Chapter 18 Pike #2
She drops one last kiss on the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got this,” she whispers. “Relax.”
It’s nearly impossible with her lipstick lightly smudged from my own mouth. I probably look like someone whacked me upside the head.
Jax pockets his favorite chocolate candy and pulls Skylar to him. “Done eating? How about a dance?”
Skylar’s mouth forms a small O as she takes in Pretty Boy Jax’s hands on her waist. Mm-hmm. I’ve heard countless men and women wax poetic about his startling green eyes and soft, sensual lips. But does that mean I want Skylar looking at him like that? Hell no.
“I could dance,” she says.
Not with him. I want Skylar to dance with me. I reach for my cane, but it’s gone. Macken twirls it like a baton, dangerously close to smacking everyone in his vicinity.
I scowl. “Give me that.”
“Brandon Pike is back,” he drawls, throwing my cane in the air. It seems to move in slow motion, and my only thought is that it’s going to strike Skylar in the face.
I jump for it, but the shaft smacks my knuckles, and the jolt sends a sharp pain through my hip as I stagger to catch my balance.
Gritting my teeth, I bend stiffly to grab the cane. “Never touch my cane again.”
“I’m just having fun.”
“I need that to walk.”
“I was going to give it back, bro.”
“Never. Touch. My cane. Again.”
“Chill, Pike.” Macken turns back to the crowd. “Who’s buying me a drink?”
My fist stays clenched around the handle.
Macken’s always messed around, but this is different.
In the hospital, he used to play with the bed controls, raising and lowering me and doing all sorts of annoying shit.
But trying to get your friend to change his personality so he doesn’t fuck up your recovery is harder than it sounds.
“Oh wow, you really are Brandon Pike!” A woman thrusts a napkin in my face, her number scrawled with hearts. “I cried when you had your accident!”
“Pike?” Grace draws my attention away from the fan.
I slide into the seat across from her. Grace is the glue that’s always kept our crew together.
As the only woman until Luce, she’s put up with a lot.
She’s seen each of us in the buff a hundred times, purely by accident.
She’s fended off more snow bunnies than anyone ever should.
Now she has four overprotective brothers for life.
Or three. Pretty sure I’m kicked out.
Grace’s warm brown eyes meet mine, triggering a rush of nostalgia. Her glossy black hair falls past her shoulders now, and she’s lost some of the roundness in her face. A knife twists deep in my gut. I’ve let too much time pass.
“Hey,” I say, careful to keep my cane between my legs so it doesn’t fall over. “How have you been?”
“Tired but good. My grandma just turned eighty, so we all went back to Korea for a huge birthday celebration. I’m still jet-lagged.”
I smile fondly. I’ve met her parents multiple times, and her younger brother snowboards as well, but he’s into slopestyle. “I’m so glad you could see everyone.”
She exhales through her nose, shaking her head just a little before meeting my eyes. “Me too, but you and I aren’t going to sit here and pretend like everything’s fine, are we? You can leave that act for everyone else.”
My throat dries up again. “Right.”
“How come you don’t reach out? I miss you.”
I look down. “I haven’t been in touch with anyone. Jax is the first person I’ve talked to recently.”
“So we were good enough company in the hospital, but not out?”
One beer should be okay. Small sips over time don’t interfere too much with my meds. I did that once when Dad visited after rehab.
But I spot Skylar doing a heel kick with Jax, her diamond septum piercing glinting as she tilts her head back with a delighted laugh. I won’t be able to keep up with her if I get woozy.
“It’s…complicated,” I say. “Talking to you guys made me feel even more alone. No one understood what I was going through, and it reminded me of everything I lost. So I pulled back, and before I knew it, everyone else did too.”
She places her hand over mine. “I know none of us can begin to imagine what you’ve been through, and I’m sorry we couldn’t support you the way you needed.
But we’re a family. You’re still part of it, even if you can’t snowboard anymore.
” Grace glances at Macken and rolls her eyes.
“Everyone feels the same, even if they have their own ways of showing it.”
Words I didn’t know I needed. It’s always felt like all or nothing.
“I’m sorry I fell out of touch.” I give her a quick squeeze, her palm tiny under mine. “I’ll do better.”
I need to have a similar conversation with Jax, but it’ll be tougher.
He visited a lot at first, but he kept insisting I’d get better—I had to push myself because it meant I’d return to snowboarding.
At first, I believed him. But then the surgeries piled up.
Jax couldn’t accept it. The further I got from snowboarding, the more distant Jax became.
Our calls were only ever about the good old days.
How do you move a friendship forward when it only looks back?
I shake my head as he mimes something silly at Skylar. She laughs again and trips into his arms. Jax has been my best friend since I was seventeen. I should be honest with him.
“Why don’t you ask Skylar to dance before you incinerate Jax with your eyes?” Grace says, a knowing smile on her lips.
That’s not quite it, but I force out a laugh. “I can see Skylar anytime. I’ve ignored you long enough.”
“You’re here all weekend. I insist.”
A new type of nervous energy hums through me as I head toward Skylar. I want to dance. Can I? I haven’t tried since everything happened. But I want to hold her in my arms. I want to be the one making her smile. Even if I can only make it through one song, I want that.
I slide in behind her. One step, two step, shit, I’m-going-to-fall-over step. I laugh at myself as everyone rotates, and Skylar slides to my left. She grins at me, so I push through one more chorus, using my cane for balance.
I move between her and Jax. “Wanna dance, sweetheart?”
She gestures at her ears. “What?”
Ah, she’s wearing earplugs.
“She can’t hear shit,” Jax explains, pushing her into my arms. “Hates noise or something?”
I put my mouth to her ear. “Wanna dance?”
She beams and brings me to the side of the crowd. As her hands wrap around my neck, pulling our bodies together, my chest expands uncontrollably. It feels like I’m flying twenty feet in the air again.
I haven’t danced in two years, and even then, it was always with a purpose. A means to an end. Now I don’t want the song to end.
Not when Skylar’s looking at me like I’m her perfect man.
The banjo plays fast, but we move slowly, our rhythm isolating us from the rest of the bar. Her thighs brush against my knees as her fingers trail over the nape of my neck. The sensation draws my eyes shut, and I lean my forehead down against hers.
“I hope it’s okay that I kissed you,” Skylar whispers. “You seemed like you needed the distraction.”
I’ll take any touch she’ll give me. “Whatever you’re comfortable with is fine with me.”
“Let’s keep doing what feels natural.”
I clasp a hand gently around her neck and pull her closer until her head leans against my shoulder.
Part of me resents my legs for not allowing me to do this whenever I want, but the other part loves them for bringing me closer to Skylar.
If my life had stayed on the same path, I’d never have met her.
I don’t know how to reconcile that with the fact that I still long to snowboard with every fiber of my being.
Still, tonight, I’m grateful. For friends who haven’t given up on me, and for this surprising woman in my arms.
Even for fucking country music.