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  “You did good,” Hawk assured me. “That’s the best shot you made today.”

  “But you still lost,” I said softly, my voice sounding defeated.

  “You’re going to be my date Friday, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He winked at me. “Then I didn’t lose.”

  I bit down on my lower lip to keep a silly smile from spreading across my face. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had looked forward to a Friday night.

  Just one date couldn’t hurt.

  Chapter 11

  Combustion

  Amber

  I didn’t think Friday would ever arrive, and now that it had, I was a complete nervous wreck. I’d spent one more night at Hawk’s place before insisting that I go back home. He’d been extremely kind to me¸ and I just couldn’t stay at his apartment and allow him to give up his bed. I knew that he had trouble sleeping, and I imagined that crashing on a sofa did nothing to alleviate that problem. I would have gladly switched places with him, but he was too much of a gentleman to take the bed.

  Besides, Gracie needed me, and she and Natalie had missed playing together.

  He had stopped by my apartment every night during the week, and we had sat on the porch enjoying the early autumn weather. We had talked about our childhoods, and he had never pushed me to talk about my current situation. I knew I couldn’t run forever, but for now, his friendship had brought me some much needed relief from the trials that I had experienced in recent months.

  Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I wondered if he would approve. I’d donned my favorite jeans, a pair of black boots, and a black long-sleeved top. The dark colors seemed to brighten my eyes and contrast nicely against the natural red in my hair. I’d considered curling my long locks but had decided to let it cascade sleekly down my back. From her perch on my dresser, Gracie glared at me as I sprayed a generous amount of perfume on my neck. To protest, she pawed my hair brush until it teetered on the edge, and then she gave it a final push until it fell.

  I bent to pick it up, only to see her push my house key onto the floor. “Gracie! Cut it out!” I scooped her up and set her on the bed, where she proceeded to roll onto her back and bare her belly for a rub.

  Stroking her stomach, I bent down to retrieve the key and drop it in my handbag. “You’re such a brat, you know that?”

  She meowed her agreement, twisting her back against the comforter.

  When I heard a knock on the door, I tried not to appear too eager.

  I counted to five before I headed toward the living room and swung the door open. I’d had every intention to speak like a semi-intelligent female until I actually laid eyes on him. Any words that I had rehearsed fled my mind the minute I saw him.

  His eyes glittered like blue fire against the crisp periwinkle dress shirt, which he wore untucked with a pair of fashionable jeans and casual leather boots. The tailored fit outlined his muscular build and narrow waist.

  “You look gorgeous,” he said, his eyes filled with appreciation as he held out a glass vase filled with a dozen roses. He grinned. “You know how much I value a single rose but I didn’t want you to think that you didn’t deserve as many flowers as the next girl.”

  Carey had given me a dozen roses on occasion, but I’d never gotten a dozen quite like this one.

  I took them from him. Eleven roses were still tightly budded, their petals just a whisper of pink. One rose in the center was a perfect bloom, its petals a deep hue like a fiery sunset.

  As I admired the roses, he spoke again, “Each rose is beautiful, but my eye will always be drawn to this one.” He reached out and stroked the petals of the fuchsia rose. “Somehow that one rose has captivated me, blinding me to all the other roses around it.”

  His eyes held mine, and his meaning wasn’t lost on me. “Did I mention that you look beautiful?” he asked as he reached down and lightly touched his lips to mine.

  My heart flipped in my chest. Part of me wanted to grab him to keep him from ending the kiss so quickly, but he pulled away before I could react. “Let me just put these on the table, and we can go.”

  I fled to the kitchen, unsure of what to do with the nervous energy that surged through my body. When I rejoined him, he was standing on the porch with his back to me. I stood silently a moment, appreciating how handsome he looked from any angle. Then, I shut the door behind me as I stepped onto the porch.

  Predictably, he opened the car door for me, waiting for me to settle in the passenger’s seat before he walked around to the driver’s side.

  On the way to the bowling alley, we stopped to pick up Cade and Jace. When we got there, Seren was waiting on us, along with another couple. Hawk ordered pitchers of beer for his friends. Since he was the designated driver and I was underage, he ordered a pitcher of Coke for us.

  Cade was the first one to pour himself a beer.

  “Are your brothers coming?” Hawk asked him.

  “Hell, no,” Cade said. “You know what an ass Pax is, so I didn’t even mention it to him, and Evan had other plans.”

  Jace walked up and slapped Hawk on the back. “Ready to get slaughtered?”

  Hawk raised his eyebrows. “By my little brother?”

  “Younger brother,” Jace corrected.

  Hawk raked his eyes over Jace and asked again, “By my little brother?”

  Jace gave up. “I’m going to get a beer.”

  Resting his palm against the small of my back, Hawk guided me toward the couple by Seren. “Amber, I’d like you to meet Mason Cambridge and his girlfriend, Lexi Swafford. They own the bar, Whiskey Nights.”

  Lexi immediately hugged me. “Amber, we’ve heard so much about you. I’m glad Hawk and Cade were close by when the accident happened.”

  “Seren and Lexi are good friends,” Hawk pointed out for my benefit.

  “Hi, Amber,” Mason said. “Want me to pour you a beer?”

  “No can do,” Hawk said.

  Mason shot him a lopsided grin, dimpling his cheek. “Why? You keeping all the beer for yourself?”

  “Not hardly. She’s not twenty-one yet.”

  “Damn, Hawk. You’re robbing the cradle, aren’t you?” Mason asked, clearly amused as he took a drink of his beer.

  “Ignore him,” Lexi told me as she smacked him on the chest. “Sometimes he forgets how to play nice.”

  Mason pinched her on the rear. “Sometimes not playing nice is the best way to play.”

  “Touché,” Seren agreed, holding her cup of beer in the air. “I want to find someone to play not so nicely with.” I noticed her gaze fall on Cade, but he was busy loading names in the machine.

  “I’s just messing with ya, Amber,” Mason said, still smiling as he looked at me with eyes the same color as the beer. “To be honest, I was messing with Hawk. You just happened to be an innocent bystander. But to make it up to you, tell Hawk to bring you to the bar on your twenty-first birthday, and all your drinks will be on the house.”

  “Thanks,” I said, not really knowing what else to say. It was obvious to me that they were a tight group of friends, and I felt rather awkward.

  The guys went to look at the menu, and Lexi took me by the arm. “Let’s have a seat while we wait on them.”

  Lexi sat on one side of me, and Seren sat on the other.

  “Have you fully recovered from the accident?” Seren asked, obviously worried.

  I smiled at her, hoping to relieve any anxieties she had about the wreck. I still had a couple of red marks on my arm where the burns were healing, but I knew it would take months, maybe longer, before the skin looked closer to normal. Besides, if I hadn’t been drunk, I probably wouldn’t have been burned at all. I felt no need to point those spots out to her. “I’m fine. Were you okay after the wreck?”

  “I just had a couple of scratches, so yeah, I’m good as new.”

  “That’s good.”

  “So you’ve just recently moved to Creekview?” Lexi asked.

&
nbsp; “Yeah, I haven’t been here very long. I just moved here from Alabama.”

  “When we were in middle school, we took a trip to the space center in Huntsville,” Lexi said. “You remember that, Seren?”

  “How can I forget? I spent the next six months telling anyone who would listen that I wanted to be an astronaut.”

  I laughed. “What changed your mind?”

  “I started asking questions about how they went to the bathroom in those big spacesuits. Yeah, totally changed my mind.”

  “So what did you want to be then?” I asked.

  “A movie star.”

  “And what happened to that?” Lexi raised her dark, dainty eyebrows as she waited for Seren to answer.

  “I was practicing my speech for The Oscars in my mother’s spiked heels, and I twisted my ankle. It hurt so bad that I thought I broke it. After that, I scratched movie star off my list.”

  “And now she has a degree in accounting,” Lexi told me. “How you go from astronaut to movie star to bean counter is beyond me.”

  “Hey,” Seren interrupted, “I like numbers, okay? Accountant jobs are Monday through Fridays with a nice restroom down the hall and nobody cares whether you’re wearing heels or flats. Not to mention that your cellulite isn’t plastered across the front page of tabloids after you’ve been on vacation.”

  A smile burst across Lexi’s face as she ran her fingers through her long, dark hair. “And you’ll never have trouble finding a job.”

  “Exactly,” Seren said, her blue eyes widening to emphasize her agreement.

  “Where do you work?” I asked Seren.

  “Nowhere yet. I just graduated not long ago, and I’ve decided to take a few months off before I spend the next forty years chained to a desk. I’m hoping to take a trip to Ireland before I start a job. That’s where my ancestors are from, hence the surname Flanagan. Lucky for me, my parents are at that stage in life where they want to retire but can’t quite yet, so not only do they understand my decision, they support it. And they like the idea of me getting in touch with my ancestry.”

  “That’s good,” I agreed, wishing my parents would support my decisions. “A trip to Ireland would be exciting.”

  “Wouldn’t it?” Lexi asked. “You know what would really be cool?”

  “What?” Seren asked.

  “If we could open a Whiskey Nights in Ireland.”

  “You might want to take over America first.” Seren laughed.

  I grinned. “If you’re going to dream, dream big.”

  Lexi patted my shoulder. “I like you.”

  “So what do you want to do when you grow up?” Seren asked.

  I dreaded answering because it was so different than what the two of them wanted. Luckily, the guys came back before I had to reply.

  “The pizza should be here shortly,” Mason said. “You ladies ready to bowl?”

  “I guess so,” Lexi said. “But honestly, it’s been so long since I bowled, y’all can’t hold me responsible if I throw a few gutterballs.”

  “Want us to put the bumper guard up for you, love?” Mason teased her.

  “Might not be a bad idea.” Lexi stood, walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hugged her to him and kissed her temple, and I missed that kind of closeness with someone.

  My eyes searched out Hawk, and I was surprised to find that he was looking at me. When we made eye contact, he closed the distance between us and dropped into the seat that Lexi had just vacated.

  “You okay?” he asked quietly, his question meant only for me.

  I nodded. “Yeah, Lexi and Seren are really nice. This should be fun.”

  His hand dropped to my knee, and he squeezed it encouragingly, followed by a couple of quick pats. Surprised when he left his hand there, I felt warmth explode in my body. I liked the possessive feel of his touch.

  “Who’s up?” Jace asked.

  “Seren’s first,” Cade said. “Followed by me, then you.”

  “How’d y’all get away from the bar?” Hawk asked Mason while Seren bowled.

  “Stormy’s got it covered for us,” Mason said, his arm still locked around Lexi. “We’ll be heading back when we finish up here, but my girl needed a break.”

  Lexi smiled up at him. “We both needed a break—even if you’re not a big fan of bowling.”

  “That we did,” Mason agreed. “Too bad we’re not at the beach.”

  Lexi giggled and squeezed him harder, and I had a feeling that his comment reflected something personal between them.

  Seren squealed, and I turned just in time to see her do a victory dance. “Strike!”

  I gave her a high five as she strutted back to her seat, and the competition had begun.

  After Cade finished bowling, he had one stubborn pin left in the back corner. “Aww! Come on!” he groaned.

  Hawk laughed at his antics. “You got the next one,” he assured Cade.

  Jace bowled a strike the first time, and his eyes instantly found his brother. “Top that,” he challenged.

  “Well, technically, you can’t do better than a strike, so it would be a little difficult to top it,” Hawk reasoned. “But I will match it.”

  I watched as Hawk picked out his ball. In my opinion, he was the best looking guy in the entire bowling alley, and I was well aware that I was being partial.

  His form was graceful, yet he unleashed a massive amount of power as the ball spun down the lane and knocked the pins into oblivion. Strike.

  The rest of the evening was filled with banter and friendly challenges. By the end of the night, I was comfortable around the entire group. They’d included me in conversations, and it felt like I’d known them much longer than just a few hours.

  My bowling skills weren’t overly impressive, but I had more athletic ability than Lexi, who had thrown several gutterballs. So at least I wasn’t the worst bowler of the night.

  Seren and I had helped Lexi clean up the pizza mess while Hawk ensured that everyone had a ride with someone completely sober. After we dropped off Cade and Jace, he took me back to his apartment.

  “Did you have fun tonight?” he asked while we settled on the couch to watch television.

  “I did,” I said as I pulled off my boots and curled up beside him.

  “Good. You want anything? A drink?”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  He stood and went to his bedroom. He came back with a pillow and cut the overhead light off. After tossing the pillow at the end of the couch, he pulled me to my feet. “Let’s get comfy.”

  He stretched out along the back of the couch and patted the cushion in front of him. “Come on, I won’t bite.”

  As I lay down in front of him, he repositioned himself until his head was slightly higher on the pillow, and he wrapped his arm around my waist, tucking me against the length of him.

  “How’s that?” he asked. “You good?”

  “I’m good.” Relieved that he couldn’t hear my heart beating, I tried to relax. His nearness made me nervous, but at the same time, I liked the feeling of his arm securely around my waist. I thought of Mason and Lexi, how evident it was from watching them that they loved each other. I wanted that, if only I could overcome the feeling of guilt.

  As if he were reading my thoughts, Hawk whispered, “You deserve to be happy. You know that, don’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “I want to make you happy, Amber.”

  Touched by his words, I flipped over until I was facing him. “You do make me happy.”

  He leaned toward me, his lips mere inches from mine. I held my breath as he studied my face as if he were trying to discern whether I was telling the truth.

  “I haven’t been this happy since….” I cast my eyes downward, unable to say the words.

  He rubbed my arm, reassuring me. “Just take one day at a time. Sooner or later, you’ll get your rainbow.”

  I nodded, hoping that he was right.

  “I wish my parents had take
n that approach,” I lamented. He continued to caress my arm, his touch soothing. Watching me, he waited patiently for me to speak. “They were understanding at first, but after a few months went by, they started telling me that I needed to move on, that I needed to get over it.”

  “Everyone grieves differently,” he said softly.

  “I wish they could’ve understood that. I wish they could’ve understood that my entire world had been shattered.”

  He wrapped his palm around my arm, his thumb gently rubbing my flesh. “I’m sure it was difficult for them to watch you in so much pain.”

  I thought about his words a moment. I was so blinded by my own misery that I hadn’t taken the time to think about it from their perspective. “Maybe you’re right, but I was hurting. How did they think that I could just cut that off? Act like it was no big deal that the man that I was going to marry was gone?

  “He was my first serious boyfriend.” I gave a smile that reflected no joy. “His parents hated me, but he didn’t care. He told me that he would marry whoever he wanted.”

  “I don’t get it.” He furrowed his brows. “Why would they hate you?”

  “Because I didn’t come from money.”

  “And since when is that a reason to hate someone?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “They were from high society in New York. Carrington Reed III deserved better than some ignorant girl who had no aspirations.”

  “His parents told you that?”

  “On more than one occasion.”

  “In front of him?”

  I nodded.

  “Didn’t he stop them?”

  “He tried to reason with them, but you don’t know his parents, especially his mother.”

  “They don’t sound like the kind of people that I want to know.”

  “I know, but I loved Carey. It wasn’t his fault. You don’t get to pick your parents.”

  “That’s true. But personally, I wouldn’t have exposed you to that.”

  “He hoped that they would learn to accept me, but nope. Never did.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Hey, I’m sure I’m not the first son’s girlfriend to ever be hated.”

  “That doesn’t make it any easier when it’s happening to you.”