Drew
We didn’t talk about what happened in the bar at all.
But, oh, was it there.
It burned beneath my skin like a fever. It gnawed at my stomach in a way only severe hunger could. Confusion tried to battle against the other emotion within me, but confusion was a far weaker opponent for anger.
Shit, was I angry.
I felt betrayed on so many levels. Like our unspoken yet sacred best friend bond had been stomped on tonight. By Trent’s size-twelve shoe.
Literally right in front of me lay our relationship with the tread marks from his boots. How the fuck could he sneak off to a gay bar without me? How could he not tell me something so basic about himself?
Because it isn’t basic.
It was earth shattering. Life altering. Friendship defining.
Trent wasn’t gay.
Is he?
He dated women.
Barely.
He hooked up with women.
Not often.
I would know if he were gay.
You do.
How could he do this to me? To our friendship? Even though I was driving and staring out the windshield, it wasn’t the road I saw.
Trent was at the bar. Trent’s wide, familiar build faced away from me. How the gray shirt clung to his broad back and stretched out over his shoulders like a second skin. How the brim of that fucking black backward baseball hat created a shadow against his neck, creating a sort of veil over the smooth, warm skin there.
The scene replayed in my mind over and over.
The way his shoulders shook with his laugh. How strong his hard, wide jaw looked when he turned his head in the direction of the man he was with.
I watched the side of his lip curve up, and I knew the exact smile stretching his face. He’d smiled at me like that a thousand times before. His crooked tooth was on full display. Judging by the way the man beside him leaned in, he thought it was just as charming as I did.
Wait. I thought his crooked tooth was charming?
“What the fuck is going on?” Trent asked, cutting into the movie playing in my mind.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I growled over my shoulder.
He was sitting in the backseat, Joey in the front with me. I felt her stare between us, and I wondered what she was thinking.
I had enough shit to think about right now.
“I thought you were driving tonight.” Trent went on after a brief pause. “On the other side of town.”
“Thought I’d be occupied, did you?” I snapped, the fuse inside me growing a little bit hotter.
“What?” I heard the bewilderment in his tone, and it made me even madder. I punched down on the gas pedal, and the car shot forward with a loud growl.
“We were driving,” Joey explained, turning sideways in the seat so she could glance in the back. “Things got a little… heated, and we ended up in a car chase.”
“Jesus,” Trent muttered, his voice close. The back of my neck prickled with his nearness. He was leaning up between the seats so he could hear Joey better. “Why didn’t you call me?”
I barked out a harsh laugh. “Would you have answered?”
“Are you fucking serious right now, Drew?” Trent bit out.
He was getting mad. Good.
Asshole.
“We were a little too busy to call,” Joey answered as if there were no electric undercurrents practically vibrating the car.
I felt Trent’s hand grip the side of my seat and tug, like he was using it as leverage to lean around and stare out the back window. “Are you still being followed? Maybe we should get off the road.”
“I lost them. They’re gone,” I said.
The seat jostled a bit again when he turned back around to face the front. “They could still be out looking.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Probably. But we were in the bar for a few before we met up with you and left. They’re likely on the other side of town by now.”
“You were at the bar for a while?” he asked low.
Ah.
The first hint of guilt finally broke into his tone.
What is it you didn’t want me to see… friend?
Another flashback of Trent at the bar with the man stole over my vision.
Trent’s arms were on the bar. He was leaning sideways, tilting close to the man beside him so he could hear whatever was being said.
The man he was with, a total tool, was totally buying whatever T was selling. He was dressed in a freaking flannel shirt, a pair of jeans, and boots a lumberjack would own.
And his hair…
Dear God, his hair.
It was in a man bun.
I know I didn’t bother to style mine much, but any guy who took the time to comb it up into a freaking bun on top of their head…
Might as well pack their shit and go live in the forest off granola for the rest of their life.
A freaking man bun.
Ivy would call this dude a lumbersexual.
I called him lame.
I relived the moment lame ass turned sideways on the stool, bringing his body around to face Trent. I felt like it was happening for the first time all over again when I recalled the way he leaned in, acting like the place was so loud he had to do it to be heard.
It wasn’t that goddamn loud.
He was totally just looking for an excuse to get into Trent’s space.
And then it happened. He leaned in so far his chest brushed up against T’s shoulder.
Trent didn’t pull away. He dropped his hands down onto the flat surface of the bar and leaned in, bringing himself even closer to the man bun-wearing, granola-eating lame-o.
He was so close his ear almost touched the man’s lips.
“Watch out!” Joey’s high-pitched screech and the feel of the Mustang jerking shook me from the memory.
Bright headlights blinded me, and I squinted as the Mustang swerved around an oncoming truck. My reflexes were top notch, and I recovered in mere seconds and had the Fastback straight on the road in no time.
My heart was thundering so loud it was all I could hear, despite the fact I knew Trent and Joey were exclaiming about my distracted driving.
I slowed the car a little and looked down. Trent’s large hand was wrapped around the right side of the steering wheel.
That explained the jerking motion of the car just as Joey started screaming. He’d totally just stopped the Mustang from crashing head on into an oncoming car.
A breath shuddered from my chest, and my back hit the seat completely. “Fuck,” I muttered quietly.
I’d been so wrapped up in what happened back there I almost got us all killed.
Good going, Forrester. Good going.
“You straight?” Trent said, his voice right beside my ear.
Goose bumps broke out over the back of my neck and raced down my spine. I nodded and gripped the wheel even tighter.
His palm slid down the side of the wheel until his hand brushed against mine. “Hey, you want me to drive?”
His touch didn’t shake me. Maybe it should have.
Yeah, it definitely should have.
It felt good. It felt right. It calmed me down.
“I’m good now. Sorry,” I said, my words hoarse.
The pad of his thumb brushed across the back of my hand before his arm disappeared back into the backseat.
Deep down inside my jeans, my ball sack tingled.
“Oh my God!” Joey gasped and fell back.
I stole a glance to the side. She was plastered against her seat with a hand pressed against her chest. Dark curls spilled around her very pale face, and her eyes were wide as saucers.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Took about ten years off my life, Drew!” she fussed. “Guess I didn’t need them anyway.”
I couldn’t help it. Her smartass acceptance of my almost deadly behavior made me smile. “Something tells me you got plenty of years left on that engine.”
Her smile was fast. “You know it.”
I held out my fist between the seats, and she pounded hers against it.
“Thanks for being my navigator tonight.”
“We make a pretty good team,” she replied.
“Hells yeah.” If there was one thing I learned with absolute clarity tonight, it was Joey Gamble was a woman I’d drive with any day of the week. She was definitely someone I’d want on my team.
She settled back against the seat, and I became aware of Trent’s distance. He was no longer leaning up between the seats. His oversized palm was no longer taking over the side of my seat. I glanced in the rearview mirror, and our eyes collided.
He was sitting in the center of the bench seat, a pinched, sour look on his face.
Just before he looked away, I thought I saw a shade of bleakness move through his gaze and, along with it, a flicker of hurt.
The rest of the ride passed in silence. I kept a white-knuckled grip on the wheel and forced my focus to remain on the present, on the road.
We made it to the hotel Joey was staying at about thirty minutes later. The Mustang slid to a stop right under the awning near the entrance.
“I’ll walk you up,” I said and unbuckled the belt.
“That’s not necessary.” She waved me back.
I didn’t listen. There was no way in hell I wasn’t going to at least see her to her door after everything that happened tonight. I’d already been enough of a dick; I didn’t need to make it worse.
Besides, I couldn’t be sure some of Lorhaven’s goonies wouldn’t be staking the lobby out, just waiting for a chance to get her alone.
I left the engine running but leaned back in the driver’s door and into the dim backseat. “I’ll be right back.”
Trent didn’t say anything even though I waited for him to.
Joey was on one of the top floors, and I insisted on riding the elevator up with her and making sure she got inside. The ride up was silent but charged, and I assumed it was because she was pissed I insisted on escorting her.
But when she opened the door to her room and motioned me in first without a hint of any hostility, I started to wonder if I was imagining things.
Fuck, this entire night was jacked up.
I walked through her entire suite, checking the place out. I was more thorough than I really needed to be. Clearly, she was safe here. This was the best hotel in the town and the security was top notch. Ron Gamble wouldn’t allow his daughter to stay anywhere less.
I needed the few minutes of quiet checking her bedroom and bath afforded me. I needed the air. I needed the minute to try and pull myself together, because I felt like I was coming apart.
I’d never felt so twisted up inside. And at the same time, so pissed.
I didn’t know how to handle it.
Usually, I’d get in the car and drive, but I’d been driving all night, and I felt worse now than I had before.
“All’s clear,” I told her, stepping back into the small sitting room.
“Thanks for checking,” she said as she kicked off her boots.
“Hey,” I said, stepping up close. “I’m sorry about tonight. Putting you in danger was the last thing I wanted to do.”
She tipped her head back and looked up, a sardonic grin twisting her lips. “Would it make you feel better if I told you I had fun?”
I laughed. “I like you.”
Her teeth flashed with a wide smile. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
“You know you like me.” I teased.
“You’re the first guy in a long time who isn’t afraid to actually spend time with me. Most guys are so scared of my father I get treated like china.”
“Your father’s the one who told me to drive with you.” I pointed out.
She laughed. “I’m pretty sure tonight wasn’t what he had in mind.”
I grimaced. “Maybe we could keep that little adventure between us,” I whispered conspiratorially.
“It’s a shame,” she mused and turned away.
I caught her arm, my brow furrowing. “What is?”
She glanced down to where my hand held her and back up. Her eyes softened a little. “That you’re already taken.”
“Taken?” I felt my nose wrinkle. “I’m not taken.”
She looked a little sad. “Oh, but you are.”
“Honey,” I drawled. “I’m as single as a dollar bill.”
“With lines like that, it’s no wonder.” She laughed and tried to pull away.
I pulled her back, this time a little harder than before. She stumbled against my chest.
“I don’t see any other girls hanging around. Do you?” I rumbled.
Both her palms slid up my chest and stopped just below my collarbone. “Girls? No.”
The way she said that… My head drew back. “What?”
“Nothing,” she murmured and pulled away.
Frustration made me growl. “Uh-uh.” I grabbed her around the waist to push her up against the wall. “Tell me.”
“Kiss me.” It was spoken with clear challenge.
I lifted an eyebrow.
She lifted one in response.
I didn’t ever back down from a challenge.
Without another word, I cupped her jaw in my palm and splayed my fingers across the back of her neck. I watched her as I leaned in, slowly lowering my face, letting her anticipate my arrival.
Just as her tongue jutted out to wet her lower lip, to prepare for my kiss, I jerked forward. I caught her lips and the tip of her tongue in my first touch.
I slid my lips over hers as her tongue drew back, and we kissed softly at an unhurried rate.
It was a good kiss.
More sensual than heated.
And then it was over.
She pulled back, her head going up against the wall. Still holding her face, I searched her eyes.
“That’s what I thought.” She sighed.
I felt my eyebrows shoot up. “Which is?”
She slid out around me and stepped into the room. “For someone so smart, you are incredibly dense.”
“Spit it out already,” I snapped, feeling surly. This was the first time ever a woman didn’t seem completely thrilled with my kiss.
“You’re not interested in me, Drew,” Joey said, blunt. “I think you want to be. But you’re into someone else.”
“Did you hit your head tonight when I wasn’t looking?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“All right.” I played along. “Who is it you think I’m into?”
This ought to be good, considering she was the only other person I’d been hanging out with besides Trent.
Realization smacked me in the face. She saw and nodded.
Oh shit.
“Trent and I are just friends,” I stammered. “Best friends.”
“You almost killed us all tonight after seeing him at a gay bar with someone else.”
“He lied to me!” I shot out.
“And who are you lying to, Drew?” she asked softly, her voice a complete contrast to mine.
The question was like an uppercut to my jaw. I felt my head snap back.
“Tell me our kiss made you want more,” she goaded. “You might be able to lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. That was lukewarm at best. A kiss between friends.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. She was right. That kiss was nothing I wanted to repeat. But that didn’t meant I was hot for my best friend.
Joey crossed to the door and palmed the handle.
“Kiss him,” she suggested. “Just once. I haven’t been around you two long, but it’s been long enough. One kiss is all it’s going to take. The second you do, you won’t be able to deny what you and I have is friendship, but with Trent?” She pulled open the door. “It’s way more.”
“I’m not gay,” I echoed as I walked numbly out into the hallway. I was oddly shocked by this conversation.
When I glanced back at Joey, she smiled softly. “Neither is Trent.”
The words hung there in the empty hallway long after she’d closed the door.