Page 56 of Second Tide's the Charm
“I’ll drink to that.” Gabe sets Adrian’s drink to the side. “Just not this.” He flags down the bartender, orders club soda and lime, then turns to me. “Want anything?”
I tap the blue cocktail. “Seems a shame to let this go to waste.”
“It’s not, trust me.” Adrian’s chagrin combined with his burly exterior is the sweetest.
“Oh, I’m drinking it,” I assure him. This is familiar territory. The joking, the banter. And maybe a small and very petty part of me wants to drink the cocktail intended to woo my former boyfriend. Hisfuture wife, indeed.
“But first, I think we need to commemorate the occasion. Gabe, mind getting a photo?” I tuck an arm around Adrian’s side without thinking, then tense, but his arm slips around me.
Gabe raises his phone. “Absolutely.”
A thought occurs to me, and I hold up a finger. “Hang on a sec.” I lean over the bar and nab a paper straw. Adrian’s hand slips down to my hip to steady me. I straighten and hold it up. “Just in case you want to share.”
“You’re the personification of evil,” he says, but he’s biting back a big grin.
“I think the word you’re looking for is supportive.” Maybe teasing him is skirting the line between friend and colleague, but it’s infinitely better than blurring the line with kisses. I plunk the straw into the drink, droplets splashing the bridge of my nose.
Adrian grabs a napkin and dabs them away. My eyelashes flutter closed in an instinctual urge to capture the feeling. When I open my eyes, he’s biting his lip. “You really don’t have to drink that.”
“How bad can it be?” Putting the straw in my mouth, I flash Gabe a thumbs-up to take the photo. He raises his phone and at the last moment, Adrian ducks down and captures the second straw in his lips. His beard is rough against my jaw, his lips near mine, intimate.
Ex, he said. Colleagues,I told him.I gulp, and the moment the sugary concoction hits my tongue I splutter and flail, sloshing the drink. The cup, slippery with condensation, drops from my hand. It falls in horrifying quickness to the wood floor. When I dare to look, candy sharks are scattered amidst the wreckage of ice chips, the cherry perched atop the mess.
Adrian stares down at the mess. “Thank God,” he mutters.
A laugh escapes through my fingers, then I’m cracking up. He joins in, belly laughs shaking his shoulders. I’d forgotten how much I missed that sound. Over the years I missed his touch, missed his words of comfort, missed his steadying words in a crisis.
But his laugh... I hadn’t known how much my ears craved the sound. How much my heart needed his joy.
Doubled over, he nudges me. “Was that not heinous?”
“So heinous,” I agree, when I get my breath back from laughing. “For a drink so blue, it sure had a heck of a lot of grenadine.”
“Warned you not to try it.” Grinning, Gabe passes back my phone. “I’m going to say goodbye to Marissa. Meet you outside in five?” he asks Adrian, then turns to me. “Pretty cool that you’re not letting that loser have the last word. If you ever want help getting set up with social media again, let me know.”
“I will, thanks.” It’s really nice to start rebuilding my network. I’m ending the night with new connections, and Adrian and I managed to find steady ground. My plan to get my career on track is moving along.
“Heard there was an accident.” Summoned by the commotion, Angie walks up and peers over the bar. “What happened here?” Adrian and I eyeball each other like guilty students when the principal arrives.
“Sorry, slipped out of my hands.” I pick up the glass and hand it to her, thankful it didn’t break.
“No need to apologize.” She looks at Adrian meaningfully. “You got lucky, young man.” Brows raised, she holds his gaze for another moment, then steps away.
Whatever that was about, Adrian’s not sharing, because he turns to me the moment she’s out of earshot. “Lucky would be if that monstrosity never existed.”
“You’re going to complain about a drink being commemorated in your honor?” I pull my neck back, blowing out my cheeks. “Fame has changed you, Dr. Hollis-Parker.”
A group of tipsy people walks by and he takes my arm, tucking me against him. “Complaining, am I?” His breath a whisper against my ear.
“Sounded like it to me.” I lean into him, unsteady, and his hand settles at the small of my back. I drag my gaze away from his mouth, up to his eyes, the lights reflected in them like stars. His hand is still curled around my waist and my fingers contract, bunching the fabric of his shirt. Every nerve in my body is alive, centered on him. “A handful of fans and suddenly you’re turning your nose up at perfectly good beverages.”
He chuckles, the vibration reverberating through my body. “That’s got to be the most shade thrown at a man in years.”
I turn, back flush against the bar, the front of my hip pressed to Adrian’s. He doesn’t back away. “I didn’t mean a word of it. Especially the part about the drink being good.”
People jostle him, pressing us even closer together, and his laughter stills. His hand is still wrapped around my arm; I drop my gaze to his fingers. Remember how those same fingers used to weave through my hair, helping take down my braids. How those work-roughened knuckles tipped my chin up to meet his lips, how his mouth on mine was a decadent ache and sweet relief all at once.
The crowd parts, and with a shake of his head, he lets go, cool air seeping into the heated space between us. “See you on the boat, Evans.”
