Page 132 of Just This Once

Everyone in the entire freaking bar grew hushed as they watched in awe.

Faith was the first to respond with an amazed, “What the fuck?”

Next to her, Hudson took a nonchalant drink from his beer and said as if just then remembering, “Oh yeah. By the way, Alec can sing.”

Oaklynn straight-up smacked Damien in the arm. “Why in the hell did you never tell me he could sing like that?”

From her stool, Raina lost her words. “I—I—I can’t even?—”

And Xander simply murmured, “Wow,” unable to take her eyes off him.

Grinning smugly, I crossed my arms over my chest and sat back in my seat, enjoying the shock and admiration flowing around me.

When my gaze slid toward Parker, however, I found him scowling.

I lifted my eyebrows, silently asking what his problem was, but before he could respond, some woman I’d never seen before approached and leaned down to whisper into his ear. From the seductive way she smirked, as if proud of herself, she’d just invited him to do something very explicit with her. Then she tucked a slip of folded paper into the front pocket of his shirt and left again.

Parker said nothing, merely turned his head to watch her saunter away as he pulled the paper free and unfolded it to read. His eyebrows lifted briefly, letting me know she’d definitely said something he liked.

Then he looked directly at me before he slipped from his chair and strolled off to follow the skank.

My lips parted, and my heart stalled dead in my chest as I watched him go, chasing after some other woman. He didn’t even glance backoncewhen he hit the stairs and ascended them, leaving our group behind.

And he did it all right in the middle of “Beautiful Things.”

Beautiful fucking Things.

Did he not remember what we’d done to this song?

Did he not even care?

Dazed and feeling as if I’d just gotten walloped in the center of the chest with a sledgehammer, I turned blindly to watch Alec sing. He was just finishing the second verse, and he had the entire bar held captive, enthralled by his perfect performance.

But all I could remember was Parker dancing in the rain with me on the balcony of the hotel, whispering those very words in my ear as he coaxed me to fall flat in love with him.

I tried not to be affected by what he’d just done, but my bottom lip trembled, and I knew I was going to cry any moment. Until my phone buzzed from my pocket.

I pulled it free, needing a distraction, and I sucked in a startled breath when I saw that I had a message from him.

Upstairs bathroom. Right fucking now.

32

HOPE

At that moment, nothing could stop me from going to Parker. It was like a compulsion. My brother was still singing, and even that couldn’t keep me in my seat.

Nudging Raina, I told her, “I gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

She nodded to let me know she heard, and she waved me on, her attention plastered to Alec, like pretty much everyone else’s was.

Then I was out of my seat and hurrying up the stairs to the quieter second level, where a sparser amount of people were hanging out at various tables, eating their meals.

Finding the hallway that led to the bathrooms soon thereafter—four doors that led to four single rooms—I glanced around for Parker but didn’t see him anywhere.

“Hello?” I called.

A door opened to my left.

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