Page 45 of The Lilac River

"No!" I spluttered.

She laughed. "Well, something happened. You look thoroughly wrecked."

Before I could respond, Delaney rang the bell behind the bar and announced a birthday, and the whole place erupted into a messy, drunken rendition of Happy Birthday. It gave me a second to breathe.

When I dared glance back, Nash’s dark gaze caught mine across the room before he looked away sharply. My heart sank.

"Lily," Cassidy said, pulling me back. "Forget the cowboy and tell me everything."

I dropped my forehead into my hand. "We kissed."

"No shit!" She refilled my glass immediately. "Tell me it was amazing."

"It was..." I sighed, looking down into my wine. "It was everything."

Her grin was huge. "And then what happened?"

"Then it got ugly," I said quietly. "He said some awful things. I said some awful things."

Cassidy winced in sympathy. "He’s mad, huh?"

"Beyond mad."

"And you still want him," she said.

I squeezed my eyes shut. "I don't know."

But I did. I always had.

Across the room, Nash laughed at something Wilder said, but even that small crack of light couldn't hide the way he kept sneaking looks at me. That same gut-wrenching ache bloomed fresh in my chest.

Cassidy raised her glass. "Well, if we can’t fix the past tonight, we can at least get drunk enough to forget it for a few hours."

"Sounds like a plan," I muttered.

And so, we drank. And for a little while, it almost worked.

But even with laughter bubbling around me, even with Cassidy doing her best to distract me, I could feel his gaze. I felt the fracture in my soul widening with every minute that passed.

And worst of all, I didn’t know if I wanted it to stop. Despite everything at stake.

Chapter 18

Runaway – The Killers

Nash

"What the hell is going on over there?" I ground out, dropping my chair back onto all four legs with a thud loud enough to make Wilder raise an eyebrow.

Across the bar, Lily was laughing with Cassidy, pool cue in hand, her whole face lit up in a way I hadn’t seen in ten years. It was that kind of laugh, the kind that curled into your ribs and made a home there. She bent over the table, her hips swaying slightly as she lined up a shot, that damn bronze-colored shirt clinging to every line of her body. Delaney leaned closer, too close, his hand hovering near hers like he had any goddamn right.

"I think Del is gonna give her a few pointers," Wilder smirked, his beer bottle pausing halfway to his mouth. There was amusement in his eyes, the kind that made me want to knock the grin right off his face.

Delaney didn’t need to give her any damn pointers. I’d shown her how to play pool in the basement of a house party we went to in high school. I’d shown her how to play pool and then made her come all over my hand in the family bathroom.

And if fucking Delaney shifted his hips just an inch closer, I was going to plant his ass straight through the wall.

"Relax," Wilder drawled. "It’s just a game of pool."