Chapter Four Dane
For one horrible moment, I wonder if I’ve made a mistake and just accosted some poor woman as she leaves the bathroom. Because I don’t see any kind of recognition towards me flare up in her eyes. Only wariness.
In hindsight, I probably could’ve handled this in a much less creepy way. One that doesn’t scream ‘ I’ve been watching you all night ’. But here we are. Can’t be undone.
I shoot her what I hope is an easy smile and take a step backwards, surveying her properly.
It’s been about two years, but I’m pretty sure it’s her.
Her hair is longer, her hips are fuller, her skin is slightly flushed and her plump lips are twisted into a frown. But you don’t forget a face like that.
She still looks just as gorgeous as she did that night.
‘Eliott, right?’ I ask.
Her eyes narrow slightly and I can only describe the expression that rolls across her face as one of pure irritation. ‘Do I know you?’
She practically spits the words out and her voice is sharp and curt, completely void of the warmth and laughter I remember from our almost night together two years ago. Not what I’d been expecting, but fair – maybe she doesn’t recognise me yet.
‘Dane,’ I tell her before waiting a beat to see if I get even a flicker of recognition in her eyes. Nothing. ‘We met two years ago at an event. I think your friend was DJ-ing it.’
‘Doesn’t ring a bell,’ she says quickly. Too quickly.
‘I’m sure it was you.’
She shrugs. ‘I guess I just have one of those faces.’
‘It’s a gorgeous face.’
Eliott blinks. Her mouth starts to fall open in what I think is surprise, before she catches herself and rolls her eyes. ‘Smooth.’
I flash her a grin. ‘Pretty sure that’s what you liked about me last time around.’
She looks me up and down slowly, and when she meets my gaze again, there’s a shadow of the girl I met two years ago. Her caramel eyes hold mine and her lips twitch into an almost smile. ‘Pretty sure it wasn’t just that.’
My grin widens and her face drops as she realises the implication of what she just said. ‘So you do remember me.’
Regret spasms across her face and she scowls at me. ‘Yes. Fine. You win. I remember you.’ She says it through almost gritted teeth, like it pains her to get the words out. ‘Honestly? I remember you were a lot better at a taking a hint two years ago.’
I frown, not entirely sure why she sounds so annoyed.
But I don’t get the chance to find out. Cash and Bailey are cha-cha-sliding their way towards us from the dance floor.
She’s trying to make it look casual, but I can see the look of warning in my sister’s eyes as she spots Eliott standing in front of me.
Again, very much regretting doing this right in front of the toilets.
I catch Cash’s eye as they approach, but he just gives me a sympathetic little shrug. I return it with a glare. If I’d have known that setting up my best friend and my sister was going to lead to this kind of betrayal on the regular, I never would’ve done it.
Probably.
‘Oh good, you’ve met Eliott,’ Bailey says dryly. She gives Eliott an apologetic smile before glaring up at me. I grin right back at her, unfazed by the death stare she’s currently shooting me. One day she’ll realise it doesn’t work on me.
‘I was just saying hello.’
‘ You don’t need to say hello,’ Bailey says pointedly, silently reminding me of the conversation we had back at the table earlier. Not that I need reminding.
Eliott is off-limits.
Bailey’s made herself very clear. But does off-limits count when you’ve already trampled right over those boundaries before?
Bailey nudges me aside with her elbow and positions herself between me and Eliott. ‘Tonight isn’t about you.’
I pretend to clutch at my chest, scandalised. ‘I’m the best man and the bride’s dashingly handsome older brother. If I’m not the star of this wedding, who is?’
‘Me, clearly.’ Amber swans in, closely followed by her boyfriend, Finn.
Amber and I aren’t overly close or anything like that, but you can’t help but want the best for someone when you’ve known them for as long as we’ve known each other.
And Finn is definitely that when it comes to Amber.
The best. He looks at her the same way Cash looks at Bailey.
Like the world could be burning around them and they wouldn’t notice, as long as those two were standing in front of them.
I suddenly find myself feeling very glad that my parents are currently preoccupied with Cash’s mum.
Ever since Bailey and Cash got together, they’ve been non-stop with asking when I’m going to find The One and settle down too.
I’ve managed to shove most of the comments off with a laugh or a quick redirect, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it’s getting tiring.
I’m happy for them, but there’s an unspoken assumption that everyone wants what Cash and Bailey have. Or even that everyone is capable of finding it in the first place.
But not everyone is.
I know that first-hand, and I’m fine with it. I just wish everyone else was too. But dwelling on that during the engagement party for my best friend and sister isn’t high on my list of priorities right now. I force a bright smile back onto my face and rejoin the conversation.
‘Since we’re all here now,’ Cash is saying to Eliott, ‘why don’t we get that photo we were talking about earlier?’
‘Sure.’ Eliott gives the group a stiff nod. ‘If you could all just come over here – better lighting.’
We do as she instructs and form a small cluster with Cash and Bailey in the middle.
I slide over to Cash’s free side and sling an arm over his shoulder.
Amber does the same with Bailey, pulling my sister in so close, their cheeks are touching.
Finn hangs back for a second, but Cash quickly calls him over and he joins the cluster behind Amber and deftly wraps an arm around her waist.
Eliott lifts the camera to her face, takes a few shots and then lets it drop again. ‘Amber, if you could turn a little this way for me, that way Finn’s shadow won’t cut across your face. And Cash, can you get a little closer to Bailey and close that gap there?’
‘And me?’ I ask, as Cash does what she says and happily slides even closer to his future wife. ‘Any notes or am I just nailing this?’
From the way she bites her bottom lip and ducks her head, it’s obvious she wants to laugh. I can’t decide whether to feel pleased that apparently I can still make her laugh, or annoyed that she’s desperately fighting it.
And why is she fighting it?
For some reason, she’s acting like I’m the last person she’d ever wanted to see again.
Admittedly, there are probably a handful of women who’d probably never like to see me again – those unfortunate enough to meet me when I was young and immature.
But I don’t think the way Eliott and I left things was bad enough to warrant that.
Was it? I frown, searching through hazy memories as I try to figure out if I’m forgetting something important about our almost night together.
‘You’re fine,’ Bailey says, saving Eliott from having to answer. ‘Just stand there and look cute.’
‘Don’t I always?’
There’s that twitch of her lips again, though this time she brings her camera back up to her face to hide it. She takes a few more shots of us and then gives us a satisfied nod.
‘Got it.’
Cash and Bailey are quickly stolen by a group of our cousins coming to say goodbye, and Amber and Finn take the opportunity to glide back to the table for some more food. Finn’s hand doesn’t leave Amber’s side as they walk, and it’s impossible to ignore the way she leans into his touch.
I make the grave mistake of catching my mother’s eye across the room. She nods her head pointedly in Amber and Finn’s direction and then raises an unimpressed brow at me. I glance away, refusing to rise to the bait.
And anyway, Eliott and I are officially alone again. Though she doesn’t look pleased about it. I exhale a quiet breath and lean against the nearest wall. She’s deliberately not looking at me, instead choosing to fiddle with her camera.
I’m not an idiot and, contrary to what she said earlier, I can take a hint. I know when someone isn’t into me. Doesn’t happen often, but I’m not pig-headed enough to try to force something that isn’t there.
Not anymore, anyway.
Maybe there was something between us two years ago, but whatever it was, it’s definitely gone now.
‘Look.’ There’s music and laughter all around us, but the sound of my voice makes her snap her head up sharply, like I’ve just shattered a silence. ‘I get it. You’re not interested. I can handle that.’
She opens her mouth as if to say something, but then seems to think better of it. Her lips purse slightly and she rocks back onto the balls of her feet, waiting for me to continue.
‘But things don’t have to be awkward between us.
We’re both adults. I think we can navigate being around each other without this…
’ I trail off, clicking my tongue as I try to figure out what exactly it is I’m feeling between us.
‘Tension, I guess?’ I’m still not sure it’s the right word, but it’s the closest I can get to whatever it is I’m feeling right now.
Eliott arches a brow. ‘We don’t need to be navigating anything at all. My professional relationship is with Bailey and Cash. There’s no need for us to interact directly whatsoever.’
That gets out a low laugh out of me. ‘I’m the best man, Eliott. Pretty sure I’ll be on “ wrangling all the old aunts and uncles ” duty for photos on the big day.’
Her eyes widen for a second, like she’s actually considering the possibility that Bailey and Cash might put me on photo duty. They wouldn’t – if anything, that’s an Amber job – but Eliott doesn’t know that.
Then she shrugs. ‘I haven’t actually agreed to photograph the wedding. I might not even be available.’
‘You’d pass up a job just to avoid me?’ It’s not funny at all, but I can’t help but grin. ‘Should I be flattered? I didn’t know I made such a big impression on you.’
Her eyes flit downwards for half a second. ‘Nothing big about it.’
I laugh, and the sound seems to startle her. ‘If I’m remembering correctly, you didn’t have any complaints.’
‘If you were remembering correctly, you’d recall how I left unsatisfied with our last encounter.’
‘Through no fault of my own,’ I say with a shrug. Call it being cocky or overconfident or whatever, but I know what I bring to the bedroom. The problem definitely wasn’t on my end.
‘Maybe you’re just not as good as you think you are?’
‘I’ve never had any complaints.’
She grits her teeth. ‘Consider this your first.’
I laugh again and her eyes narrow, as if the sound annoys her. ‘I don’t know why you’re trying to pretend like we weren’t having a good time together before you decided you weren’t feeling it anymore—’
Something flashes across her face. For a brief moment, she looks almost pained, like I’ve said something that cuts to her very core. But before I can comment on it, the look is gone, replaced with one of unbridled irritation.
‘Exactly. I wasn’t feeling it then and I’m not feeling it now.’ She grips her camera a little tighter, the tips of her fingertips going pale as she wraps them around its frame. ‘Glad we could both agree on that.’
‘Eliott—’
‘I’m still on the clock,’ she says sharply. The change in topic is so fast, it almost gives me whiplash. ‘If you’re done bothering me?’
She pushes past me without so much as a second glance and purposefully strides across the room, putting as much space between us as possible.
‘Didn’t Bailey tell you to leave Eliott alone?’
I scowl as Cash approaches me. He raises a brow as he glances at me, then over to Eliott, still rushing across the room, and then back to me again. ‘What’d you do?’
‘You know, you’re very much Team Bailey these days,’ I grumble as Cash leans up against the wall beside me. ‘I’m not a fan. Tread carefully, or I might just take back my blessing.’
Cash snorts out a laugh at my pointless threat. ‘Definitely too late for that.’
Given the fact that we’re currently at their engagement party, I’d say he’s got a point there. But still. ‘Never too late. Bailey will just have to find someone else to fawn over her every day. Shouldn’t be too hard.’
Cash rolls his eyes and bumps me with his elbow. ‘Don’t change the topic. What’s going on with you and Eliott?’
‘Nothing.’ It comes out with more bite than I’d intended and Cash shoots me a sceptical look. I clear my throat and shrug. ‘I mean, I just thought I recognised her from somewhere, but I was wrong. No big deal.’
Cash and I have been business partners for almost a decade now, and best friends for even longer.
It’s difficult to remember a time when Cash wasn’t an integral part of my life, and he’s more like a brother to me than anything else at this point.
Sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself.
So it’s not all that surprising when the look of scepticism on his face doesn’t fade. But he doesn’t say anything.
Cash is good at that. Letting you come to him in your own time once you’ve parsed your thoughts and figured out whatever it is you actually want to say.
I think that’s probably why he waited so long to tell me he liked Bailey.
Really liked her – not the crush he had when we were kids that would send him rushing from the room whenever she walked in.
He was sorting through his thoughts, trying to make sure that it was something real before he broached the topic with me.
And so I know he won’t force me to tell him what’s on my mind right now. He’ll wait, trusting that when I’m ready, I will.
I feel a familiar wave of gratitude towards him as I push myself off the wall.
‘Let’s talk about your stag do.’ As segues go, it’s not my smoothest, but Cash lets it slide.
‘I’ve got some ideas I need to run by you.
Thoughts on a long weekend of debauchery in Amsterdam?
No flights,’ I add quickly, knowing just how much Cash hates flying. ‘We can get the train.’
‘Define debauchery .’
I grin as we meander back into the crowd. ‘That’s for me to know and for you to find out. But it will include beer, brownies and beautiful women. The latter being for me, of course.’
Cash snorts. ‘Right.’
I spot Eliott snapping a photo of Bailey and a group of her friends as we cut through the crowd.
From across the room, her eyes catch mine and I offer her a small smile.
She stares at me for a few seconds, her face pinching into an expression I can’t quite place, before she turns away – smile, unreturned.