Page 11 of Fractured Rhythm

Dammit.

BASH

What the hellwas I doing back at the bar? I could tell myself that I wasn’t hoping Cassie would be here, but that would be a complete lie. Not that I’d shown up every day since I’d seen her last week, but maybe once or twice—okay three times. I shook my head.

Three fucking times.

It was ridiculous, but accidentally running into her seemed less awkward than showing up at her apartment and having her slam the door in my face.

I moved toward the bar and squeezed into an empty inch of space, desperately needing a drink.

“What are you having? Whiskey, right?” the bartender asked.

Okay, maybe I’d been here too many times recently.

“Ahh, nah. I’ll take any IPA on tap,” I said, and the bartender grabbed a fresh glass and poured my beer. I handed over some cash and took a sip before turning away to scan the crowd. There was a band tonight. They weren’t half bad. Entertaining, but they didn’t engage enough with the crowd. Jax would’ve danced circles around the lead singer on stage.

Jax was a damn maniac. I owed the guys a call or a text this week. Josh was still on my ass daily, but I finally had a song or two. Really, it was one halfway decent song and a lame attempt at a second one, but it was a start. I hated the looming deadline, but we had a contract, as Josh was constantly reminding me. Fuck, he was annoying as shit on a good day, but now he was beyond brutal.

I took sips of my beer and stepped away from the bar, finding a dim corner where I could watch the band. They launched into another song. This one better than the last. The guitarist’s fingers danced on the frets, and I ached to hold my guitar in my hands. The man grinned at the crowd, winking at a few women up front, before he bumped his shoulder into the lead singer’s.

Damn. I missed playing with the guys. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d even tried. Playing without Jamie had seemed so wrong. Hell, it still did. But time was running out, and I wasn’t ready to fade into oblivion just yet.

Jamie would kick my ass for even thinking about not continuing with the band. Regardless of the contract we had signed all those years ago, making music was in my blood, and I owed it to Jamie to keep Steelwolf’s name out there.

I made my way back to the bar and grabbed another beer.

That’s when I heard it.

That laugh.

Fuck. That laugh had always been sweeter than any music I’d ever heard or been able to make on my own.

I looked down the length of the bar top, and there she was, tucking a loose dark brown curl behind her ear as she ducked her head to the side and smiled.

It took my breath away. She took my breath away. She always had.

Her smile had the power to bring me to my knees, and I’d missed not having it directed at me. Her eyes would sparkle as she looked at me under slightly lowered lashes, the corners of her mouth tilted up in a combination of a smirk and a smile.

My gut tightened at the thought of what usually happened after that smile, a smile I no longer deserved, even though I craved it more than my favorite single malt whiskey. And right now I lived for that amber liquid.

I shook my head, focusing on Cassie again. Before I could push away from the bar and head toward her, she’d leaned in to whisper something to her friend and then walked toward the crowded dance floor, blending into the mass of bodies moving to the music.

Before I could second-guess myself, I knocked back the rest of my beer and headed in her direction, twisting my way through the crowd, trying to spot her.

I missed dancing with Cassie almost as much as I missed her smile. Those curves pressed against me. Her soft sighs when I ran my fingers down her back.

Fucking hell.

This was not the time for my jeans to get tight. I had a lot—A LOT—of fences to mend before holding her would be an option again. Hell, I’d be surprised if she’d let me back in after a shit ton of apologies and groveling.

I deserved nothing less.

I finally spotted her heading down the hallway toward the bathroom. Only a total creeper would wait for her outside the bathroom, but I was unable to stop myself from leaning against the wall on the edge of the dance floor, the bathroom doors in sight.

A few minutes passed, and I questioned my sanity every time the door opened and she didn’t walk out. This was ridiculous. She didn’t deserve to have me pounce on her when she walked out of the bathroom unsuspectingly. I shook my head and walked back to the bar, finding an empty corner and ordering a whiskey neat.

I tried to focus on my drink and the band, but my gaze continued to drift toward her friend, who was flirting with the bartender, and then to Cassie when she came back to the bar. I willed her to look over at me and realize I was there, but she didn’t. I gritted my teeth every time a guy tried to talk to her, every time they offered to buy her a drink and she politely turned them down. My eyes tracked her when she slipped onto the dance floor, admiring her skill as she evaded every guy that tried to dance with her.

---