Rising from the Ashes (19 page)

He didn’t even bother to take his eyes off her. “Yeah, sure thing,” he replied.

He obviously hadn’t heard a word I said. I let out a laugh and turned to Emmy and Luke, leaving Ben to his drooling.

A few minutes later, we all stood to head to the stage when I heard Stacia suck in a gasp.

“Heads up. Three o’clock, Savvy.”

I turned to my right to see what she was talking about.

“No, the other way,” she said in a loud whisper.

God love her.
“The other way is nine o’clock, Stacia.”

“Whatever,” she hissed. “Just turn to your left.”

We all made an obvious show of looking over to see what she was talking about just as Charlotte and her group of Barbie dolls came walking through the door.

“Ah shit,” I said on a sigh.

Things had been going so well that I hadn’t even realized that Mickey hadn’t been around to know the latest goings-on in our circle.

“What? What’s happening?”

Emmy leaned towards us to fill Mickey in. “That’s Jeremy’s ex.”

“Which one?” Mickey asked, eyeing the group in disgust.

Where Mickey looked like a rocker, Charlotte and her friends were the complete opposite, wearing pastel sundresses, pearls, and too much makeup. They stuck out like sore thumbs.

“The brunette who looks like she belongs at a country club instead of a bar,” Emmy replied.

“Okay…no accounting for taste or anything, but what’s the problem? And what does it have to do with Savannah?”

“Savvy and Jeremy got back together,” Stacia squealed a little too loudly.

I cringed and shot up a prayer that her voice hadn’t carried all the way across the bar.

“No shit?” Mickey yelled. “Why the hell am I just now finding this out?”

It was obvious those two were family. If Charlotte’s posse hadn’t heard Stacia, they’d definitely heard Mickey.

Charlotte’s eyes cut in my direction before she leaned in to her friends and whispered something. All of them turned their attention my way, each scrunching up their fake noses like they smelled something gross. I was sure they would have had wrinkled brows too, but the Botox was obviously preventing that.

I turned my eyes back to Mickey, trying to ignore the looks coming from the other side of the bar. I would typically let something like that roll right off me, but for some reason, knowing that Charlotte and her minions were staring me down was really getting to me. But I’d be damned if I let Charlotte see that.

Jeremy must have seen her walk in and sensed my discomfort because he was behind me before I could even turn around. “You okay, honey?”

The concern on his face was moving, and when he ran his fingers down my cheek and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, I couldn’t stop from leaning in to his touch.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just a little awkward, you know.”

“I know.” He leaned in and gave me a slow, thorough kiss.

I probably would have stayed there all night if the sound of breaking glass hadn’t pulled me out of my lust filled daze.

We all turned to see her friends leading a tear-soaked Charlotte out the door. I didn’t like the woman, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t sympathetic.

I turned back to Jeremy with a frown. “You shouldn’t have done that in front of her.”

He ran his fingers through my hair and crouched down to my level to look directly in my eyes. “I can’t worry about her, Savannah. The only person I care about is you, and it was obvious you weren’t happy. It’s my job to make sure you’re always happy.”

He is so getting lucky as soon as we get home!
I stood up on my toes to kiss him and whispered, “I am happy, Jeremy. I love you.”

“Only ever you,” he whispered to me before heading back toward the stage.

We all made our way to the front of the crowd as the band started up. I always enjoyed watching them play, but now that I was actually with Jeremy, his sex appeal on stage skyrocketed. The only thoughts I had running through my head as we danced and sang along were all the naughty things I was going to do with him when we got home.

After several songs, the guys called Mickey up to the stage with them. Anytime she came to a show when she was in town, they made sure she sang a couple of songs with them. She always sounded beautiful and the crowd ate it up.

The music started, and after a few seconds, Mickey’s hypnotic voice began drifting through the microphone. I was so busy listening to her voice that I almost missed the song she was singing—
almost.

As she poured her heart into Coheed and Cambria’s “Dark Side of Me,” I couldn’t help but relate to the lyrics. When she got to the chorus and started singing about giving her everything for all the wrong things, my mind wandered back to the decisions I’d made all those years ago, and the tears began welling up in my eyes.

As the song played on, the guilt started weighing heavily on me, and it took everything I had not to let the tears fall. I knew Jeremy would notice if I started to cry, and I couldn’t risk him asking questions.

Lizzy saw my face and came over to wrap an arm around my waist. “You okay?” she asked discreetly, her voice full of concern.

I sniffed and pasted on a fake smile. “Yeah…yeah, I’m good. Mickey just sounds so beautiful that I got a little emotional.”

It was obvious she saw right through me. “You have to tell him, Savvy,” she whispered in my ear so that no one else could hear her over the music.

I looked into her eyes and nodded. “I know,” I whispered, fighting back a sob. I refused to make a scene in the middle of a crowded dance floor.

Seeing that I was desperately trying to pull myself together, Lizzy turned us back toward the stage and we swayed along with the music as it continued.

For the rest of the night, I did my best to act as if nothing was wrong, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop worrying that I was at risk of losing the one thing that made me the happiest.

The sad look that clouded Savannah’s face earlier when Mickey was up on stage singing with us hadn’t been lost on me. I asked her about it after the show and she brushed it off, saying she’d just loved the song and Mickey’s voice, so she had gotten a little emotional. I wanted to push the topic more, but when Savannah didn’t want to talk about something she would completely shut down if it was forced.

Things had been going so good between us that I wasn’t willing to risk her closing any part of herself off from me—at least not this early on.

We went back to her place after leaving Colt’s and she practically jumped me the minute we got through the door. I had no clue that she’d be so turned on from watching me play the guitar, but now that I knew, I was going to carry that damn thing around with me everywhere.

Hours later, after I’d successfully worn her out, I was lying in her bed with her naked body partially draped across my chest as I ran my fingers up and down her back.

“Mmm, that feels so good,” she mumbled in a sleepy voice.

Something had been on my mind ever since we’d gotten back together, but I was never sure of a good time to bring it up. With her worn out from great sex and half asleep in my arms, I figured she’d be much more agreeable than usual, so I went ahead and blurted it out. “I think we should move in together.”

My hand stopped moving when I felt her whole body tense up.

After a couple of seconds, she lifted her head and looked at me with shock written all over her face. “Are you serious? Jeremy, we’ve been together for, like, a minute. Don’t you think it’s a little soon to discuss moving in together?”

I knew that would be her argument so I’d made sure to prepare a kick-ass rebuttal. “Savannah, it’s not like we just met and started going out. We were together for five years, and we were friends long before that. We’ve been a huge part of each other’s lives since we were kids.”

She sat up, and to my disappointment, wrapped the sheet around her, covering that delectable body of hers. “Jer, we were just kids when we dated. Things have changed. We aren’t the same people we were back then.”

I pushed myself up and rested my back against the headboard. “We’re not that different, sugar. You still chew on your bottom lip when you’re uncomfortable.” I pointed to her mouth where her lip was currently pulled between her teeth to make my point. “You still have a tendency to be volatile when things don’t go your way, and you’re still a god awful singer.”

She reached over to slap my arm and I used the opportunity to pull her onto my lap so that she was straddling my thighs.

“You and I both know that this is it for us. What’s the point in wasting any more time than we already have?”

I could see it in her eyes. She was starting to come around to the idea of us living together so I went in for the kill.

“And besides, you’re gonna be twenty-seven in, like, a month. Don’t you want to get the ball rolling before you get too old?”

She pinched my nipples as hard as she could and I let out a yell as I tried to grab her wrists.

“I’m not old, you asshole!” she said with a laugh. “You’re the one who’s finding gray hairs.”

“Baby, you’re practically ancient,” I responded as we started wrestling around on the bed. “You wait any longer and you’re gonna dry up.”

“None of this is making me want to move in with you.”

I rolled her underneath me and settled between her thighs. I knew I had her where I wanted her when she looked at me with those hooded whiskey-colored eyes. Her lustful expression told me everything I needed to know.

“No more wasting time, sugar. I’ve waited seven years to begin my life with you. I don’t want to keep waiting.”

She started to chew her bottom lip and I wanted to ask her what she was worried about, but I couldn’t risk her shutting down during such an important conversation.

“Can I think about it?” she asked.

I knew it was a lot for her to take in over such a short amount of time, so I was willing to give her a chance to think it through. I knew what I wanted, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Yeah, baby. You can think about it.”

The smile she gave me lit up her entire face and I was lost in her.

“I love you so much, Savannah.”

“Only ever you,” she replied.