They’re not.
They never can.
I scowl before I can stop it, and once I realize I am, I straighten my features, going for indifference and impervious and some other words that start with “i” that I can’t think of right now.
Keith is so much more than my best friend. So much more than my bandmate. He’s the brother I never had, and I will not risk that. Not for anything or anyone.
“You could have warned me.”
I shrug dismissively.
“I’m surprised he sent you to get me,” she continues, her eyes casting over her shoulder for a beat before returning to the private floor of the club.
“He didn’t. I always hit up the main floor on my own first. That’s when I saw you.”
She stops dead in her tracks, spinning around to face me. Her head tilting and her eyebrows scrunched in stunned confusion. “But he knows you saw me earlier today, right? He knows where I’ve been working?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t told him yet.”
“For real?”
“You need to be the one to tell him, Eden. Not me.”
“Oh boy.” She emits a breathy laugh. “That almost makes this worse, though I think having the element of surprise on my side will go a long way.” With a skip in her step, she spins back around, scanning the dance floor, the tables, then booths for her brother.
I chuckle under my breath, doing everything I can not to stare at her in the outfit she’s wearing. A white lacy crop top that shows off her smooth, toned stomach and black jeweled bellybutton ring. It has cups like a bra, and they push her small but perky tits up perfectly. Add to that tiny, skintight black short-shorts and cute little leopard print flats. She’s revealing more than she’s covering, and my hands and eyes certainly appreciated every inch of smooth bare flesh when we were dancing.
She looks so different than she did three years ago.
Her hair is no longer its luscious flowing chestnut brown. Now it’s some version of purple, deep and rich and silky looking sure… but now it’s shoulder length and she has bangs that flirt with one eye. Between her purple hair, nose ring, the scattering of colorful tattoos, this girl is so far removed from the sweet little thing who looked deeply into my eyes that night with a smile that robbed me of my senses and breath.
My eyes drag lazily over her…
Quit it! This chick is numero uno on my do not touch list.
And then she shows up like this.
Doesn’t she know what dressing like this, what looking like this, is doing to me?
“I don’t know what you’re so afraid of with him,” I muse. “He’s a kitten wrapped in a giant teddy bear.”
She laughs at the imagery. “That’s not quite how I picture him. But we’ll see if all my fears are for naught…” She trails off, spotting our large private setup along the far wall and heading that way.
She can talk all the shit she wants but the second she spots Keith; her face erupts into an all-encompassing, excited smile.
Bursting across the room at a sprint, she launches herself directly onto Keith’s lap, tossing her arms around his broad shoulders and squeezing the life from him. He jolts upright, surprised at the sudden intruder and ready to throw her off until he realizes who she is and then he wraps her up in an equally as crushing hug.
I hear him scolding her as I approach but the look of delight on his face isn’t selling his harsh words. “Where the hell did you come from? I’ve been calling and texting you non-stop, Eden. No one tells me anything. Not Mom. Not even Maia, who I know you’ve become friends with. What the hell?”
Eden draws back, laughing at Keith’s pathetic attempt at ire. She scoots off his lap and sits beside him, dropping her head against his huge arm. I’m forced to take the seat beside her since the rest of the U-shaped booth is occupied by Jasper, Gus, and Keith. Naomi, Gus’s fiancée; Viola, Jasper’s wife; and Maia are out on the dancefloor, laughing and dancing in their own private bubble.
“I came here tonight with Jess. You remember her, right?”
Keith nods, taking a sip of his signature Jack Daniels. “Yeah. Jess Hill. You’ve been best friends forever.”
“Well, we live together now. She’s at UCLA for law school starting this fall but she’s taking summer prep classes.”
“You’re a brat for living in my city and avoiding me.”
“I didn’t have a choice, Keith.”
“That’s total crap, Ede. How did you get up here anyway?”
Eden juts her thumb in my direction. “This guy found me dancing downstairs and dragged me up.”
Keith’s eyes track up to mine, shining bright with gratitude as he sticks out his fist for me to pound. If I didn’t feel like shit before, I certainly do now.
I pour myself a glass of tequila only to have Eden steal the thing directly from my grasp before taking a large sip. “Help yourself,” I deadpan.
“I already did, thanks.” She winks at me, licking her lips.
I stare, mesmerized. Those lips. I remember those lips. How they felt against mine. How they tasted—like cherries with her gloss and a hint of tequila since that’s what she drinks. Like I do.
I clear my thoughts and turn away.
She takes another sip finishing it off and then tries to grab at the bottle from my hand next. Brat. I snatch it back, smacking at her as she attempts to fight me for it. “Goddammit, this is mine.” I don’t even care if I sound like I’m five. This girl drives me up a wall like no one else.
“Just pour me some and stop being a dick.”
“How about you stop being a brat and maybe I will.”
Keith’s eyes dance suspiciously back and forth between us and I feel my gut twist. I pour Eden some more and then slide away from her, as far as I can without falling off the edge of the stupid bench, taking the bottle with me.
“Why you hidin’ from me, Ede?” Keith asks, drawing her attention back to him. That’s when Jasper starts to laugh under his breath.
All eyes swivel to him, the casual motherfucker leaning back and sipping whatever the hell he’s sipping as he stoically watches everything with the astute eye of an eagle. Even Gus, turns to stare at his fraternal twin with a bemused expression, so whatever Jasper knows, he’s not in on it.
Jasper’s green eyes lock on Eden as she growls in resignation, slumping back dramatically into the stiff cushioned bench. She throws one leg over the other, using the toe of her shoe to point at Jasper. “I should have known you’d know. You know everything. You always have. Even when I was eight and accidentally broke Keith’s favorite drumsticks and then blamed it on Joy.”
“That was you?” Keith barks, and Eden shrugs at him, grinning while trying to appear innocent. “Shit. I yelled at Joy for like an hour.”
“Yeah. I felt a little bad about that.” She shrugs again and then turns back to Jasper. “For real, how do you know?”
Jasper’s smirk says sorry not sorry while the rest of him stays locked in that half brooding, half impervious mask he’s perfected over the years. “Harry has been blowing up my phone for over a week now about you.”
“What?” Keith, Gus, and I all burst out at once. “Harry Evans?” Gus finishes for us, though there is only one Harry we all know.