Chapter 2 Austin
austin
“What’s up with you?” Onyx asked, taking a seat next to me on the bench in the park after our morning run.
“Nothing,” I mumbled. The cold morning air and five-mile run had done nothing to help out with the thrumming energy I hadn’t been able to shake off since two nights ago, when my life had blown up in my face.
Elizabeth.
“Hmm…” he grunted. The intuitive motherfucker knew something was up. I looked up from my water bottle only to connect with the asshole’s assessing dark eyes.
“What?” I asked, trying to bat away the guilt I felt at keeping something from him. I’d never kept anything from anyone. Shit, I was an open book. Until some gorgeous brunette with the prettiest lips screwed up my head.
“You know…” he said slowly, catching his breath, “when my sisters say nothing is wrong, it usually means something is wrong.”
“That’s women for you,” I muttered, running my fingers through my sweaty hair.
I needed a cut. The auburn strands were a little overgrown on top, and my jaw was too scruffy since I’d been up and moving every damn morning way too early, all to catch sight of the woman who’d messed me up going for her daily run.
“Men, too.”
“Yeah,” I agreed way too easily. “Last couple months, you kept saying nothing was wrong, but it turned out you were in love and waiting around with a finger up your ass to make a move on Kandy,” I pointed out, and when he frowned, I cracked a smile.
“Were we not talking about you?” He rolled his eyes.
“I had my reasons,” he muttered. I had no idea why the hell he’d waited so long, putting himself and his poor kitchen through hell with endless coats of paint his now soon-to-be wife had mixed for him.
But who was I to say anything?
Kandy was perfect for my best friend, and I was genuinely happy for him.
“And because I had my reasons, I’m guessing you have yours, too?” he asked, his gaze skating across the street from the bench we were sitting on, homing right in on the very woman who had made sleep unbearable.
“How they hell did you—“
“I love you, Austin. You’re my brother from another mother to me. Both you and Bash are, but you’re not subtle, man.” He chuckled softly. “So… who is she?”
“Elizabeth,” I answered. “Local,” I added and didn’t miss the surprise in his gaze.
“Interesting.” His eyes moved back to where she was. Scrolling on her phone, a green drink next to her as she read whatever she’d written in a journal. “Wait, didn’t we go to school with her?” he asked, and something inside of me bristled.
Did he date her? Kiss her? Touch her? Held her hand? I knew myself. I wouldn’t care that we had a lifelong friendship; I’d punch him right here and now. I grunted my response, and he rolled his eyes.
“Relax. You know everyone I hooked up with in high school… Plus, you know high school was decades ago.”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “If I told you I kissed Kandy or even thought about her—“ Of course, he didn’t let me finish my sentence before he waved his hands in front of him.
“Okay, okay, okay. I get it. Point made.” He sat back, spreading his legs further. “So, what is it? You don’t… like her, like her, do you?”
“I think I’m in love,” I replied gravely, the tone dire, like I’d just told him I had some kind of terminal illness.
“Wha—“ he started to say with a shit-eating grin, but when he studied me, it died on his face. “Shit. You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack.” I swallowed and watched him open and shut his mouth at least twice before he looked at the woman who had screwed me up. If I weren’t feeling like I had somehow fallen into a deep-ass hole, I would have found his little goldfish impression amusing.
“Wait… what’s the problem, then?”
“Other than the fact I’m a cursed motherfucker who shouldn’t touch her?”
“Sure, let’s start there.”
“How about the fact I gave her my number two nights ago, and she hasn’t called me,” I shared, watching from afar as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Shit. My hands clenched at my sides. I wanted to do that for her.
Elizabeth kept staring at the journal until she put it down and picked up her phone.
Something in my gut twisted. Was she chatting with someone?
Doomscrolling? Swiping up and down for a date?
“You gave her your number, and she didn’t call you?”
“Yup.” The p popped for dramatic effect. “When I introduced myself at Marie’s and she told me she wasn’t interested and looked right through me,” I continued, knowing just how much it was going to cost me.
“What?” Shock ran through Onyx’ voice.
“And then proceeded to tell me if I was looking for some strange, she wasn’t it.”
“Strange—“
“Pussy.”
“Fuck,” he cursed, but I could see his gaze light up with amusement.
“Right.”
“But you still gave her your number?”
“After dancing with her all night long. At Marie’s. Until they closed.”
“And you didn’t… try anything?”
“Like take her home?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Nope.” I still regretted not moving in when it had been evident she wanted to kiss me.
“Maybe that’s why?” he tossed out.
“What?” I asked, glancing at the man next to me. Onyx shrugged.
“Look, as someone who’s known you for a long time—"
“Just spit it out.”
“You’ve never had anyone tell you no. You’re the baby of four brothers, the youngest of us at the brewery. You’ve had it… easy. Especially with women.”
“Onyx—“
“I’m just saying, maybe that’s what this pull you think you’re feeling is? You just gotta go talk to someone else, and you’ll move on. How many times have you said you’re not a relationship guy?”
“I could be,” I argued for some godforsaken reason. Every waking moment and a lot of the ones asleep, I’d been turning that over in my head. Onyx nodded in agreement.
“You’re right; you could be. I’ve never thought otherwise.” I found myself a little vulnerable.
“Even with… the curse?” I asked, knowing just how fucking stupid it sounded. Not that Onyx, or even Bash if he were here, would have judged.
“Austin, we’re grown-ups, man. You have to know that damn curse is crap.”
“You’re not the first one to say that this week,” I muttered.
“Didn’t you say that to Merri when he met Scar?” He tossed my own well-meaning words back at me.
“I mean…” I shrugged and winced. “You know I did. And they’re good together.”
“I know they are.” He smiled gently. “Talking seriously about this family thing of yours, I’ve always said this.
Curses aren’t real.” I opened my mouth, but I shut it when he gave me a look.
“They’re not. Curses are not real, no matter how much you might think they are,” he double-downed.
“Shit happens. And I’m sorry crap happened to your grandfather and pop and uncle.
But you guys, you and your brothers, shit, even your dumbass cousins, are different. ”
“I don’t know, man.” I rolled my neck and stretched my legs out, trying not to stare in Elizabeth’s direction.
“Well… if you need anything, you know I’m around.”
“Thanks. You going home to Kandy?”
“You know it.” He stood and hesitated when he looked back at me. “You know you are more than capable of having a relationship of your own, right?”
“Sure.”
“I’m serious.”
“But?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
“Maybe quit with the weird stalker crap and just go talk to her?” he suggested with a wave goodbye.
“Quit with the stalker crap,” I repeated under my breath.
If he only knew the shit my brother Merri was up to with Scarlett, he’d get this was nothing when it came to stalking.
Even married and with a kid, my brother was obsessed with his wife.
And she loved it, too. I’d seen her walking around town pretending like she had no idea he was only a couple of steps behind her.
People were weird. Love made you do all sorts of odd-ball things.
Speaking of love, I swallowed and stood the moment I watched Elizabeth do the same. I couldn’t seem to stay away from her as she got up and started to walk down the main area of Moonlit Pines.
As I followed her, I kept distance between us.
I watched her stop at the flower shop and look in the window then pick up and smell a couple of the small bouquets that were on a rack outside the shop.
Liz even walked in, and for some god forsaken reason, I couldn’t stop myself from following her inside, where I pretended to be captivated by some kind of tropical plant.
My jaw clenched, and I had to stop myself from approaching or stopping her when she got way too fucking close to some cactus-like plant and let her dainty little fingers hover right over the pokers. Fuck, she was a curious little thing.
The rest of the day went much the same.
Keeping my distance, never making eye contact or approaching her. Even as I followed her back home. It was like I couldn’t help myself. After getting home from the bar that first night, I did what any sane person would do: I looked her up online.
Scoped out her social media accounts. Hers and her friends and family’s. People who had tagged her to see if I could find anything and everything. By four in the morning, I was voracious for every little detail. Starving for more with an insatiable hunger.
It still shocked the hell out of me just how much of an imprint of our lives we left out for the public to find.
Moonlit Pines turned out to be a smaller place than I had even known.
My best friend’s woman was best friends with Elizabeth’s youngest sister, an up-and-coming influencer I’d seen around town who had even shot content at the brewery.
Liz walked into her place, stopping at her door before glancing over her shoulder.
My body dipped inside my truck to avoid making eye contact.
She stared out and then turned. There was a hitch in her shoulders before she squared them just a moment before she opened her front door, almost like she was trying to will herself to step inside.
“What are you afraid of, beautiful girl?” I asked into the empty truck and hated that the door shut behind her.
My phone buzzed on my knee. I didn’t have to look down to know it was more than likely Bash or Onyx trying to figure out where the hell I was.
I was an hour late for my shift, but I couldn’t get myself to move.
“You have to,” I scolded myself. “You gotta go. You can come back.” Clearly, I’d lost my mind since I was talking to myself and planning on doing shit that would more than likely end up with me getting arrested.
Yet knowing that, knowing I’d be completely distracted at work by my sweet nurse of mercy, I left and headed to the brewery.
Knowing the entire time, I was completely and utterly fucked and in love with a woman who couldn’t even be bothered to text me.