Chapter 21
LANEY
" Y ou know that drink works better if you consume it," Syd taunts, gesturing toward my full glass.
I smile sweetly and take a drink. "Happy?"
"Um, that would be a no." She sets down her glass. "Lanes…" she draws out my nickname. "Come on, it's time for shots. I tried the whole take-it-slow, this-is-a-marathon-not-a-sprint approach, but you need to get drunker faster and get out of your head."
I absentmindedly swipe my phone open, and she steals it. "Hey, I need that," I whine.
"No, what you need is sitting right in front of you. You need to take the edge off, and besides, you didn't mention the exchange of numbers after your little bike ride home, so any number that could flash across this screen isn't one you need to worry about."
I take a long pull of my drink, letting the liquid burn down my throat.
Between the conversation I had with Noah and riding home on the back of London's bike, my head has been a mess, and I've been struggling to focus.
Noah's uncharacteristic silence is still gnawing at the recesses of my mind.
He's never shied away from overstepping and voicing his thoughts.
But after our talk…nothing. And the words he did give me felt measured.
It could be the conversation I had with Asha and Sydney prior ab out his potential ulterior motives that has me overthinking all of it.
Still, it remains on my mind, nonetheless.
Then there's London. His contradictions are giving me emotional whiplash.
One moment, he's reminding me of his desire for me to leave town, practically shoving me out, and the next, there's something magnetic pulling us back together, something that makes my skin prickle with awareness whenever he's near.
His dark eyes...they tell a different story than his words.
Behind his steely onyx gaze, I catch glimpses of regret, of something that looks like an apology he can't bring himself to voice.
I know what happened between us. Out of all the people he could talk to in the world, I'm the one who could understand, the one who wants nothing more than to be his rock, but still, he pushes me away.
I don't know what could be so terrible that he'd rather push me away than simply tell me the truth.
"Can I get two shots of your house bourbon, please?" Sydney asks the bartender with a bit of extra sugar in her tone.
"Yes, ma'am," the bartender replies smoothly, his green eyes holding hers a beat longer than necessary before his lips quirk into an easy smile.
"Is he flirting with me, or have I just been out of the game too long?"
"He most definitely noticed you," I confirm.
"Well, we might have to stay at this bar long enough for me to get a number.
Did you see his eyelashes? I wouldn't be mad waking up next to that face for a long time," Sydney jokes.
"But back to this." She waves her hand in front of my face.
"You look sexy as fuck tonight, and your conversation with Noah the other night went to plan.
You did what's always been on your heart, and he may not see it now, but you did him a favor. "
I can't help but roll my eyes. She's exaggerating, and I know she's trying to make light of something heavy, but it doesn't change the bombshell he did give me.
"He wanted me to go home with him so we could live together," I remind her. "You realize, in his world, where he lives in the public eye, that's basically courtship. He was ready to take things to the next level."
"Again, that's not on you, Laney. Have you been walking a fine line between friends and lovers for some time?
Maybe the two of you were off more than you were ever on, and we both know when you were off, he wasn't keeping his hands to himself.
" She pauses to take a drink of her old-fashioned, swirling the contents in her glass before adding, "Hell, his silence could have been because he was waiting for you to leave faster so he could call his back-burner chick.
We all know she exists. It's only her name that changes every few months. "
"I didn't ask him to stay celibate," I point out.
"I get that, but if he were serious about taking things to the next level, he wouldn't have been getting his dick wet elsewhere. Period."
"Two shots of Greenbrooke Reserve for the ladies," the bartender says as he slides our shots across the bar top.
"Where's mine?" Asha says, returning from the restroom.
"Sorry, can you bring us one more?" Sydney asks, this time leaning onto the bar to give him a better view of her cleavage.
I roll my lips to stifle a smile. She totally ordered two instead of three intentionally.
His eyes flick between her and Asha before settling back on her with a slow, sexy smile. "Coming right up."
"What did I miss?" Asha asks, pulling out a barstool to my right.
"I'm getting Laney drunk so she stops feeling bad about breaking off her engagement to Noah," Sydney exaggerates.
"Oh my god, you are being so dramatic." I slap her arm.
"Come on, it's time to let loose and celebrate."
"What exactly are we celebrating?"
She slaps the bar. "Summer and this delightful bar," she purrs, scanning the room. "Which is filled with hot men, in case the two of you haven't noticed."
"I'll be your wingman. It looks like Laney is about to have her hands full with a cowboy," Asha says, and I follow her gaze and find Trigg walking through the front doors with Fisher.
"One extra shot," the bartender slides Asha's third beside the two he brought seconds ago.
"Here's to getting back in the saddle and riding cowboys," Sydney cheers.
"Or two," Asha says with a wink, and we all toss our shots back.
"Remind me what the deal is between the two of you again?" Sydney leans in close so only I can hear.
We've discussed numerous topics over the past few days, and while Trigg has come up in conversation, it has been strictly in a platonic context.
She knows the essentials, how Trigg and I first met, his initial interest in me, and his connection as London's brother.
But unpacking all of that was complicated enough without revealing the deeper, more tangled layers.
"We're friends," I say with a casual shrug.
I haven't told her that Trigg and Asha are essentially using me as their unwitting double agent, each trying to extract information about the other through me.
I have no plans of giving that information up anytime soon.
While I've been pulled into Asha and Trigg's drama, it's not mine, and right now, I'm not even sure I plan on sharing the details I learn with them.
During my conversation with London outside the coffee shop, he inadvertently confirmed what I'd been suspecting from the start when he said, "Marrying Asha would hurt Trigg. " There's something between them.
"Uh-huh," she says knowingly. "If I thought you were a kinky bitch, I might buy that, but that's the extent of my lecturing for the night." She peers around me. "Asha, what's the next stop? Do any of these places have dancing?"
"Dancing?" Trigg questions, leaning onto the back of my stool.
"Yeah, cowboy, you know a spot?" Syd's amber eyes sparkle with mischief. I love this side of Sydney. The carefree girl who just wants to have fun.
"Actually, I do, but we'd have to skip a few stops to get there," Trigg answers smoothly.
"Yes!" Sydney stomps her feet happily. "I just need to grab a number, and we're out." She turns around, looking for her bartender.
"And whose number is that exactly?" Fisher queries, rubbing his chin and sizing up the men in the vicinity.
"The hot bartender," Asha supplies.
"Jeremiah Greenbrooke? Nope, you can't date the competition," Trigg tosses in as though he has any say in the matter.
"Wait, Greenbrooke… He's an owner?" She taps a manicured nail on the bar top as she thinks it over. "Nah, doesn't bother me, and he's not my competition." She waves him down, and Fisher rolls his eyes.
"How is he competition?" I throw over my shoulder to Trigg. "We're at a bourbon bar."
"Guess you'll find out soon enough," he says ominously before turning to Asha. "Fairfield," he greets sardonically.
Her eyes narrow, fuming with madness, but she doesn't say anything back. Instead, she says, "I'll be in the car."
"No Dallas tonight?" I question casually.
"Nope, he had to work," Trigg confirms.
"It's Saturday night," I remind him.
"I'm aware." Then, with his lips next to my ear, his breath breaking over my skin, sending a chill down my spine, he says, "Careful, Laney. Keep that up, and I might think you miss him."
I don't bother giving him a reaction. Trigg knows we have history, and the more he thinks I care, the better.
He doesn't need to know how deeply it's true.
He asked me to un-break his brother's heart when he cornered me into doing his bidding.
I'm not sure I can do that. Regardless, pleasing him helps me gather more of the missing pieces, so I leave it.
"I'm going to go wait with Asha," I say, getting off my stool .
"Wait." He grasps my elbow. "Does she really think I'm that bad?"
For a fleeting moment, his armor cracks. Beneath that arrogant facade, tight lips, and smoldering gaze, I get a glimpse of something raw and unguarded: vulnerability. I know what it's like to wear a mask and pretend as though you feel nothing.
"She doesn't talk about you, Trigg," I say, meeting his eyes. "So, you tell me."
A muscle twitches above his right eye; it's subtle, but I catch it.
He may have preferred I tell him all the reasons she hates him as opposed to not being a thought.
But I won't manufacture comfortable lies.
Asha has shared very little about their tangled past, and I'm trying hard not to pry, to stay neutral in this war between them, because I think whatever started it is unfinished.
This endless feud isn't driven by hate but rather by the phantom pain of what could have been.