Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
S ky followed Kristina into the bar. It was busy. People-everywhere, couldn’t-hear-yourself-think kind of busy.
Her employee glanced over her shoulder. “Let’s find a table.”
Kristina had picked her up, and after the day she’d had, Sky was grateful, because it meant she could have a few drinks without worrying about driving home. Acupuncture had taken the edge off her anxiety, but the scent of smoke still lingered in the air around town, making that pit in her belly feel huge.
They did a circle of the bar, but every booth and table was taken.
“Maybe there’s a spot at the bar,” Sky suggested.
They were just turning when Sky spotted two women standing at a table.
Clara and her cousin Indie.
Clara grinned before waving Sky over.
Sky took Kristina’s hand. “This way. Come meet some of my friends.”
Well, technically it was just Clara who was her friend. She didn’t know Indie that well, but the woman seemed lovely.
“Hey,” Clara said, when Sky stopped at the table. She gestured to Indie. “Sky, you remember my cousin Indie.”
Sky smiled at the other woman. “I do. Hi.”
“It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.” Sky turned to Kristina. “This is Kristina. She works at the doggy daycare and is new to town.”
They exchanged greetings before Indie turned back to Sky. “Your ball was amazing. Did you raise a lot of money?”
“Thank you. We did, and I was so happy with how it went. The locals here in Amber Ridge are so generous when it comes to my fundraisers.”
“You do them often?” Indie asked.
“I do. The next one will be a dog wash fundraiser. I’m hoping to do it outside and get coffee and food trucks to come out. Make a real day of it. We have so many dog owners here in Amber Ridge.”
Kristina laughed. “You’re not wrong. I can’t believe how busy the doggy daycare gets.”
Clara bumped Sky’s hip. “And they all know you because you’ve built such a great business.”
“I’m very lucky the people in our town trust me with their dogs.” She studied the empty table. “No cocktails yet?”
“We just barely got the table.” Indie laughed.
“Well, first round’s on me.”
Half an hour later, they had two jugs of strawberry mojitos in the center of the table, and Sky was already into her second glass.
“So, where have you come from, Kristina?” Clara asked.
“Connecticut. I liked it there, but I needed a fresh start and to do something new, so here I am.” She sipped her drink before looking at Clara. “And you’re an acupuncturist?”
“I am. And I will tell anyone who’ll listen all about acupuncture’s healing powers.”
“She’s a bit like that dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding who believes Windex fixes everything,” Indie said. “But her Windex is acupuncture.”
Kristina laughed. “How’d you get into that?”
“Well, I was a lawyer, but then I got sick—cancer—and it kind of changed my whole life.”
Sky’s fingers tightened around her glass. Clara had shared that information with her a few months into their acupuncture appointments. She’d had stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and gone through chemotherapy. She couldn’t even imagine how hard that would have been for Clara.
Kristina straightened. “Oh my God, I’m sorry.”
Clara dipped her head. “Thank you. I lived in New York, and to say my job as a lawyer was stressful would be an understatement. Then I was diagnosed and it was like, ‘What am I doing? I don’t enjoy this. And I miss my mom and Amber Ridge and having time to take care of myself. Why am I wasting time that might be cut off tomorrow, living a life I don’t love?’ It was the reminder I needed that we don’t live forever, so I have to make every day count.”
“You’re okay now though, aren’t you?” Sky clarified.
“I’m okay now. I still get a lot of fatigue, and I get annual checks to make sure the cancer’s still gone.”
Indie slid an arm around Clara’s shoulders. “You kicked cancer’s ass!”
“Hell yes, I did.”
“And thank God you moved back. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
“You don’t have any siblings?” Sky asked.
“My brother’s in the military and my sister lives in San Francisco.” Something crossed over Indie’s face. “I’m not close with my sister.”
Clara gave her cousin a gentle smile before her gaze homed in on something behind Sky. She sucked in a breath and straightened.
Sky looked over her shoulder and spotted a man. He was tall. Probably as tall as Becket, and he had the same broad shoulders and thick arms. She’d seen him before…at the fundraiser ball.
She looked back at Clara. “That’s Jesse’s friend, right?”
Clara cleared her throat. “His best friend, Holden. He’s a family friend, too.”
Indie leaned forward. “Clara gets a little nervous around him.”
“I do. I turn into a gigantic mess of nerves and can’t say the right thing to save my life!” Clara groaned. “He’s just so tall and beautiful, and he smells like peppermint and pine. And when he talks, his voice is this deep, gravelly—”
“Clara.”
She stopped talking and looked at her cousin.
“Tell him how you feel.”
Clara opened her mouth, clearly trying to say something, before snapping her lips shut. Then mumbling, “Maybe.”
Sky glanced over her shoulder again—and this time it was her back that straightened. Because now, Holden wasn’t alone. A guy with blond hair stood beside him…and Becket, who was looking right at her.
Her heart started to thump faster. Hard thumps that also quickened her breathing.
He wore a tight white shirt that made his biceps look even thicker, and the muscles in his chest stretched the material. But the thing that really stole her attention was his lips. Full red lips that just a few nights ago, had been kissing her.
She forced her gaze away.
“Oh no…” Clara inched closer. “I apologize in advance about my brother.”
Sky could only nod.
She told herself not to look again, but her damn body had no self-restraint. She turned her head—and gasped to find Becket standing right beside her.
“Hi, Peaches.” He slid an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek, as if he’d done it a thousand times before.
She couldn’t breathe. He was so big and warm, and he smelled so good. But what the hell was he doing? They weren’t supposed to fake date in front of everyone . Were they? They hadn’t discussed it. God, why hadn’t they discussed it?
She subtly elbowed him in the gut, but he didn’t even flinch.
Clara’s mouth opened and closed. “Um…why is your arm around Sky? And did you just kiss her?”
“We’re dating,” Becket said before she could say anything.
A thick silence surrounded the table. Even Holden, who’d moved around to stand on the other side of Clara, looked like someone had just dropped a bomb on him.
“You are not,” Clara finally said. “You hate each other.”
“I have never hated Sky,” Becket said, sounding completely sincere.
“Um…will you excuse us for a second?” Sky grabbed Becket’s arm and led him away. She waited until they reached the bar before spinning on him. “What the hell are you doing?”
“It’s a small town. It’s safer for everyone to think we’re dating so the truth doesn’t get back to your parents.”
“Safer? You think it’s safer to keep up this charade in front of everyone, including your family, who knows you would never date me?”
One side of his mouth lifted, and dammit, even that was sexy. “If my family thinks I wouldn’t date someone as beautiful as you, they don’t know me very well.”
Her mouth went dry. He’d just called her beautiful. And why the hell did it make her belly give a funny kick?
“I just…” She shook her head. “I think it will be too hard to keep up the facade in front of everyone.”
“Really?” He slid his arm around her waist again. “Was it hard to kiss me the other night?”
Every hair on her arms stood on end at his breath whispering across her skin. Too close. His mouth was too close. “Well…I mean…it wasn’t hard , but it wasn’t easy.”
Ha. What hadn’t been easy was ending the kiss. Walking away from him.
His mouth lowered to her ear, and his single word came out as a breathy whisper. “Liar.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. She was a liar.
“I’m doing this for you, Peaches. For the benefit of your parents and Tony. But say the word and I’ll tell them the truth.”
Her heart started to beat faster. She should tell him they were done. That this was over. But the words wouldn’t come out.
“Sky.”
Her head swung around to find Clara standing beside them.
Clara’s gaze flickered between them before returning to her. “Is everything okay?”
Becket’s arm tightened around her, his thumb slipping beneath the band of her jeans and swiping her skin.
The two words fell from her lips into the air. “We’re dating.”
* * *
Becket lifted his beer to his mouth, his gaze returning to Sky for the fiftieth fucking time.
The women were working their way through their fifth jug of cocktail, and CJ did not hold back on the rum. He’d never thought of himself as a possessive guy, but right now, he wanted to march right over there, wrap his arm around her waist, and drag her out of the bar.
“Shit. You really are into her.”
Becket shifted his gaze from Sky to Holden. Teddy had gone up to the bar with Sky’s friend, and so far hadn’t worked his way back to them.
“You sound surprised,” Becket said.
Holden scoffed. “Uh, you made it sound like she was one argument away from murdering you in your sleep.”
Becket grinned. “She probably still is.”
“When did this happen?”
“At the ball.”
There was a beat of silence. “When you were dancing? I was waiting for one of you to throw a drink at the other.”
Becket laughed. He was also surprised that hadn’t happened.
Sky glanced over and sent him a tight smile that said, “stop staring at me, you creep,” before looking back at her friends.
He bit back another laugh before turning to Holden. “How’s the woodworking going?”
Holden had bought a place in the mountains with a shed big enough to function as a workshop for his woodworking business. And he was damn good at it. He could make everything from dressers to an entire new kitchen.
“It’s going well. Word’s getting around town about what I can do, so there’s been plenty of work.”
“Good. And you’re enjoying it here?”
“I am. It feels like home.” His gaze returned to something across the room.
Becket followed his gaze to Clara. The two had always stared at each other more than either probably realized. They liked each other. That much was obvious. But as far as Becket knew, neither had ever made a move. Because Jesse was Holden’s best friend?
Well, what was the point in dancing around the topic?
“Is there something going on with you and my sister?”
Holden’s gaze flew back to Becket. “What?”
“You’ve been watching her a lot lately.”
“I’ve just been worried about her. She pushes herself too hard and does too much.”
“I’ve been worried about her too,” Becket said, voice low, even though she wasn’t close enough to hear. “She’s got this ‘experience life’ mantra, and it’s not always a good thing, but I can’t tell her that because—”
“She wants people to think she can take care of herself,” Holden cut in.
“Yeah.”
Emotions flickered in Holden’s eyes. Concern and something else…fear? “It’s not a bad thing to have people looking out for you.”
“You’re right. But she doesn’t want people to think she’s not strong enough to do it herself.”
“Not strong enough? She’s the strongest person I know. But she was sick, so she needs to be careful that she doesn’t push herself too hard.”
Becket studied him. Was this just about Clara? Holden had been raised by his mother until she’d gotten sick when he was a teenager—lung cancer—and passed away not long after. Jesse had mentioned that her death had affected Holden on a deeper level than most. Partly because she’d been his only family, and he’d gone into foster care after she’d passed. And partly because she’d been sick for so long before she died that it had consumed his life.
Suddenly, Holden straightened. “Where’d they go?”
Becket’s gaze shot back to the table—empty. Shit. He’d been planning on driving Sky home.
He glanced over at the bar to see Sky’s friend and Teddy still talking. They stood close, Teddy’s hand on her hip.
He crossed over to them. “Hey. Do you know where the women went?”
Her brows rose. “Yeah, they came over and said they were heading home. I said I’d stay.”
Who the fuck was driving? They’d all been drinking.
He beelined for the door, Holden close behind. They found the women in the parking lot by Clara’s car.
“Leaving?” Becket asked.
“We are,” Clara said far too casually. “Why?”
“We’ll take you guys home,” Holden said.
“I hardly drank anything.” Clara cocked her head. “You really think I’d drive drunk?”
Holden stepped closer. “I just think it’s safer for me to drive you.”
“I’m really okay. But thank you.” She slid behind the wheel.
“She’s fine to drive,” Indie said before jumping into the passenger seat.
“Sky,” Becket said, a warning in his voice. “I can take you home.”
A half smile curved her lips. “Thank you, boyfriend . But no thanks.”
“Honey, we live next door to each other.”
“Oh, I know. There’s been no avoiding you. Tell me the truth—did the last owner leave because of you?”
His lips twitched. “Let me take you home.”
“Pizza.”
Becket frowned. “Pizza?”
Clara rolled down the window. “We ordered a pizza from Burt.”
“His pizza stinks,” Holden said, frustration still brimming in his eyes.
“Not after a few drinks,” Sky sang.
Oh, Jesus.
“I’ll take you to pick up your pizza,” Becket pushed.
“You’re cute, but I choose Clara.” Then she leaned against him, rose to her toes and whispered, “Safer option.”
His back teeth ground together. He didn’t seem to have a fucking choice. “Fine. Straight home after the pizza.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “Oh, dang. Ruined my plans of bar hopping until we find a biker gang.”
Sky pecked a kiss to his cheek. “See you later, honey .”
He had to watch as she slid into the back seat of the car before Clara drove away.
Holden moved up beside him. “I’ll follow them. You wait for Sky at home.”
Thank fuck they were on the same page. Some might call it overprotective. Becket didn’t give a damn.
“Thanks.” He clenched Holden’s shoulder in gratitude before moving to his car.
The trip home was quick, and once inside, he kicked off his shoes and waited.
It didn’t take long. Fifteen minutes later, his phone buzzed with a text.
Holden: She’s getting dropped off now.
Good. He’d give her a few minutes before checking on her.
But only a minute passed before a scratching noise sounded at his door.
What the hell was that?