Chapter 11
DELANEY
“You’re wearing normal socks.”
Of all the stupid things to say first. With a few vodka sodas under my belt, though, it wasn’t surprising.
Despite myself, I’d been tuned up all night, knowing I would see Parker again.
At least I didn’t say what had run through my head when we walked into O’Malley’s and I first saw him.
Making out with him was not on my to-do list tonight, even if I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“Every once in a while I like to mix it up.”
Pia and Mason were already heading to the dance floor as Jules found someone she knew at the other end of the bar.
“Help yourself,” he said of the empty seat next to him. “Mason won’t be back anytime soon.”
I sat. “He just doesn’t seem the dancing type to me.”
“Agreed. But I guess even big, tough military guys like to cut a rug every once in a while.”
“Sup, Delaney?” Beck interrupted us. “What can I get you?”
“Hi, Beck. Vodka soda. Tito’s, please.”
“Splash of cran?”
“Sure, why not.”
“Coming up.”
Parker’s hand wrapped around his beer bottle. His hands were big. Strong, I assumed, from working with them every day.
I swallowed, reminding myself for the umpteenth time today… no dating.
“So I hear the two of you have a history?”
Laughing, I tried to imagine what Beck had told him. “Hardly. We were”—I used air quotes—“boyfriend and girlfriend in middle school. Never even kissed. Beck,” I said as my old friend delivered the vodka soda, “was too much of a chicken shit to attempt it.”
“Hey,” Beck said as Parker quietly tapped the money in front of him and Beck took my drink payment, “it takes two to tango, Miss Delaney.”
“As if I would have ever attempted it. You know me better than that.”
Beck turned to Parker. “Delaney is much too nice. She’s like the female version of you, actually.”
“I’d say you got off easy,” Parker said to me.
“Oh, by high school, he found his groove alright. Thankfully, we just stayed friends.”
“Uh,” Beck said, as if wounded. “I would have made a great boyfriend.”
Smiling, I pulled the drink toward me. “I think we have different definitions of what a great boyfriend is.”
Beck winked and moved off to serve drinks.
“What’s your definition of one?” Parker asked, still smiling.
I thought about that for a second. “Honestly? This is going to sound really negative, and I hate to be negative. It puts bad ju-ju into the universe.”
“Hit me.”
“A non-existent one,” I said, the answer too easy.
“He was that bad?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “He was that bad. I mean, not at first, obviously.”
“Tell me.”
“Nah,” I said as a new song started. I peeked onto the dance floor but couldn’t see Pia or Mason. “I don’t want to be a cliché, talking about the ex.”
“Tell me,” he said again. If he’d said it more firmly, the words would have sounded like a command. But his tone wasn’t like that. Parker said it gently, as if he really wanted to hear.
I looked into his eyes. There was nothing there but kindness. If it was an act, it was a damn good one.
Here went nothing. “For the first few months, he was amazing. Told me everything a woman wants to hear. ‘I never met anyone like you’ and stuff like that. Then things began to cool off. He was busier and busier, just… didn’t really prioritize our relationship.
Eventually he broke up with me, and just when I was starting to feel okay, he came back.
Said he’d made a mistake. And the whole thing started all over again.
That’s the worst of it, falling for his shit twice. I feel like a complete idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot. Love does funny things to people.”
“That’s the thing. When I think back, I don’t even know if I loved him or was just addicted to him.
I would think love was reciprocal, and more and more I’m realizing the only person he truly loved was himself.
” That was enough. No more ex talk. I changed the subject.
“What about you? Have you ever been in love?”
“Twice,” Parker said, quickly enough that I knew he’d given it some thought. “College girlfriend. And then again a few years later.”
“So what happened?”
Parker inhaled, got a faraway look into those hazel eyes of his. “College happened, the first time. We both sort of realized it was too soon to settle down with one person. It was only junior year, and there was a lot of partying to do. It was pretty amicable, actually.”
Of course it was. I had a hard time seeing Parker not amicable with anyone.
“The second time was a little messier. It was just after I’d moved to Cedar Falls that I met her, and we started dating.
She was from Oakridge and in town wine tasting with friends when we met.
Did the long-distance thing for a while, but her mother owned a dental practice there, and she was poised to take it over which meant she wasn’t moving.
She was ready to settle down, get engaged and all that. ”
“And you weren’t?”
“Not sure if I’ll ever be.”
Ouch. “Bachelor pact and all?”
Conversation buzzed around us. Music played from the other side of the bar. But for all intents and purposes, it might as well just have been the two of us, I was so engrossed in talking to him.
“That wouldn’t stop me, obviously. But I took it for a reason.”
“Being?”
He’d been staring at his beer. Parker’s head jolted up.
Shit. I pushed too hard. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to?—”
“My dad cheated. Multiple times. Tore apart my mother. Ripped up the family. Everyone was completely shocked. Mom and Dad had been the perfect couple.” He frowned. “Perfect except for the fact that Dad had led a double, secret life for longer than anyone could have realized.”
“Oh, man, that’s awful.”
“The fact that he came to town to visit and ended up”—Parker smiled—“getting that prescription after meeting a woman out at a bar the night before?” He shrugged like it was no big deal, but I could tell it was a huge deal. “Is very… him.”
“Well.” I lifted my glass. “Here’s to shit relationships. May we not repeat them.”
Parker clinked his bottle to my glass.
“What are you guys toasting to?” Pia asked as she and Mason came up to us from behind.
“You won’t like it if I told you,” I said, turning in my seat. “I think I stole this from you,” I said, prepared to get up.
“No, stay. We’re good.” Mason gestured to Beck, who came immediately over. “Round for everyone. Where’s Jules?”
“Over there,” I said. She stood between two women, both of whom were locals.
“No. Fucking. Way.”
All of us, myself included, followed Mason’s gaze toward the front of the bar.
Cole Ford.
Not surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones watching him come toward us.
If every single woman at the bar wasn’t already looking at Beck or our group—Mason and Parker made quite a pair—they were now watching Cedar Falls’ golden boy.
It was an ironic nickname since he’d moved away during his freshman year.
And his hair was anything but golden. Actually, he was the only one of all four of the guys with black hair and a dark pair of glasses to match.
I couldn’t remember how the name started, but it had followed him through elementary and middle school. Even I knew of Cole Ford, and he was a few years ahead of me, like the others.
“You fucker,” Mason said, standing as Cole reached the group.
Pia and I exchanged a glance as the guys hugged and greeted each other. Even Beck came from around the bar.
“It’s like the Lost Boys,” she said. “Finding each other.”
They really did make quite a quartet of men.
“Hi, Pia,” Cole said. His voice was low. Gravely. The kind of voice that belonged on the radio or narrating a book.
“Hi, Cole,” she said back.
He looked at me. “Delaney Thorton. Good to see you.”
“Same,” I said. “Guess the guys didn’t know you were coming in?”
“Nope.” He moved to stand beside Mason as Beck returned behind the bar. “It was a last-minute thing.”
“Not the first time you’ve surprised us last minute,” Parker said. “City too boring for you? Missing Cedar Falls?”
“More to it than that. I’ll tell you later.”
Mason’s brows drew together. He was clearly confused, and maybe a little concerned. Pia’s tough guy really did have a kind heart, not that he let many people see it.
“Everything okay?” Parker asked.
Cole nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Best Scotch we have.” Beck handed a drink to Parker, who handed it to Cole. “On the house.”
“Guess I can’t complain about the quality of O’Malley’s best Scotch if it’s on the house.” Cole lifted his glass. “Thanks, Beck.”
“Anytime.”
As Cole talked to the group, Parker and I exchanged a glance. We’d been having a great conversation, even if it was on the serious side.
“Do you dance?” he mouthed, pointing to the dance floor.
It was a slow song, and as much as I wanted to continue our conversation, there was a part of me that knew having Parker’s hands on me would be dangerous.
So why did my head nod?
He got up.
I followed. Ignoring Pia’s look. Ignoring my racing heart. Ignoring the warning bells blaring in my head, telling me to run back to the bar, back to safety.
Before I knew it, my feet stepped onto the wooden floor in front of the band, and I was in Parker’s arms.