Page 28 of Lines We Cross
The idea might be up there with never playing baseball again. Might even be worse since I’d had years to enjoy baseball before it was taken away. I’d never had time with Rae. To show her how I felt or to explore where this might lead. Baseball was looking like my past and now Rae might not even be my future either.
I put my hand on her knee and promised what she needed to hear, even as it killed the hope in my chest. “Always friends.”
11
Skylar
Ava smoothed a perfectly even stroke of black liquid liner on her top eyelid. “I don’t know, girl. There was some hella tension after the festival.”
“How do you do that?” I observed her in the mirror, ignoring her comment and marveling over her makeup skills. I could dust on some powder, stroke the mascara wand over my lashes, and even rock a red lip on occasion, but Ava was next level. Or several levels, to be exact.
“You gotta practice. I’ve done so many makeup tutorials for my YouTube channel, I could do a full face in my sleep. And don’t for a second think I don’t know you changed the subject. There was some sort of force field around you two when you came across the finish line.”
“No kidding. I literally shivered. You know what goose bumps mean.” Kadee nodded sagely.
I rolled my eyes and changed my shirt for the third time. “Whatever. It’s mostly angst, but we worked it out. We’re friends now.”
I ignored the flutters in my stomach from having lain next to Max and watched a movie the night before. I could barely focus on the film with him breathing right next to me. Every brush of his hand or knee or thigh against mine had rattled me to the point I’d eaten my body weight in pizza. If I told them I’d spent the whole evening with him, just the two of us, that would have fueled their flawed argument.
Kadee snorted. “Friends. Sure.”
“Would you please sit down and let me do your makeup? We’ve seen every shirt you have in your closet, so I don’t see why you’re changing again. Pick one, sit down, and let’s make magic on your face.”
I huffed out a breath and plopped down in the chair. “That’s a really weird thing to say. As your friend, I’m obligated to tell you no one else understands your beauty jargon.”
Ava attacked my head and no more words were said until she was done. I’d learned a long time ago not to test her when she had her potions out. I made fun of her shirt one time—who actually buys a shirt with the sequins you rub one way to make a picture magically appear?—and she’d given me bright blue eyeshadow and frosted lips like a woman of the night in the ’80s.
When she was done augmenting my face, the two of them had thankfully dropped the topic of Max and we made our way to The Tough Nickel to watch Lacey wow the crowd with her talent. They were right in one respect though. Therewastension when we were together, but it had nothing to do with Max liking me beyond a friend and everything to do with me wishing he did. Which was a waste of a wish because I didn’t trust him to stick around long enough to make getting all worked up about him worth it. Being friends was easier and safer.
The glowing red neon light in the bar window made to look like a nickel—though some citizens argued vehemently that it was simply a circle—welcomed us to a Saturday night out where we could let our hair down and dance the night away.
Lacey was not only a talented songwriter and musician, she was an energetic entertainer. She had that inner sense that knew when to keep the mood low and sultry, and when to crank up the energy and have the crowd shaking and dancing. She didn’t perform often as she really didn’t like the attention, but she swore by the live performances when it came to fine tuning her songs. Said the live crowd was the feedback she needed. She just scored a new producer last month who understood her vision and didn’t seem like a guy to run away with her money like the last one. I hoped it worked out for her as she was crazy talented and deserved to be successful.
The door swung open and loud conversations flowed out on to the street. The place was packed, which just proved Lacey’s talent. We elbowed our way in, Ava flashing her bubbly smile and smoothing the ruffled feathers when we pushed our way to a high-top table at the front with some ladies we recognized.
“Mind if we join you?” I asked them. When they scrunched up a little tighter to make room for us like neighbors do, we wedged ourselves in and shouted a drink order to the server.
I scanned the ring of booths around the outside wall of the bar, seeing some people I knew and a few good friends who smiled back when we made eye contact. Our server brought our drinks and the whole table of women sighed when we raised our glasses to the bartender and he winked back. Ben was hot, single, the right age, and completely a mystery. Basically catnip to women everywhere as they threw themselves at him and he just batted them away. My own mother had spent the entire first year he moved here trying to set him up with women and he deftly danced around her matchmaking, all the while making her smile so hard she couldn’t be mad at him.
“Any sign of Max?” Ava yelled in my ear, above the noise around us.
“Shh! Keep your voice down. And no, haven’t seen him. Not that I was looking,” I whisper-shouted back.
Kadee smirked at me and sipped her drink. “I doth think she protests overly too much.”
I nearly spit out my drink. “That was a good try, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a direct quote.”
Kadee shrugged. “Whatever. English wasn’t my best class.”
“Or science or math or history…” Ava muttered.
Kadee pinched Ava, making her yelp. “Hey, I rocked PE and I got good grades because I sweet-talked all the teachers. That’s a talent, I’ll have you know.”
“You might be smarter than all of us.” I raised my frosty mug of beer to her in a toast, thinking of all the hours I spent in school studying for ridiculously hard exams so I could get my physical therapy license.
“Skylar and Max, Max and Skylar. I ship you guys,” Kadee said on a sigh.
I groaned. “Don’t start with that again.”
