Page 44 of Chasing Blue
The waitress Span spoke to earlier reappears with a vodka for me, and what looks like whiskey or bourbon for him.
“Thank you,” I say with a chin lift before continuing. “Scar was getting ready to head down to Sydney and start Uni. In the beginning, I was ready to let her go, but just a few weeks in, I was working out ways to do the long-distance thing. I was ready to drop the L word and make a go of things, then my ex calls, tells me she’s four months pregnant, and the baby’s mine.”
“Fuck. You really did fuck up.”
“Mate, seriously, you have no idea, it gets worse. I panicked. Instead of going straight to Scarlett with the news, I went on a bender. I stood her up, then went off the radar for a few days. Scarlett heard the baby news from someone else. I went to her house to explain, her brother threatened to rip my head off, so I thought the best thing to do was to let her go to Sydney, start her new life, and leave me to deal with the mess that I’d made.”
Span scratches at his beard, but his brown eyes don’t leave mine.
“By the time I’d come to my senses and realised that’s not what I wanted, she’d gone, so I made the decision to let her stay gone . . . I let her go.” I again watch Scarlett on the dance floor, arms in the air, face tipped to the ceiling as she sings about heartbreaks and promises, and I admit, “I let go of her, what we had, what I thoughtwecould have. I let go of all that . . .” I gesture with a head tilt towards Scarlett before fixing my eyes back on Span. “It’s the biggest regret of my fucking life.”
His narrowed gaze holds mine as he nods and asks, “She tell you what happened here last night?”
The drink I’ve just been handed is strong, probably a double, and my head spins almost the instant the alcohol hits. I wait for that sensation to end before I question, “The fight she got into?”
He shifts, turning his entire body to face me. Leaning his elbow against the bar, he crosses his legs at the ankle and looks at me like he wants to kill me.
“She tell you who she was fighting with?” he asks.
“No.”
“Not my place to tell youthat, but I will tell youthis.She just offloaded one prick,youfuck her around, I will come for you, and I willdowhat her brother threatened to.”
Immediately feeling sober, I look away, then back at him. “She just offloaded a prick? Did he hit her? Is that what that mark is on her face?”
“Not my place.” Span holds his hands up in a surrender pose. “You talk to her about that. I’m just warning you, you do the right thing by that girl, anddo notfuck with her.”
I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol, the information I’ve just been handed, or Span’s threat, but I finish my drink, place my glass on the bar, and move towards Scarlett.
CHAPTER11
Scarlett.
Zoe grabsmy hand and starts pulling me towards the bar as the old school bangers we’d been dancing to the past couple of hours end, and loud whoops and cheers go up from the crowd as Savage Gardens ‘I Knew I Loved You’, starts to play.
She comes to a stop, and I hear, “Ruh Roh,” as I smack into her back. When she releases my hand and steps away, Jack’s standing in front of me.
Without a word he takes my hand and leads me back to where a number of couples have started to slow dance together.
Sliding one hand to my hip, the other to the small of my back, he pulls me in to him. I’m more than a little buzzed, so when I rest each of my palms against his shoulders and press my cheek against his chest, I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol or the smell of his aftershave that has my head spinning.
Cool Water was his favourite fragrance back in the day. I’d bought him a bottle as a gift for that one Christmas we’d been together, and it’s a smell I will always and forever associate with Jack and that period of time in my life.
What he’s wearing now still has that same clean, fresh, ocean vibe, but in a stronger, more mature, and maybe more expensive kind of way.
His hands skirt over my waist and up my sides before sliding to my shoulders and the backs of my arms to my elbows, which he lifts, drapingmyarms aroundhisneck.
Pulling me back into him, his hands settle on my arse and lower back.
It feels right. Like it’s where I’m meant to be, that the years haven’t passed, and our lives lived separately.
Keeping my face pressed against his pec, we move to the music. Goosebumps erupt across my skin at the sensation of his hot breath against my ear, and before my mind and body have a chance to recover, he pulls me in tighter and speaks.
“I’ve known for a while Julia wasn’t for me . . .” I attempt to pull away, but his arms tighten around me, and without missing a step, we continue dancing as he says, “Just hear me out, Blue. Can you do that for me?”
With my cheek still pressed against his chest, I tilt my head until my eyes meet his and nod. The thud, thud, thud of his heart sounds in my ear, my own picking up pace as it once again hits me that I’m here, with him. That Jack Cole is once again in my life, still totally oblivious to the trail of devastation he left behind the last time I let him in.
“What started out as something casual was getting serious on her end, and I just wasn’t feeling the same.”
