CHAPTER TWENTY
Parker
"Where were you last night?" Ryan leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. His eyes, a shade or two darker than Raven's were focused on me as he asked his question.
I slammed my fist into the bread I was kneading. Lying to him wasn't something I assumed I would have to do. It was stupid of me, but I thought he'd be the last person to ask me where I was. "I stayed with a friend here."
"Who?"
"You don't know them. We met last week." Kneading the bread was satisfying in this conversation. It was keeping my mild annoyance in check.
Not that I had a right to be annoyed. I was the one hiding something from him, after all. He was just asking me a reasonable question. One I couldn't answer honestly.
Well, I could, but telling him I'd been sleeping with his sister whilst in a kitchen wasn't the greatest idea in the world.
"All right." Ryan frowned, but he didn't move. "I gotta say, I didn't enjoy getting woken up by your mom so early."
"Sorry, man. By the time I'd left here, it was too late to message her." I dumped the bread into the plastic bowl to my right and covered it.
"Why were you here so late?"
"Working. Your sister wanted to do a cocktail pairing and last night was the only chance we had."
"When did you leave?"
"Late. I don't know." I pushed the bowl to the side and turned to the side. I twisted the tap, washed my hands, and then reached for my bottle of water to drink. "Maybe like eleven? Eleven-thirty?"
"Why couldn't you do that this morning?"
"Is she here right now?"
"True." He relaxed his frown. "Just seems weird."
The door to the bar swung open with a flash of dark hair and bright, red fabric. Raven's fitted dress matched her lips, and there was no way that was by accident. "Jesus, Ry, give it a rest." She bumped the door closed with her hip and squeezed past him with a crate in her hands. "All I've heard for the last few minutes is you bitching in here."
"When did you get back? And I don't bitch."
"Twenty minutes ago. I finally escaped the clutches of Lucifer and the ridiculous waste of time that was that trip." She dumped the crate on the side.
"Did you bring lunch?" I turned to face her.
With a sigh, she rested her forearm on the side of the crate and looked up at me through long, dark lashes. "Why would I have brought lunch? Do I look like your personal assistant?"
"Because it's lunchtime," Ryan answered. "And we're hungry."
"What are you even doing here? You know I'm paying him to have his time wasted by you, right?" Raven pointed one finger in my direction, but her attention was focused completely on her brother. "Don't you have a job to do?"
"Day off."
"Wanna get this side of the kitchen and be useful?"
"Are you gonna pay me?"
"I promise not to pull out baby pictures next time you take a girl home to the parents. I won't even get out the home video of you playing with your penis like a helicopter."
I choked on thin air. I'd seen that video, and it wasn't pretty. It was Raven's go-to revenge tool whenever he pissed her off. One week or one year into a relationship, every single one of his girlfriends had seen the video of him sitting on the coffee table and spinning his penis like a helicopter propeller.
Ryan shrugged. "If you ain't paying, I ain't working."
"Great." A smile spread across her face, and I didn't know if it was genuine or vengeful. "Then get out, let him work, and I solemnly swear to save the propeller video for your wedding."
"That's fine...I'll save the video of you sobbing over the N-SYNC break up for yours."
"Go ahead. I don't care. That was a traumatizing day."
"I have a headache." I rubbed my hand across my forehead and headed for the fridge for a new bottle of water. "Is there any kind of painkiller that will make you two be quiet?"
"Yeah. It's called chloroform, but it goes over Raven's mouth," Ryan answered.
The plastic salt mill she launched at his head missed by millimeters, but only because he moved.
"I'll call you later!" he shouted over his shoulder, running for the door.
"Asshole!" Raven's voice was louder than his, unsurprisingly, and the rattle as she slammed her fist into the shelf beneath the heater lamps made me cringe.
Several seconds of silence passed before I said, "I guess your morning went well."
She spun her face toward mine. "Well? No, it did not go well. Not only was my drive out there completely pointless because everyone forgot about the buffet, as you well know, I was subjected to my aunt's displeasure about the lack of mimosas, my grandmother's insistence "the boy want" me, my teenaged cousins threatening to spit on each other's graves, and my mother's question time with the fucking president based on how many things she wanted me to answer. Oh, and at least three-quarters of this bullshit happened in Greek, so it took me way too long to unravel the quick-fired complains before someone else had started. Then, I get back here and save your ass from the same awkwardness I dealt with this morning, so you're welcome!"
Well, shit.
"And yes, I did bring lunch, but I couldn't tell my brother that!" She pulled a sandwich out from the paper bag inside the crate and dumped it on the side next to the plastic box.
I didn't quite know how to deal with this situation. She wasn't even angry, she just looked...stressed. Like she'd already had enough and it was barely even midday. The bar wouldn't open for another four hours, but she'd lost two and a half this morning where she had to go to Key West. Whatever clusterfuck she'd been involved in at home—I'd barely understood what she was saying—had obviously taken its toll on her.
Raven pulled things out of the crate and slammed them down onto the side. They were all various sauces and seasonings that I'd put on my list, and they'd obviously been delivered separately to yesterday's order.
"These are yours," she said, putting one last bottle down with a little too much vigor. All the others bounced with the force of that one hitting the metal top.
With Ryan gone, I knew we were alone. I walked up behind her, stopped, and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. She stilled for a fleeting second before she slumped, relaxing back into me, and brought her hands up to my wrists.
"Sorry," she murmured, the word barely audible. "Karras overload."
I smiled into her hair. "That's a real thing. You should get a doctor's note."
"Will you write one for me?"
"I'm not a doctor." I laughed the words into her hair before I kissed the side of her neck and released her. We might have been alone when I hugged her, but Wes was due in any minute, and given the questions he'd asked about why she and I hated one another so much, it would have led to even more questions.
Questions I didn't want to answer, because I didn't have the answers.
"Is this the stuff they didn't deliver yesterday?" I picked up the tub of black pepper.
"Yep." She smacked her lips together and leaned against the edge of the side, then she folded her arms. Luckily for my concentration, the dress wasn't too low-cut, but I still lingered there a little longer than I really needed to. "The guy is an idiot. I don't like him, and as soon as I can find another supplier for this stuff that doesn't charge me my firstborn, I'm going to switch."
"I can look," I said, grabbing a couple things to put away.
"Can't you just take the deliveries? Last week, he asked me if my skirt was meant to be so short or if it'd ridden up because I'm so hot." She rolled her eyes, handing me a bottle.
"Valid question. I've seen the things you wear."
Her look went from indifferent to exasperation. "I barely had a chance to change and come back down when he was at the door. He asked me if I'd put the dress on especially for him."
I ran my gaze across her body. "Did you put it on for me?"
She slapped my arm. "I put it on for the poor suckers who keep coming back to the bar just to see me bend over."
I frowned. "I've seen you bend over behind that bar. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that."
"Morning. Fuck, it's afternoon. Afternoon, shit." Wes stepped through the door and stopped dead when he saw Raven in the kitchen. The door he'd come through was the heavier one, and it swung back, hitting him in the back and making him jump forward at the impact. True to form, he grabbed the side table where we kept all the keys and knocked that bowl onto the floor. The plastic rattled and the keys screeched as they all skidded across the floor.
Raven pursed her lips, fighting a smile. "Hey, Wes. How was your morning?"
He opened and closed his mouth like a desperate fish before his cheeks heated. "Good. It was good. Thanks. Sorry about the...you know. The language."
"Don't worry about it." She grabbed the empty crate and swept it off the side before heading for the door back to the bar. "Fuck is my favorite...f-word." She shot me a sly glance before disappearing out into the bar.
Wes stared at her leaving. "Is it me," he said slowly, "Or is she in a better mood than normal?"
"Careful." I put the last bottle on the shelf and looked at him. "She's got the hearing ability of a supernatural creature."
"Noted." He finally dragged his attention to me. "What do you need doing, Chef?"
I rattled off a list of things he could do—giving him a little more freedom by the end of the list—and headed out for the bar. Pushing the door open, I stepped into the bar and picked up a packet of napkins that had fallen onto the floor.
Raven glanced at me. "Oh, thanks."
"Stop being so happy. You're scaring my staff."
That glance became a lingering stare with a wide grin. "Yeah, yeah. I was just being nice."
"That's why he's scared."
"I've always been perfectly nice to Wes." She snatched up the napkins I just put on the bar.
"But you were nice to me."
"I'm sorry, I'll be a raging bitch to you next time." She smirked, but it came off too amused to have the affect she obviously intended. "Can you get back to work now?"
"In a minute." I paused. Irrational nerves twisted my stomach, making me feel almost sick. I knew what I wanted to do, and asking someone on a date wasn't exactly something that made me uncomfortable on a regular basis, but something about this woman just threw me.
Raven narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"What are you working tomorrow? Are you closing?"
Slowly, she shook her head. "Sienna and Rosanne are covering closing. Why?"
I leaned on the edge of the bar. "I kinda wanna stay with you tonight," I said under my breath. "But I can't. So, let me take you out tomorrow."
"Aren't you working?"
"The new guy is coming in in two hours. He has more experience than Alex is. Let them handle it for a night. Besides, we won't be too far away."
She peeled off the opening of the napkin packet, peering down at it. The plastic crinkled and rippled beneath her touch, and as much as I wanted to reach out and stop that damn noise, I knew I couldn't.
"You think that's a good idea?" her voice was quiet and hesitant.
I wasn't alone in my nerves.
She had them, too.
"No, but we've already covered that a thousand times. Let's stop beating a dead horse and get on with it." I paused. "I fucking hated lying to Ryan earlier. I wanted to be honest with him and tell him where I really was last night, but I can't do that yet."
"We can't have this conversation here." Her hands shook as she put the napkins down and crumpled up the packet. "Sienna will be here—"
"I'm not telling him a thing unless this is for real."
She froze.
"I mean it, Raven. Either go out with me, away from here, or we quit this shit right now."
Her bright red lips thinned before coming together. Uncertainty flashed across her features, creasing the corners of her eyes, before she finally relaxed and let a sigh escape those colorful lips. "You promise nobody will know?"
"No. I'm not unrealistic."
"At least you're honest." Her lips pulled to the side. "All right, you got it. Four sound good?"
"Four on the outskirts of town. Do you think Lani would let you park at the newspaper?"
"Definitely."
***
I pulled into my parents' driveway and killed the engine. The hushing noise that accompanied the end of it and the interior lights going off was strangely satisfying.
A part of me didn't want to go inside. I knew all about the chat Raven had with her mom earlier, and she was right when she'd texted me that our moms told each other everything. There was no doubt that they'd taken Raven's chat with Alexandra and run with it. They'd have created every possible outcome and all of those likely ended up in marriage and babies, if I knew them, and I did.
I'd driven around the Keys for as long as I could before finally accepting that I needed to get on the road and get home. I'd texted my mom that I'd be late before I'd taken off, but despite my best efforts, the hazy, yellow light coming through the closed curtains in the living room window told me that someone was awake.
I'd bet a hundred bucks it was my mom.
I dragged myself out of the car, hating the way my childhood home looked as the moon reflected off the gray, slate tiles on the roof. I didn't want to think about what it said about me that I'd have rather been in Whiskey Key with Raven. That I'd have rather been in her kitchen, watching her mix drinks. On her sofa, watching her doodle on a pad the way she did when she didn't think anyone was paying her any attention. In her bed, breathing in the fruity smell of her shampoo as her hair spread across the pillow.
I was falling for her.
Too hard. Too fast. Too deep.
Too dangerously.
I'd spent my entire life hating her, yet now, here I was, falling in love with her.
Doing something that I knew, deep down, I had no place doing.
Somehow, I'd managed to break through that hard exterior she threw out to the rest of the world, and I was slowly uncovering the heart that lay beneath it. The only problem was, I didn't want to stop looking. I wanted to keep tearing away the layers of her until I knew every inch of who she was, because despite knowing her our entire lives, I didn't really know her that much at all.
I knew she hated me. I knew she had no time for fools, and that she ran on sparkles and sarcasm. But I didn't know what her favorite food or color or drink was. I didn't know what her biggest fear was or where she imagined her life in ten years. I didn't know if she preferred books or movies and whether she was a cat or a dog person.
It amazed me that I knew her so well without knowing anything about her.
The beep of my car locking was thunderous in the silence of the street, and the flashing lights lit the houses up in orange for a few seconds. I forced myself to walk to the door and let myself in. The TV was a quiet buzz in the background, and I paused after locking the front door.
My gut twitched with the knowledge that someone knew where I really was last night, and I couldn't deny the relief that flooded through me when I caught sight of the back of my father's head. His graying hair was barely visible in the low light from the lamp in the corner of the room.
He hit a button on the remote control and stood up. The remote clattered as it bounced off the table, and he turned to me, a small smile on his face. "You should know," he said, slowly considering each word he spoke, "that your mother and Alexandra have ideas and are on the warpath. Something about you having feelings for Raven and going missing. I don't think they've put two and two together yet."
With that, he winked and walked past me to the stairs.
That was good to know.
I couldn't even thank him for the warning, because by the time I'd really grasped what he was saying, he was gone.