Page 43 of Green Flag
If that was the only thanks I got from her tonight, that was enough. I’d cherish her cheeky wink, sucking on her finger and imagine it was me she had between her lips.
My nudge affected every other girl more.
Because they came over, noticing me alone at the bar, and wanted to mollycoddle me, asking if I was okay, saying how well I’d done in the race.
Butshedidn’t.
And she was all I cared about.
Not this bar. Not my friends. Not the fact I’d placed seventh. Just. Her.
She laughed with her friends, but it was quiet. Her eyes didn’t sparkle. Her smile was soft. It wasn’t wild and free, not excited—not like the one with me.
“Hey, stranger,” a sweet voice said beneath me. I dragged my eyes away from Everly, now talking to Cesari, to look at Hollie, a mass of white-blonde, curled hair beneath me. She was so short. Everly was shorter, though. I’d thrown Hollie about in all kindsof positions, but with the height difference between Everly and I — maybe that would stop us from—
“Earth to stranger,” Hollie sang-song, eyes wide in faux concern. “How many have you had?”
I raised my beer in my hand. I wasn’t even a third through. And this was the only drink I’d bought for myself in this bar.
“Not many,” I laughed and cheersed my bottle into her glass.
“How have you been?”
I shrugged, leaning back against the bar, letting my gaze wander to where Cesari was now slurring next to Everly. He was grinning and leaning into her space with his drunken swagger, hardly talking, but nodding at whatever she was saying. “Same as always. How are you?”
She didn’t answer. “You know me, always up to trouble. Went shopping with some of the girls today. Bought this dress. What do you think?”
In my peripheral vision, I caught her twirl and curtsy.
The dress was pink and shiny.
“It’s…” I started, mind disjointed as if I’d drank all the shots I’d bought. She wasn’t asking about the dress. She was asking about her and every word I would have typically called her was no longer available. Hollie was attractive. There was this shy yet confident quality in her that had made me seek her out time and time again. But every word I could think of was already owned by Everly. Beautiful. Stunning. Cute. Charming. Graceful. Funny. Calming.
There were no words left for Hollie.
“It’s… pretty.”
She nodded, her lips in a tight line as she leaned over the bar to get the bartender’s attention and order another drink. Her parting words were, “I get it, I should have stood up against those guys on the tour the other week. I let you down.”
She had my full attention. “What?”
“I get it,” she repeated, taking her drink and stepping away.
“Wait,” I called, and she spun around with a sad smile. “It’s not that. I’m sorry. You couldn’t have done anything else, Hollie. I just… don’t want to be here.”
I was simply going through the motions most weekends when we celebrated each race. The motions were getting drunk and going out.
“So why are you here?” she asked.
And I cringed deep within my damned soul because she wanted the answer to be her when it was someone else.
Telling her that wouldn’t be helpful to anyone, so I shrugged.
She nodded. “See you later, Luca. I’m here if you need me.”
The issue was that I didn’t know what I needed. To talk? To move on from StormSprint? Or was that just what my family wanted for me?
Ces dropped a stool that he tried to sit on and Everly helped him up, shaking her head at him.
