Drawn To You (Paloma's Edge) (15 page)

B
eth crossed her arms. “And when do I get the honor of meeting her?”

“Whenever she comes to our side of town,” Pierce told her.

Beth brought her hand to her hip and she looked so sexy doing it, but if I thought about it too much, I’d be sporting an erection, and that was very inappropriate. Beth would think I was truly deviant. And I didn’t know if Pierce would try to kick my ass or rag on me forever about it. Or both.

“How’s her body temperature?” I asked her.

“Back to normal.”

I turned off the stove and poured some steaming soup into the bowl. Beth took it from me.
I texted Gavin an update.

When I raised my head, Beth and Pierce
peered at me expectantly. “Let Bri know that Gavin said he’s not mad at her,” I told Beth.

***

It was almost four in the morning when I parked in front to the Pruitts’ house. Beth had tried to keep up a conversation with me, but she had fallen asleep on the way over here. She looked so peaceful that I let her rest. I wanted her to stay in my guestroom. I would’ve slept on the floor, but she wanted to go to the Pruitts’.

When
Gavin had come down the stairs after seeing that Bri was in a no man’s land deep sleep, he’d hugged Beth so many times, I thought he was gonna kiss her too. And while I understood how grateful he was, I held myself back from stepping in between them.

Beth stirred and turned her head toward me. I brushed a strand of hair away from her face. She wet her lips and swallowed.

“Sorry.” She wiped her eyes. “You were saying something?” she asked me, her voice sleepy, huskier than last night. I supposed that was how her voice was when she woke up in the morning. Would I ever know what it was like to wake up with her in the morning? I’d never had that experience because right after sex, I’d left the girl—or the girls, now that I recalled.

“I was just saying that it was cool for you to stay and not have Pierce drive you here before he went to Mona’s. Bri
didn’t want me with her.” I gave a short laugh at the memory; Bri had covered herself with her comforter when she’d realized I’d been standing by the door.

“No, she didn’t.” Beth smirked.

I opened my glove compartment and took an envelope from it.

“What’s the envelope for?”

“Tickets for the Tainted Virtue concert.”

“Oh, Chase, I—”

I put my hand on hers and found her skin to be a little cool for my liking. She was still in my hoodie but she needed to be in her room, under the covers of her bed. “I listened to everything you said last night. Take Bri with you to the concert. She likes them too.”

“But you
planned for us to go. It’s not right. Take someone else with you. She and I will do something else.”

“Beth, you don’t want me to take another chick to a Tainted Virtue concert, or any other place.” She started looking at my hand over hers. “They won’t be in Florida
after tomorrow and this might be the only chance Bri has to see them perform. She can forget about last night for a few hours.”

I drew my hand back and slipped the envelope beneath her fingers. Beth bobbed her head. I reached over and pressed my lips to the bridge of her nose. When she
shifted in her seat, I lowered my mouth to hers for a second. And then I withdrew. She gripped my hand back.

Her lips twisted into a wry grin. “I’ll make sure it’s an alcohol
-free night for us.”

Once Beth was safely inside in the Pruitts
’ home, my car filled with the real vanilla and honey scent that belonged to her. I licked my lips and still tasted her sweet, natural flavor on my lips.

Bethany

“You lucky bitch!” Mariska cried.

“Hey! It was only two days ago that Chase told me he’d take me to a Tainted Virtue concert, and then the thing with and him Cassidy blew up in my face.”

“You said that you think he’s being on the up
-and-up with you. Don’t lie so I don’t talk to him,” Jake told me.

“I am not,” I assured him. “I tried to talk to Cassidy this morning, but she left, and hasn’t responded to my messages. Something is not adding up, and it’s her. Practically everyone has said that she’s shady.”

“Well.” Mariska sighed. “I hope your cousin is wrong, because if Chase is the guy I saw on Facebook, then you’ve made a major upgrade from Gregory!”

I laughed and Jake made a sound. “Uh, how shallow!” he scoffed. “But go with your instincts on this one, Beth. And have fun with Brianna at the concert. Maybe when we visit you, I can meet this Brianna.”

“Uh, no, Jake. You’re not gonna mess up Beth’s new friendship.”

“I was just making a suggestion.”

“You can make your existence known with someone else,” I told him in warning. “The last thing Brianna needs is you sniffing around. ”

“Jeez!” He huffed. “You two paint a very unfavorable picture of me.”

“Hey, you do a good job of that all on your own,” Mariska remarked with mirth. “If you don’t like the way the picture looks, paint a new one.”

We he
ard Jake heave in a breath and chuckle. “Nah, no time in the near future,” he told her. “See if you can get Sage’s signature for me.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Jake.”

“Cool. I may drop by later,” he told Mariska.

“Ok
ay. But be warned Pete’s got a friend coming over tonight and they may ask you to play with them.”

“Not a problem for me. At least Pete wouldn’t mind me meeting his friend,” he said innocently.

“It’s not the same and you know it,” I said.

“
But now that Pete likes me, it won’t hurt me if his friend does too,” he laughed. “Oh, and, uh, ask Mariska to tell you about her date with Tom.”

“Bastard,” she called out.

Roaring, he hung up and I took the phone off of speaker and sat on the sofa.

“I forgot that you had a date with Tom yesterday.”

“Too bad I can’t forget,” Mariska quipped.

“Give me the juicy deets.”

“Such apt words!” Mariska remarked. “Everything began fine. Tom picked me up on time. My parents were very happy when they saw him. And you know how difficult they can be. We went to dinner and he ate with his mouth open the entire time.”

“No!”

“Oh, yes. I remember the sound too, ‘chomp, chomp, chomp,’ and I ignored it as best as I could. When we finished dinner and got to the movie part, I was relieved. I thought we could breeze through the night, and we did. Those two hours and forty minutes were the highlight of our date. We sat next to each other. He had his arm around me. But when he had taken me home, he asked me for a kiss, and I thought, ‘What the heck, I haven’t been kissed in months.’ I just hoped he still didn’t have a ton of food particles in his mouth. And when we kissed, he slobbered all over me. He bit my tongue, and I swear, Beth, he wanted to suck my chin!”

I stifled my laughter. “
I thought Tom would’ve had some finesse. And some dinner etiquette.”

“Yeah, it was a real juicy kiss
. Tom noticed that I didn’t relish the kiss like he did. He’d asked me to show him how I like to be kissed. So I’d shown him. I mean, when do guys show a willingness to improve their kissing?”

“
Did he learn?”

“Unfortunately
, no. I wish that Tom and I’d kept it completely platonic. I just don’t see him the same. We have the same hours at Luigi’s. And he’s so sweet.”

“Did you tell him that there won’t be any second dates?”

“Oh, yes!” She sighed. “On a brighter note, someone wants to say hello.”

“Hello,” Pete greeted me excitedly.

“Hi, Pete. How’re you?”

“Good. Are you good?”

“Yes, I am.”

“That’s what Mariska tells me. I asked her,” Pete told me as if I didn’t know.

“I asked her about you too. Are you enjoying your summer program?”

“
Uh huh. I made a tie for first place in the spelling bee contest!”

“That calls for a treat. Tell
Mariska I said so. And tell Mrs. Muldoon that I said hello when you see her.”

“Y
ou’ve made his week,” Mariska said as she got back on the phone. “Take some photos of them if you can.”

***

The silver print-out tickets Chase had purchased enabled Brianna to have valet parking. The elevators took us to the theater on the fifth floor of the Double Dulce club. Triangle lights surrounded the border of the room; shimmery black curtains covered the spacious stage.

“
This is sweet!” Brianna said. We scanned the rest of the space together and saw employees setting up, checking the mics and instruments.

While I liked that Brianna was here with me, I wished that Chase
were here too. This wasn’t a concert in an arena. This felt more personal than an arena would. Each member came out from the entrance we’d used as the curtains opened. Ari and Renner came down the left aisle, while Sage and Austin walked down the right aisle.

I pulled Brianna back down
to her seat. I had stopped myself from leaping out of my seat before I reached for her. When they were all on stage, Sage went in front of the mic, made a signal, and only a few lights from each corner of the wall and the ceiling stayed on. We could still see them, but it had a calming effect on the crowd.

“Thanks
for coming. This means the world to us.” Her makeup was more neutral tonight and she looked absolutely perfect. The top of her dress was strapless and fitted on her bust, but was loose from the waist to the highest part of her thighs. I’d rarely seen her in a dress on television, online, or in any of their photos. I couldn’t tell what color Renner’s eyes were tonight because he had so much eyeliner and gray and black eye shadow on. “I’d told the boys tonight that I was starting this show, sing something close to my heart. This song is a reminder that when your love, even in your friendships feels stagnant, and if indeed it is, you may just need to remember that love is not just a feeling. If the love inside you doesn’t translate into congruent actions, ‘A Little Rewind’ could be in order. ‘A Little Rewind’ can get you to where you need to be before the love is lost for good.”

Austin and Ari stood on either side of Sage and sang along with her for the climb portion of her song, while Renner’s plucks on his guitar was powerfully tempered
by Austin’s zeal on his. Tears brimmed my eyes. A torn expression started on Sage’s face. I felt the power of being so close to Tainted Virtue, of having emotions poured into the crowd and recycled back into them. I’d remembered how Cindy used to rest her head on my lap when we’d said that we’d be there for each other forever, no matter what. And I missed her deeply right now because she was my mom, my first love, my first heartache, and someone I knew I wanted to return to me. She was with a married man, and even though it still angered me, it made me feel me desperate for her. Desperate for her not to forget that I hadn’t forgotten how much she loved me. Deep down in my heart, I knew that she’d like Chase, maybe even be a little envious of how great he was to me. I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to with Chase to make him interested in me, like she’d said I’d have to do to be with a guy. It was not only the fact that I wanted Chase to be nothing like the guys Cindy had dated. I was really beginning to believe that he was his own person.

Four
songs later, Brianna and I had jumped from our seats and danced in the aisle like some of the other fans. As it occurred to me that I was moving as if no one was around me, I flicked my eyes and saw that other people were dancing without a care in the world. Couples near us were lost in each other through Ari and Austin’s sultry voices. Ari teased that some babies would be made tonight, but I couldn’t help but think that it was true.

Usually, I was
the last in line for almost everything. I could enter the department store first, or be blocks ahead of people and end up at the end of the line, but now I pushed through a bunch of people who shoved me and even tried to trip Brianna and I. I didn’t care if I pissed some people off, like I had other times in my life. This was my first concert and Chase had obviously spent a lot of money so that I could see my favorite band. He’d been so selfless in letting Brianna take his place tonight. We were far from the end of the line. Ari, Austin, and Renner granted some girls a kiss on the check, and of course one had to roughly pull the back of Ari’s head and try to kiss him on the lips, but one of the guards intervened at the right moment. Smirking, Ari had made a gesture like he hadn’t wanted to stop her, but the guys stopped giving kisses to fans on the sides of their faces afterwards, which had resulted in some disgruntled females. Ari knew that he was gorgeous and made no attempt at acting modest about it.

***

Brianna and I got to meet every member of Tainted Virtue. We’d gotten their signatures. She might never wash her shoes or that shirt again. She and I were only able to get one photo taken with them. Afterwards, we’d been whisked away by their guards.

“Austin actually let me touch his head!” Brianna
’s green eyes shone. “I was kidding when I asked him.”

“That’s why he brought his
head down for you to touch it. How was it?”

The sides of
her face quirked up shamelessly. “Smooth, soft, and a little shiny!”

***

Chase:
Good afternoon, beautiful. Heard you two almost became groupies last night.

Me:
We had a blast. Thanks again. It did wonders for Brianna. I’ve got some signed bookmarks and stationery for you.

Chase:
Not big on autographs. I want a copy of the photo you and Bri took with them.

Me:
Ok. I’ll get it to you.

Chase:
Look forward to it.

Hearing the sound of a door close drew my attention. I left my phone on the night table and shot up from bed. I opened the door and looked as Cassidy went down the stairs.

“Hey Cassidy! Wait up.”

“Beth.” She addressed me with a smirk.

“I’ve been trying to meet up with you, but you haven’t replied to most of my messages. Can you spare me a few minutes?” I asked.

“Sure. You must be eager to talk to me since you’d decided not to go on that date with Andrew.”

I rolled my eyes at her and she pretended not to notice as she went into my guestroom. I got to the point
. “I asked to talk to you because I feel like your story about you and Chase and his account of what took place don’t jibe.”

She remained by the door. “
And you believe Chase?” she asked in a mocking tone that only surprised me because I thought she’d try to act offended by my accusation.

“
When I reflected on it, I recalled that Chase could only take you in small doses.”

“If that’s what you
need to tell yourself so you don’t have to remember that I’ve had him first, so be it.” She pursed her lips and spun around. “Oh, and next time tell Brianna that big girls can handle their alcohol, and little girls should stay home and watch
Golden Girls
.”

Seeing Cassidy
for who she really was engendered strong dislike and a feeling of loss in me. The only thing I couldn’t change about our relationship was that we were related. I decided that I couldn’t tell Brianna about Cassidy’s comments. Cassidy liked to bring out the worst in people, so that she could appear to all that she was beautiful and harmless, while Brianna would be viewed as uncivilized. Directly or indirectly, Cassidy was not going to harm my friend if I could prevent it. And she’d definitely checked out my Facebook profile to learn that I absolutely love
The Golden Girls
. I still stand by that show having one of the funniest casts of women on television.

“And big girls should learn that it’s a punk
-ass tactic to try to shift the topic by bringing up someone into a conversation who can’t speak up for herself. It’s hard for me to take that you, my own cousin, doesn’t care that Chase isn’t here anymore and not working at the Paloma. What if he had nowhere else to go? Your skewed thinking is a definite cry for help.”

Cassidy blew out a breath and her face screwed up in a sneer. “You need your head examined. You’re only here for the summer. Watch yourself
, or you won’t only be motherless.”

I straightened
my hands by my sides because I really wanted to just punch her in the face for bringing up Cindy’s departure. There was some validity to what she was saying. I wouldn’t deny to Uncle Anton or Aunt Deborah what I thought about Cassidy if they asked me, and how I pitied her. I wanted nothing to do with her. At least, not until she was honest with herself and with others.