Chapter 47
Magma
The only person working behind the bar is busy making a huge cocktail order. He just poured four pina coladas, and now he’s making margaritas. At least, I think they are margaritas.
“I will be with you soon,” he tells me.
I nod.
I left Brook at our table with the promise of a drink, and at this rate, she’ll get it sometime around the cake-cutting. I glance back over my shoulder to check on her. She’s fine. Robyn has claimed the chair next to her, and the two of them are chatting away like old friends.
Good. She deserves a decent night after everything I’ve dumped on her.
The speeches are done. Dinner is done. Flint’s speech got the biggest laughs, mine got Robyn crying into Ridge’s pocket square, and the caterers are clearing the last of the plates.
Any minute now, Robyn and Ridge will open the dance floor, and then this wedding officially moves into the part of the evening where nobody is safe from being pulled out of their seat.
My gaze drifts.
It’s been doing that all night, no matter how many times I pull it back. It goes straight across the room, past three tables of hospital staff, and lands on Carla.
And that prick male she is seeing.
He has his arm draped along the back of her chair, and while I watch, his hand moves to her shoulder.
Then her arm. Then he’s leaning in to say something, and his fingers brush her wrist on the table.
He can’t stop touching her. Every ten seconds there’s contact somewhere, like he’s checking she hasn’t evaporated, and it is pissing me the fuck off.
The two of them look cozy. They have their heads bent together, talking nonstop.
I didn’t know two people could have that much to say to each other.
How many topics can there be? And how funny can a person be?
Carla laughs again at whatever comedic genius just fell out of him.
It grates. I grind my teeth for the tenth time tonight.
At this rate, I won’t have any molars left.
“Why the angry face?” Flint asks, appearing at my elbow.
“I’m not angry. I just don’t like having to wait this long for a drink. I haven’t seen our waitress in over an hour,” I grumble.
“Relax. We’re supposed to be having fun.” He gives me a slow smile that says he’s enjoying himself at my expense.
“Yeah, yeah. I can’t have fun if I’m thirsty.”
“Yes, you can. Firstly, Brook is gorgeous. Holy shit.”
“Yeah, she is,” I say, and leave it there. I could tell him Brook and I are only friends, but then he’ll want the whole story, and he’ll give me endless shit about it, and I don’t have the energy for that today. Let him believe whatever makes him happy.
The barman finally arrives in front of us, and I order two beers and a glass of white wine for Brook.
Flint waits until the barman moves off, then leans an elbow on the bar and studies me.
“Why are you glaring at the male with Carla?” he asks.
Shit. Am I that obvious?
“I don’t know. Am I glaring?”
“If looks could kill, that male would be a pile of ground bone and flesh.”
“Oh. Yeah, well…” I roll my shoulders. “I’m not sure he’s right for her, that’s all. Isn’t he a little young?”
Flint shrugs. “I don’t think so. Even if he is a year or two younger, what of it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t like the look of him.
He looks shady.” I narrow my eyes, looking at him with distaste.
The asshole is tickling her arm and looking down her dress.
I swear, if he doesn’t look her in the eye, and soon, I’m going to go over there and remove his eyeballs with the dessert spoon lying on the table.
Flint laughs his head off. A woman two seats down glances over at us.
“What?” There’s more growl in it than the question deserves.
“You don’t even know the poor guy,” Flint says, wiping his eye.
“You say he’s shady, but he works for you.
Indirectly, but still for you. He’s a guard at the hospital.
The male has a clean record, good reviews from his unit commander, shows up early.
Ridge hand-picked him. He’s not a bad male.
And it looks like he really likes Carla. ”
That’s my problem exactly. She seems to like him right back.
The drinks arrive. I thank the barman and hand Flint his beer.
“Thanks.” He takes it, then points the neck of the bottle at me. “Just so you know, I’m okay with the whole thing.”
“With what whole thing?” I frown.
“Don’t get mad at Carla’s date on my behalf.
Carla and I are cool. We’re friends, we’re on good terms, no hard feelings anywhere.
I know you really wanted the two of us together, and I know that’s probably why you’re so angry at poor Malachite.
” He laughs. “You keep giving him death stares, man. You should stop before he notices and starts fearing for his life. I’m here to tell you it’s all good.
You can stand down. Enjoy your evening, okay? ”
I nod.
Thank fuck. He hasn’t put two and two together.
He thinks I’m out here defending his honor. He came over to let me off a hook I was never on, because he’s a good male and a better friend, and this has nothing to do with Flint. Nothing at all.
Just like that, I feel like an asshole all over again.
I really need to stop my shit.
“Okay. Fine. Thank you for coming to talk to me.” I lift my beer an inch. “Maybe I was feeling a bit of unjustified animosity toward the poor male.”
Not for the reasons you think.
“You totally were. Here.” Flint raises his bottle. “To new beginnings.”
“To new beginnings.” We clink softly and drink.
“Is that mine?” Brook asks, arriving at the bar with her eyes on the wine.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Flint says.
“Don’t leave on my account,” Brook says.
“I’m going to go sit and rest my legs. Music starts in five minutes, and I plan on embarrassing myself thoroughly. I’ll see you guys on the dance floor.” He points at both of us on his way past, walking backward two steps before he turns.
“See you later,” Brook calls after him.
I hand over her wine. “Here you go. Sorry it took so long, and sorry for being such a terrible date.”
“You’re not terrible. Middling, maybe.”
I laugh.
She takes a sip and rests her back against the bar next to me. Her gaze travels across the room and stops on Carla and the dipshit.
“It’s Carla, isn’t it? The female you’re in love with.”
My beer stalls halfway to my mouth.
“It’s that obvious?”
“I saw the way you looked at her in the chapel. The way you track her every move, even when you don’t realize you’re doing it. You’re doing it right now, by the way.”
I drag my attention back to Brook. “Yeah. And she’s over there with another male. I can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to her.”
“I don’t think she’s that into him,” Brook says, wrinkling her nose.
She’s just being kind. She’s been kind all day. It’s practically a condition with her.
I frown harder because from here, they look into each other.
“You don’t think so?” I ask.
“No, I—”
The lights over the dance floor come up warm and gold, and the first notes of a slow song roll out of the speakers.
Flint has the microphone.
“Ladies and gentlemen, humans and shifters, for the first time as a married couple, please welcome to the dance floor Ridge and Robyn!”
The room erupts. Robyn and Ridge walk out into the light, and he pulls her in, her hand small in his, and they start to move.
They hold each other tight. He says something only she can hear, and she smiles up at him, and they look so deep into each other’s eyes that the rest of the room stops existing for them.
I want that again.
The thought hits me, and it hits hard. It’s the first time I’ve had it since Sage.
I thought it was over for me. Sage was gone, and I’d made my peace with it being done, one mate, one life, the end. Except it isn’t done. I don’t want it to be done.
I look over at Carla.
And my breath catches because she’s looking at me.
Our eyes hold for two heartbeats, maybe three, and then she smiles and looks away, back at the dance floor.
Was she just being nice?
Why was she looking at me like that?
Was that longing?
Does she feel something for me too?
I’m so fucking confused.
I’m seeing things because I want them to be there. That’s all it is.
Brook touches my arm. “I’m sorry you’re in such a tricky place, Magma.”
“Me too. Thanks again for being here. And for not running away screaming in the parking lot when you had the chance or several times since then. I appreciate the support more than you know.”
“Anytime.”
The love song winds down. Ridge and Robyn kiss to a wave of applause, and then the DJ slides straight into something with an actual beat, and half the tables empty onto the floor at once.
“Let’s go dance.” Brook lifts my beer straight out of my hand and puts it on the bar with her wine.
“I don’t know…” I’m shaking my head.
“I do know. It’s exactly what you need. We’re going to dance and have some fun. Then we’re going to watch Robyn and Ridge cut that cake, and we’re going to eat some, and then we’re going to dance some more. You’re having fun tonight, Magma. It’s happening.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and groan.
“It’s that, or you sit and mope for the rest of the night,” she says. “And moping and being all grumpy is not a good look on you. It won’t win Carla back.”
Is that what needs to happen? Do I need to win her back?
I’m not sure that’s true, but I have been mopey, and that’s changing right this second.
I bark out a laugh. “You’re right. Thank you, Brook.”
“You are most welcome.” She holds out her hand.
I take it, and we head for the dance floor.