“Oh, I didn’t know you had a brother,” Fran said, scanning his eyes back and forth from Kade to me, and back again.
“Well, he’s deceased, so I don’t usually talk about him,” I explained.
“Oh, I’m sorry. How did that happen?” Fran prodded.
Why do people think it’s okay to ask that question? The answers are just for their own morbid curiosity and it hurts the person whom they’re asking.
“They said it was suicide. Any other inappropriate questions you’d like to ask?” I said, offering an uncomfortable laugh.
Just like always, death kills the conversation. Four sets of silent staring eyes were on me, all except for Kade. No, what Kade did affected me the most, a simple brush of the back of his hand over mine under the table that took hold of all of my senses completely. My insides fluttered. Now that I knew about Kade’s tragic past, I understood why we’d felt drawn together. People who have seen real life monsters up close will never feel understood by people who haven’t. What those people don’t understand, is that we still see those monsters, everyday. They will never understand how tragedy makes you bitter and spiteful, and how it always keeps its claws around your neck, ready to suffocate you.
“Um…what we were saying was that Dylan should have some karaoke on nights when us girls aren’t dancing to get more people to come out to the bar. That’s all,” Natalie said. “I’m sorry about your brother, hon.”
Bree laid her head on Dylan’s shoulder and kept quiet.
“Hey, they have a Karaoke bar in town. I should close the bar tomorrow night and then we could all hear this bird sing,” Dylan teased, pointing to me.
Bree’s face lit up, “I’m in.”
Natalie smiled, “I’m in for a day off and going out, but I have to see if I could get a sitter for the little monsters.”
Fran searched my face for my answer and I just shrugged, “Sounds fun.” I turned my head towards Kade, “Want to come with us and watch me embarrass everybody?”
Again, his smiled crushed me.
“I still say the location is the problem with this bar, Dylan. There’s nothing around here but the trailer park. What made you open up this place here anyway?” Fran asked.
My eyes caught the way Dylan looked at Kade, the same way Michael used to look at me after we’d bicker about something, and then he’d stick up for me in front of my mother, “Because I needed to be near my family. And this is the closest I’ve been allowed to get.”
“Pardon me,” Kade murmured, quietly pushing his chair back and walking off into the back hallway. Dylan ran his hands over his face, and gave me a pained stare. Curling his arms over his head, he cursed under his breath, “Bloody hell. Lainey you just had him smiling and I go and ruin it with my mouth.”
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” I said and walked into the back hallway, finding Kade in Dylan’s office looking out the back window. “You okay?” I asked, as I walked up behind him.
“Yep.” He snapped, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. When I stood in front of him, he growled. “Okay, listen. I don’t do talking and shit.”
“Kade, shut up. I just asked if you were okay. You said you were, far be it from me to tell you otherwise. Your brother is just speaking the truth. If you don’t like it, change it. And you are coming with us tomorrow night. You scare the shit out of the townies and I’ll make their ears bleed.”
I don’t think he could have stopped himself from laughing, but I know he tried. A delicious smiled danced across his lips, “What I’m hearing is that, now you think we’d make a great team.”
“So, you’re admitting to hearing things, Mr. Grayson?”
Kade hung his head and laughed. When he looked back up at me, I saw the laughter reach his eyes. “Friends, huh?” The stress and tension that tightened his face eased away gradually.
“We could try,” I said, slowly smiling.
His steel eyes softened as they held mine. Hesitantly, he reached his hand to my face and lightly brushed the knuckles of his hand from the bottom of my chin to the back of my jaw. The touch sent fire across my skin and every last nerve ending in my body awakened and tingled with warmth. Both of us stood there, silently watching one another, slowly leaning closer to each other until his hand slid up and wrapped around the back of my neck, threading his fingers through the strands of my hair. My knees instantly weakened and all my senses heightened with almost painful acuity. His scent of worn leather and whatever soap he used surrounded me, making me want to gulp deeply into his essence. The sounds of his close heavy breathing had my heart pounding as if it were surround sound. Everything seemed clear and just more.
“Lainey! Lainey?” Fran’s voice called from the hallway.
Neither of us moved.
The pressure of his hand gripped at my neck tighter and a slow devilish smile appeared on his lips.
“Lainey?” Fran’s voice continued to call.
Kade shifted and pressed his body against mine, thudding my back against the door of the office, clicking it closed. The hand tangled in my hair tightened more and his other slipped softly along the side of my waist, under the hem of my shirt and skidded hot fingertips along the surface of my skin. Leaning his face into the curve of my neck, he inhaled deeply, and I was instantly gasping for breath from his closeness. “I think someone wants you,” he whispered, chuckling softly against my skin.
“Yes, I hear him,” I whispered back, not caring at all.
“I wasn’t talking about Fran.” He growled, pressing his warm lips against my neck. Oh, hell, it just got hot in here.
Reluctantly stepping away, his hands released me, his eyes so intense, stared down into mine. “I don’t know how to start this, I’ve never done this…,” he whispered.
“Kade, I think you just did.”
His eyes stayed fixed on mine as he smiled. Fran’s voice was closer now, just on the other side of the door and Kade moved past me to open it. His hand brushed over my hip, along the curve of my waist to the front of my belly, and lingered just below my navel. I thudded my head against the wall as the strongest surge of lust exploded through my entire being. My soul wanted a piece of that man.
“Lainey? Are you okay?” Fran’s voice shattered through our bubble, interrupting our moment. He walked through the door purposefully, looked at Kade and narrowed his eyes, then turned to glare at me. “Dylan is closing early tonight, everybody seems to have left. I’ll drive you home now,” he said, chancing another glance towards Kade. “To make sure you get home safe.”
Kade’s eyes never left mine. “Go,” he said, “I’ll see you tomorrow night with my pitchfork and horns.”
“Goodnight, Kade,” I said as I slipped out of the room, leaving him alone. I went back to the trailer that night with a very buzzed Bree, but I wore a smile plastered to my face. I was glad to soothe someone again, to heal someone again.
****
As I applied the tiniest bit of mascara to my lashes and the thinnest layer of gloss over my lips, I relayed all the facts I’d discovered about Kade’s past to Bree. “That’s the worst thing I’ve every heard, Lainey. Lord, no wonder he’s such a hard guy to get along with. Did you tell him anything about what you’ve been through?”
“No, Kade doesn’t know that I know, so there’s no need to tell him about my past. And I won’t, so please don’t say anything to Dylan in your pillow talk.”
“Girl. My pillow talk will not have you in it, not to worry,” she said kissing me on my temple and winking at me as she looked into my reflection in the mirror we were sharing. She slathered on a thick layer of dark shiny lipstick and puckered her lips, blowing a kiss into the air, and then leaned all the way against the surface of the mirror. “How is it possible that it’s the dead of winter and I have more freckles on my face? Skin cancer? Look at them. Do they look abnormal? ”