Page 51 of Old Flame

Goldie smacked both her hands on the bar, causing me to jump and Nina to yelp. “Oh my fucking God,” she said, staring at me, wide-eyed.

I had no idea what I’d said, but she’d caused my heart to race from the loud exclamation.

Then she pointed at me and broke into a huge grin.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Nina asked her, frowning. “You about gave me a stroke.”

Goldie shook her finger at me. “It is YOU! The black hair! The beauty mark! OH MY GOD!”

“It’s the phentermine. She takes it daily, and I’ve been telling her for years that it’s gonna cause damage. It’s made her lose her damn mind,” Nina said, shaking her head.

“No,” Goldie said, slapping Nina’s arm. “Brick said that Tex had snapped after his momma died. He went off the rails, and then he broke up with this girl.” She pointed at me again. “Brick couldn’t remember her name, but she had black hair and a beauty mark on her face.” She then pointed at my beauty mark. “Right there. And Tex had been crazy in love with her. Losing her broke him, and he was never the same.”

I could feel all three pairs of eyes on me now.

“It’s you,” Goldie said, then clapped her hands together. “You’re the only female Tex has ever loved. Brick said he had been obsessed with you. Then—poof—you were gone, and Tex went insane.”

“Holy shit,” Nina drawled out, breaking into a smile. “This has just turned into a television drama, and I am tuned the fuck in.”

I held up both hands with my palms out and shook my head. “No, no, no. It was afirst love, young lovekinda thing. He was all my firsts, and Vanna’s passing is what changed him. He realized he didn’t love me. Broke up with me. When I got the scholarship to attend Rhode Island School of Design, I went totell him, and he wasn’t at work. Neither was Brick. I left my contact information there with some other guy, but he never called, never came, never even wrote a letter. I was not the one who made him go insane.”

Goldie crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side. “Oh, yeah? Well, the tattoo over his heart tells a different story.”

Nina swung her eyes back to Goldie. “The tattoo is about Salem?”

What tattoo?

My chest tightened, and my heart did a weird flutter.

Goldie nodded. “Brick took him to the guy he used to get it done. He wanted it over the place where his heart was. It was an exact replica of a drawing that the girl who had taken his heart had given him for something…I don’t remember that part.”

They were all looking at me now. I didn’t want them to be. Right now, I wanted to be alone. Process this without witnesses. I’d seen him through the door naked this morning, but it had been a side view. I’d not seen his bare chest straight on. But if he’d tattooed what I thought he had over his heart, I needed to curl up in a ball for a while and let it sink in.

Pushing back the stool, I stood up and attempted to smile, but I wasn’t sure what my lips were doing. “I, uh…I need to go,” I blurted out, then spun and hurried from the room before anyone could stop me.

The range of emotions hitting me at once was similar to the panic attacks I had once suffered from regularly. I didn’t want to have one of those in front of them. That was something only Eamon had witnessed, and it was going to stay that way.

Twenty-One Years Ago

The front door opened, and I sat up from where I’d been lyingon the sofa, watching a movie from the huge DVD collection that Vanna had shelved. She had gone out with friends on her monthly girls’ night and wouldn’t be home until midnight.

I hadn’t been sure if Rome was coming home after work or if he had other plans. He’d not said at breakfast, but he had winked at me before leaving the table and told me not to cause too much trouble at school.

He had moved back to live here a month ago. It had been only a couple of weeks after the prom. His showing up that night had been the beginning of a change in us or him. He had told his mom he wanted to save up to invest in the new body shop that his boss was opening in Miami and that was why he’d moved home. I had believed that at first. I still did, but the more he found ways to be around me when his mom wasn’t around, the more I began to think that maybe he’d moved here for me too.

The sound of his boots as he walked across the hardwood made me giddy with excitement. There was a chance he’d only come home to shower and change before heading out again. Hiding a hand behind my back, I crossed my fingers as if I were eight years old, hoping he was staying here. With me. Alone.

Nothing was as thrilling as the sight of Rome Bower. If hearts could skip a beat, mine did every time he entered a room. The smile that lit up my face couldn’t be helped. The corner of his mouth twitched as his gaze found mine.

“Hey.” That one word in his deep drawl was enough to make the tingle in my private areas start up.

“Hey,” I replied, hoping I didn’t sound as breathless as I felt.

His gaze shifted to the television. “That’s one of my favorites. Would you pause it until I can get a shower and something to eat? I want to watch it too.”

He wasn’t leaving. I was going to giggle with joy.

I nodded my head. “We can watch it from the beginning. And I can make you something to eat if you tell me what you want.Your mom left money for pizza, but I haven’t ordered it yet.”

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