Page 47 of Chasing Blue
Span hands me his phone. “Matt’s meltdown, a few people here filmed and uploaded it to social media.”
“It’s gone fucking viral, babe,” Zoe moves in next to me and says. “Over two hundred thousand shares and likes.”
I can’t move. I can’t even open my mouth to respond. I’m not sure I even breathe. Jack’s hand reaches from behind me and takes the phone from my hand before I even look at it.
“This isn’t good,” I whisper to Zoe as ice coats my skin. Just seconds ago, my body was hot and vibrating as Jack pressed against me on the dance floor. Now, my arms and legs prickle with some strange kind of awareness, and my insides feel hollow like they’ve been dug out and left empty.
Tears fill my eyes as they meet Zoe’s and I manage to shake my head.
“He’ll be so angry,” I whisper. “If he sees this . . .”
“He hit you? That’s how you got that bruise? He fucking hit you?”
I turn from Zoe to look at Jack. His brother, Shannon, has finally stepped away from the crowd wanting selfies taken with him and is holding Span’s phone, taking in whatever is playing out on the screen.
His head jerks back and then his brown eyes slide up to meet mine.
“Who the fuck is this prick, Scarlett?” Shannon asks, his voice low, gravely, and spoken through gritted teeth.
Like Span, he has the silver fox thing going on. His hair is thick and cut in that same pushed back, floppy fringe style as Jack’s, but along with his beard, Shannon’s is completely grey and absolutely fucking gorgeous I note as Jack turns me around to face him, tilts my chin and brushes his thumb over my cheek.
“Who is he, Blue?” Jack asks as he hands me a drink, leaving just enough space between us for me to be able to tilt my glass back and take a sip.
“He’s. . . That’s . . . He’s gone,” I tell him with a shrug. “He doesn’t matter now. I ended it, and he’s gone.”
Jack’s thick brows are pulled down and together so hard, ridges have formed in his forehead. My gaze zig-zags down his face, and I watch as his tongue flicks out to lick at his full plump lips and for a second, my thoughts are scattered all over the place.
Mostly landing in the general vicinity of my vagina.
Until they don’t.
Until I feel that sharp little pierce to my heart and that voice inside my head whispers, ‘just like her lips.’
I physically shake my head to shut that voice and my thoughts down.
The last thing I need right now is another drink, but I take a chug on my G&T anyway.
“Matters to me,” Jack says quietly, bringing me back to the here and now. “So, you either tell me, or I find out, and if I can’t find out, he definitely can, and he will,” he gestures with a chin lift towards his brother, who’s watching us talk.
A lump forms in my throat as I process the protective stance Jack and his brother are displaying.
My life has been a roller coaster of emotions these past couple of weeks, dealing with Matt, then having Jack re-enter it, and right now, I feel overwhelmed with all the good vibes being sent my way.
For such a long time, Zoe has been my only real friend since I made the move to Melbourne. I have little contact with my parents, and although I’m close to my brother, he’s busy living his life in another state, so we’re lucky if we get to see each other once a year.
Zoe and her parents, who she’s close to, have become like family. Since we moved down to the peninsula, Spangles and Anthony have been added to my tight little group, and now I have Jack back in my life and apparently Shannon too.
Shannon, the reality TV and former MMA superstar.
I close my eyes at the prospect of a confrontation between Shannon and Matt.
“His name’s Matt, but honestly, it’s dealt with. He’s a lawyer and definitelynota fighter. I only dated him four times. He has issues, yeah. But . . .”
“He doesn’t have issues, he’s a fucking narcissist, that’s what he is,” Zoe interrupts me. I turn my head towards her and glare. She shrugs. “Four dates, Scar. Four dates and he was trying to run your life.”
Jack’s hand slides across my back, curls around my hip, and he pulls me into him as Zoe and her big English mouth keep talking.
“Scar has a thing for anything draped in a red flag . . . probably why she fell for your bullshit, pretty boy,” she jerks her head towards Jack and says. I watch as his mouth opens and closes, he turns his head and looks down at me before looking back at Zoe, but no words leave his mouth. Shannon’s lips twitch in a smile, and his warm brown eyes meet mine.
