65. Chapter 65
“Drink up.”
She jumped at Billy’s raspy voice above her. Lindsey sat up, her unkempt hair spilling over her face and shoulders in an outer display of her inner turmoil. On the table was a round serving tray that followed the tiny blonde around the bar like one of her loyal subjects.
Lindsey swallowed a shot too weak to scorch through the word fiancée, and Billy slid into the other side of the booth.
“Jase filled me in,” Billy said. “My question for you is, why are you so bent out of shape about it?”
“If he told you everything then you should know.”
“The other one was your boyfriend.”
“And two days ago he dumped me for Helen.”
Billy shrugged. “Ancient history.”
“Excuse me?”
“Was he really yours?”
“What do you mean, was he really mine?”
“You know what I mean, honey. If he left you two days ago and is already engaged to some other babe, he was never yours to begin with,” Billy said. “Do you love him?”
Lindsey picked up a beer and glanced at Jase sitting at the bar as if the answer was written on the back of his black T-shirt.
Nope, just muscles visible underneath it. She shook her head. “Love doesn’t change anything.”
“Love changes everything. Look at me.”
Lindsey met the Demon’s eyes.
“You’re going to get your ass up and get the fuck over him.”
“It’s not that easy,” Lindsey complained. “You should know. You carried a torch for Jason after all these years.”
“Damn straight I did. He was the love of my life.”
Love of my life. Lindsey had given so much of herself to Graham for so little in return, she couldn’t fathom how much she would have to give to someone to be truly loved.
“This stays between us.” Billy leaned close to avoid Demon ears. “The last time the Kid didn’t come back, and I heard he’d taken up with some bitch back in Ohio, I went for a little ride. I was going to confront him and do whatever I had to do to make it right, understand?”
“What happened?” Lindsey asked.
Billy picked at the label on her bottle with a stubby nail. “I found them, together, coming out of some diner. There was something in the way he looked at her.” She paused, old pain in her eyes. “I thought I knew all his faces… He never looked at me that way. Not even on our best days.”
“Not even when things were great,” Lindsey mumbled to herself. Graham looked at Helen like he’d found his true leading lady. Lindsey had barely been an understudy. “I know what you mean.”
“I never had him,” Billy said after a drink. “Not like she did.”
“What’d you do?”
“I tucked tail and came back here. I knew no matter what I did I wasn’t going to change anything. And I loved him so fucking much I decided to let him keep his waitress, if she’s who he wanted. Clearly, he did.”
Her bangs covered any tears betrayed by her cracking voice.
Lindsey pointed to the tattoo on Billy’s forearm. “What does the pitchfork mean?”
“It means I’m the Devil. I’m untouchable. See, I didn’t have to become a Demon. I was born one. This was my dad’s bar. He died and I inherited the post. The pitchfork means all these assholes answer to me. I could snap my fingers, and they’d tear her limb from limb if you want.”
Lindsey sat back and said, “As enticing as it is, I just want this trip to be over.”
“Why stay? Why not just go home?” Billy asked.
“I tried to,” Lindsey said. “It probably sounds crazy, but I think Jason wanted me to stay. So here I am.”
“Not crazy at all if you knew him.”
“I didn’t know him for long, and he was sick for most of it.”
“The apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” Billy said with a sideways glance at Jase, who was deep in conversation with Curly. “Something to distract yourself with, at least. He looks like a good time.”
Lindsey raised a second shot to her lips. “You have no idea.”
Billy tipped her bottle in salute. “Damn, girl, get yourself as much of that as you can, while you can. Next time you blink he’ll be gone.”
I can’t believe she’s never been on a bike.
She hasn’t been with me for very long or we would’ve changed that.
The inconsequential, offhand remark to Curly made her wonder if things might’ve been different if they met another way, if they weren’t bound by this trip and she wasn’t Graham’s ex-girlfriend, but, of course, she was Graham’s ex, and she suspected the farthest ride most women got from Jase—regardless of who they were—was from bar to motel, and Lindsey didn’t want that, she wanted—
What, exactly? She didn’t know. They weren’t together and she’d never actually ride on the back of his bike. It wasn’t something she should want anyway, fresh off a breakup.
Still, something about his shoulder blades under his T-shirt, his easy smile as he talked to Curly, the way he held a bottle, how he touched my wrist to calm me down, lingered like the smell of his sweat on her skin.
She understood why women were drawn to a man so simple, so undeniably sexy, without the promise of tomorrow.
Why Billy fell hopelessly in love with Jason Young.
One night in his bed was worth the regretful goodbye in the morning. But two nights?
Two nights were begging for trouble.
“Come with me.” Billy stood and held out her hand. “I have a present for you.”