“She let herself fall for Beau.”
“Not really,” she countered. “Their relationship is not what it seems, at least I don’t think it is. They sort of just ended up together, but there’s a reason she still lives with me and hasn’t taken the next step with him. She might not know it for sure yet, but I’m pretty sure the reason is you.”
“What do I do?” I asked her. The desperation I was feeling was unlike anything else. “How can I make her see that I’m the one she is supposed to be with?”
“Keep fighting for her,” she said with a smile. “Make her remember how and why she loves you.”
“Didn’t plan on stopping,” I told her. “I’m going to get her back.”
“Okay,” she said reaching out to rest her hand on my shoulder. “Life is too damn short to not be with the person you love. And for what it’s worth, I hope she picks you,” she added.
Georgia’s words were motivation when I was feeling defeated, and knowing that she was on my side didn’t hurt matters any, either. Nora had left the party with Beau, but after talking to her sister I was pretty sure she’d left her heart with me. All I had to do was convince her that mine had always been with her.
* * *
How exactly do you fight for a girl who keeps running away from you? You go to her. Nora had been avoiding me for days. I’d gone to the diner, the grocery store, and every other place I thought she might be, hoping to get a chance to talk to her. No luck.
Things were about to change though. It was the weekend and it just happened to be her friend Lydia’s birthday. Thanks to a little cyberstalking—yes, I was stooping to Brett’s level—I was able to discern that Lydia was having a party at Vera’s and Nora had RSVP’d weeks ago. I might not have been invited to the party, but Vera’s was public property and I’d be damned if another night was going to go by where I didn’t see her.
I’d thought about calling or texting her, after Georgia’s little pep talk, but I needed to see her in person, where she couldn’t hide behind her fear and hang up on me.
Brett and Hoyt had offered to join me at Vera’s, but I told them I thought it would be best if I went alone. I needed Nora to see that I was making a concentrated effort and not just coincidentally bumping into her.
The party started at seven, so I waited until nine before I went to the bar. Gave her a little time to loosen up and unwind from a long week before I showed up uninvited. When I walked in and found an empty barstool, among the chaos of dancing people and loud music, I looked around until I spotted her. Mingled in with the other girls on the floor, tossing her hands and hair around like she didn’t have a care in the world. The smile on her face. The happiness of just being with her friends, it made me reconsider talking to her. I’d caused her a lot of pain. Did I really want to risk ruining her night of fun by forcing her to talk to me? To think about the decision I was asking her to make? I’d been in Halstead a little over two weeks and I’d already managed to make her run away from me a handful of times. The usual confidence I had about what we could be was dwindling. Could I really handle her rejecting me? And, for Beau?
I drank a beer while I contemplated what I was doing there before I decided that tonight was not the night for another battle with her.
As I was standing to leave, she noticed me and her eyes lit up briefly before she waved me over. So much for exiting unnoticed. I’d play it cool. I’d walk over and say hello. Tell her it was good to see her and ask her if we could talk later this week. Maybe if she saw that I wasn’t desperate to have her back, that I wasn’t pushing her too hard to pick me, she’d come to the conclusion that we should be together on her own.
“Hi,” I said, leaning toward her. She’d walked off the dance floor and met me against the back wall of the bar.
“Hi.” She looked up at me. Her eyes glassy from the alcohol she’d been drinking. She steadied the sway in her stance, resting her hand on my arm. The feel of her hands willingly on my body felt nice. The tight jeans and low-cut bright blue shirt she was wearing wasn’t helping the noble route of just saying hi I’d been planning on taking.
“You look like you’re having fun.”
“I am,” she lilted. “I needed a night out with the girls.” She looked over her shoulder at her group of friends who were oblivious to the fact that one of their own had snuck away from their party. “What are you doing here?”
“Truth?”
“Always.”
“I came to see you,” I confessed. “But, I don’t want to spoil your fun.”
“You’re not.” She shook her head and smiled. She tugged at my shirt. “You want to dance?”
“That’s probably not a good idea. Unless of course you’re single now. Then I’ll dance with you all damn night.”
“I wasn’t single when you kissed me the other night,” she replied, mischievous gleam in her eye.
“How much have you had to drink?” I asked, earning a grimace from her. She grabbed my hand and tugged me out the back door of the bar to a small patio littered with cigarette butts and empty beer cans. The door closed behind us and dampened the loud blare of the music.
“Does it really matter how much I’ve had to drink?” she asked, trailing her hand up my arm. She took a step toward me as her hand found the nape of my neck, her fingers twirling my hair. I closed my eyes for a second, unable to look at the seductive pout of her lips, and took a deep breath.
She’s drunk. This is not what you want. I felt the need to remind myself that kissing her senseless would be a terrible idea. I didn’t want her to choose me when she was clearly inebriated. I wanted her choice to be with me to be a conscious decision.
“What are you doing, Nora?”
“Isn’t this what you want?” she asked, pressing her body up against mine. “Isn’t this what you’ve been fighting for?”
“Not exactly,” I managed to say as she pressed her lips against my neck. The feel of her curves pressed against the hard plane of my chest and her hand creeping up under the shirt I was wearing was making it very hard to think clearly. I told my dick to retreat, but it completely ignored my request. My hands found her hips and I knew it was a bad idea.
“You want to be my dirty little secret,” she said into my ear. “Until you leave again?”
What the fuck did she just say?
“Excuse me,” I said, placing my hands on her waist and pushing her back enough to look her in the eye. “You think that’s what I want? Just to fuck around with you,” I seethed. “You’re drunker than I thought.” I took her hands with mine and removed them from my body.
“We both know that you’re leaving soon,” she argued.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean all I want to do is sleep with you. I thought you understood that. I want more than just a quick fuck behind a bar and to be some seedy affair under your boyfriend’s nose.” I took a step back and ran my hands through my hair. “Jesus, Nora. Is that all I’m worth to you?”
“Don’t get pissed at me,” she spat. “You’re the one who kissed me the other night, remember? You’re the one who keeps taunting me. Begging me to do something I’m not ready to do.”
“I think I should go,” I told her, unable to look her in the eyes. “We’ll talk about this when you’re sober.”
“I want to talk about it now.” She grabbed my arm and stopped me from opening the door. “You keep asking me to give in to my feelings. To end a perfectly good relationship to give you another chance, but every time I try all I can do is see the guy who hurt me.”
“That guy is gone, Nora.” I moved her hand from my arm and opened the door. “I was hoping by now you knew that.” I went back into the bar and let the door close behind me. She’d run away from me enough times that I knew how she had to have felt standing out there alone, but I’d be damned if I was going to stand there and let her make a fool of both of us.