Page 12 of Somewhere Only We Know
But as we set off towards her car, all I can focus on is thewe’re all meetingpart of what Sophie said. I won’t be the girl who asks who all she means because I’m a twenty-eight year old woman, dammit! I can conquer whoever’s going to be at the bar.Right?My self-conscious questions a little nervously.Right!I tell myself.
I put on a brave face and wordlessly, we follow along with Sophie. She’s definitely a bubbly person and I can see how Chance became enamored with her. You can’t help but want to smile and be happy around her.
“So what do you do for work, Jax? Not to sound like a creep, but I know what your sister does,” Sophie says casually as we climb into her car.
“I help Kamryn out on the marketing side for her brand, I have a podcast and vlog channel, and then I have some other brands that I work with when needed.”
“You’re like a marketing genius, then.”
“I guess I do okay,” I say, not the biggest fan of being praised for my work.
“Don’t let her fool you, Sophie. I can’t do half of the stuff she does. So all of the social media stuff and the website for my company is all her doing.”
Absentmindedly I fiddle with the ring on the middle finger of my left hand that has bees printed on it. I don’t know what encouraged me to wear it today after all these years. Maybe I’m trying to embrace summer with open arms and bees signify that. But now after seeing Nate, I’m kind of regretting it. Sophie and Kamryn chat like they’ve been friends forever and I occasionally interrupt to direct her where to go but their chatting gives me time to think. Think about who I saw. Think about what this means that I saw him. Think about how the ring on my finger feels tighter than ever and I spin it to hopefully loosen it up.
The downside to living near the stadium is that the ride to the bar takes no time at all. Sophie finds a spot to park and I purposefully take my time getting out. I trail behind them as we walk down the sidewalk to the bar.
You can do this, I tell myself over and over again as the bar gets closer. After all, we’re adding new patterns to our life and this seemingly small deviation from our routine is a new pattern. Crap, I’m regretting telling the world that.
The door to the bar sticks and weighs a ton, as shown by Sophie struggling to open it. But once we’re through the scene that greets us is one brought to you by the old school looking taverns. The well-worn bar is shoe-scuffed with metal hooks under the countertop for purses and bags. A shelf of liquors, with a mirror, lines part of the back wall to get you to look at yourself as you choose your next drink. A digital jukebox sits on the opposite wall and the black low back stools line the entirety of the bar.
“Hey, Sophie,” a voice I would know like my own greets as we walk further inside. I have to swallow down my wince when he speaks.
“Nate. Great game.” Sophie greets the man who was once mine with a hug.
“Thanks. Chance and Bryce are outside,” he tells her.
“Cool. Nate, these are my friends, Kamryn and Jax.” Sophie holds her hand out to point us to him.
“Nice to meet you,” he says and his voice has the audacity to hit me where it hurts and simultaneously make me swoon.
“You as well,” Kamryn greets.
I, however, avoid eye contact although I can feel his eyes burning a hole in my face, and I loop my arm around my sisters and we follow Sophie outside to the covered patio. My sister isn’t the only good secret keeper. But I do admit that keeping this from her for years has eaten me alive. She doesn’t know Nate—well, she knows of the guy who was my best friend before he became something more. So it was easy to ignore that part of my life when she was dealing with settling into adulthood and then losing Liam. And then again when everything with Trent happened. But now that he’s here I know I can no longer ignore that I’ll have to tell Kamryn about the history she’s blind to. I also know that if my friendship with Sophie continues, I’ll have to talk with Nate. There is no avoiding it anymore.
“Baby!” Sophie squeals when we walk out to the patio.
Seeing them together is comical. Where she’s around my height at 5’2” with tattoos that I can now see, covering every available inch of her body, Chance towers over her with naked skin. But they work and seeing how they light up around each other brings that green monster around.
“Hi, Baby Belle,” he coos.
Kam snorts. “Care to enlighten us on that nickname?”
“If you insist,” Chance chides. “Oh, this is Bryce and Nate should have been at the bar getting another beer.”
“He was.” Sophie answers for us and moves to sit on the bench that lines the back wall of the space.
“Nice to meet you both,” Bryce tells us.
“Likewise,” I say with a smile. “So back to this nickname.”
Kamryn and I take our seats and I realize too late that an empty one is next to me. Asking my sister to trade spots would look juvenile, so I stay where I’m at while every muscle in my body tenses with his impending arrival.
“He came into the bookstore I was working at in Tampa,” Sophie starts.
“Don’t forget to mention you were wearing a yellow dress.” Chance interrupts and pops a kiss on her cheek.
“I was getting there, ya goof.” Sophie says with an eye roll but looks less than annoyed and if the smile on her face is any indication I doubt we’ll get the full story of how they met. “Anyways, I was stocking the shelves with new releases when he came into the store looking for one of the newest fantasy books for his sister. I thought it was sweet. Until he came in the next week and the week after that and so on,” Sophie says with laughter in her voice.
