sawyer and Gus to appear from wherever they ran off to.
I didn’t join their pregame, so I offered to drive us to the bar.
Daisy has offered to be DD if I decide to drink.
And maybe I will have a couple, since my date’s apparently local royalty with the bar tab hook up, and I have reliable childcare. And they’re a ten minute drive from any place I’d end up tonight, because I’m still a dad first.
Alright, let’s run through this. Gwen and I, we’re…friendsish. Friendish? Not a word. Whatever.
We’re doing everything a couple does, hell, what most families do most days of the week.
She cuddles up to me on the couch, and we hold hands.
There’s kissing and touching and it’s kind of insane how good all of it feels.
How good she feels with me. But we don’t talk about it.
It really feels like the time to talk about it.
But we’re gonna have some fun first.
I hear the guys before I see them half running, half tumbling down the hill from Gus’ cabin that sits back a little on Beth’s lot. They’re definitely both already a little drunk.
“Miller! Miller Caswell! You ready to fucking paaaaaaarty?!” Sawyer yells, even though he’s less than ten feet in front of me.
I laugh through my nerves. “I don’t think I have much of a choice.”
“Now you’re getting it!” Gus says as he pulls two cans of beer from his back pockets. How do they even…? Before I can finish the question, I watch the two of them cheers and puncture their cans with pocket knives before shotgunning them back.
“I know that’s right!” Gus takes both empty and crushed cans to toss in the trash next to Beth’s house before hopping in the passenger seat of his truck.
I hold up my keys. “Guys, we’re taking my car. Let’s go.”
They both fumble to fight for the front seat with Sawyer ultimately accepting defeat to sprawl out in the backseat. I let Gus handle the music while Sawyer starts a speech that leads me to believe he might be more intoxicated than I thought.
He leans over the center console, sticking his head in between Gus and me up front. “I can’t wait to see Margot. I miss her. It’s so weird to miss someone so much that you see everyday, you know? But God, she’s just so pretty, ya know? And she has these freckles that look like little stars. And—”
“Hale, we know what your girlfriend looks like. We know you’re obsessed with her.
Shut the fuck up.” Gus palms Sawyer’s face, pushing him back.
“Sorry,” Gus directs at me. “The guy has two drunk nights in him a year. And as”—He looks back to see Sawyer rolling the window down to poke his head out—“Annoying as this might seem, it’s better than when he’s moping about his parents. So, I let him have this one.”
I nod in understanding, keeping focused on the dark road ahead of us as I drive along the winding back road that leads us to Main Street.
The rest of the quick drive includes Sawyer trying to sing along to songs he definitely doesn’t know the words to sober, let alone drunk, and Gus trying to catch me up to speed on the who’s who of the night.
I don’t remember a single name he gives me, nor do I think it’ll matter when we get to the bar. I’m coming out for Gwen and Gwen alone.
I’m glad they forced this. I would have never shown up here on my own, and as outside of my comfort zone this is, I have a good feeling about tonight. As long as Dean doesn’t make an appearance that kills the mood.
I pull around to the back of the buildings to park in my normal spot behind the cafe because every spot in the front is taken, it’s car after car all the way down the street. Some cars are definitely not in legal spots, but I don’t think anyone in town cares tonight.
Margot’s car is parked in Gwen’s spot, but it’s empty so I’m guessing they already made their way inside. There’s a line formed outside the bar and it looks like there’s a security guard at the door? In Merrymount? Seriously? At least it’s not Dean.
“What’s up with the detail?” I ask Gus as we find our place in the back of the line.
“Rodney, he owns The Bar, hires security every year to make sure they don’t go over capacity. It’s a fire code thing, and it only ever becomes a problem on this night. And sometimes guys get too outta control and need to be thrown out. It happens.” He shrugs.
A few people ahead of us turn around to say hi when they recognize Gus and Sawyer.
Sawyer proudly introduces me as his brother-in-law with hard claps on the back every time.
Somewhere along the hellos, we’re pushed to the front of the line where the giant dude in all black steps aside to let us in after checking only my I.D.
We all get stamped on the tops of our right hands, and I look down to see a blue inked blueberry.
Quintessential Merrymount.
We walk inside, and I stop dead in my fucking tracks when I see her.
How could you not see her? Gwendolyn Bozelli isn’t just the center of this small town bar, she’s the center of the whole Goddamn universe as far as I’m concerned.
Either my mind is playing tricks on me, or there is literally a spotlight shining on her as she stands to the side of the bar, smiling and chatting away with Margot and Daisy.
She has that full head of hair down in big curls that fall down her back, stopping right above her ass.
I clock the outfit choice almost immediately.
It’s the same one that made part of my brain stop working when she showed up at the apartment in it.
That black tank that sticks to her body like second skin, and jeans that hug every perfect fucking curve.
It’s definitely too cold for that tank top but you won’t catch me complaining.
Gwen has a drink in hand, and she’s toying with the straw as she listens to Margot say something that causes her to tip her head back in laughter.
Sawyer barrels past me when he finally spots Margot up ahead.
The three girls turn their heads in our direction when they hear him over the music and chatter of everyone else in this overpacked bar.
“Pixie girl!” Sawyer yells as he picks Margot up and spins her around, not a care in the world about anyone or anything else.
I watch Gwen smile and snatch Margot’s drink before it goes flying. She places it safely on the bar, and I follow her eyes as they start darting every which way around the crowded room.
I look around to see if I can spot what she’s looking for until my eyes find hers again and they’re laser focused on me. Her lips perk up in a smirk as she drags the small straw across her bottom lip. I think I’m jealous of a straw.
Me. She was looking for me.
Any doubt that I’m right leaves my mind when she points a single finger at me and pulls it into herself, invisibly dragging me to her.
Oh, I’m fucked.