Page 29 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

JAX

I shoot daggers at the table. I knew something was up when Sophie and Kamryn had the hostess take away the extra chairs.

And as they hide their smiles behind their drinks I think of ways to get back at them.

I certainly can’t poison their food. Plus, I’m too pretty for prison.

But I’ll think of something. And I keep thinking until my sort-of friend Nate takes the only empty seat next to me.

I knock back my rose and set the empty glass on the table.

I really should eat something as the alcohol is starting to make my head fuzzy.

“Are you catching on?” Nate whispers to me only.

I let out a sigh and keep the others in my sight, but angle my head to him. “They’re Parent Trapping us.”

His soft snort is one of confirmation. “Yeah, I can see that now.”

A server comes over and drops off a few complimentary bread baskets on the table before taking our orders. My stomach rumbles loud enough for Nate to hear, if the smile on his face is any indication, and he reaches forward to set up our pre-appetizer .

When he sets the small plate in front of me, I look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Play along,” Nate tells me so only I can hear and holds out the piece of bread to me.

He’s in my line of sight but I don’t miss the others in the background with their attention on us.

I lean forward and take a bite of the small piece.

My lips brush against his fingers and I see his eyes solely focused on the spot they touched.

I sit back in my seat and chew the piece, keeping my eyes locked on him the entire time.

Nate’s eyes stay on my lips and trail down to my throat when I swallow and I’ve never needed a glass of water more in my life.

“Anyone else a little flushed?” Someone whispers and we finally break our stares.

I pick up my newly refilled glass of rose and use that to cool me down.

Nate sits back in his chair and with his spread thighs, one presses into mine.

I could move my leg, but I don’t. I revel in the feel of him pressed against me and when I finally lift my eyes to the rest of the table, I feel like I’m under a microscope.

“Yes?” I ask, as if Nate and I have been friendly since forever and him feeding me bread is perfectly normal.

“Did you two want some privacy?” Chance asks with a teasing tone in his question.

“I needed to feed her,” Nate begins, “Jax’s stomach grumbling was aggressive enough to cause an earthquake.”

I reach under the table and pinch his thigh. Or at least I try to. The man has thighs as solid as a rock. God bless baseball.

“It was not that loud. He’s being so dramatic,” I finally speak up. I polish off the rest of my glass, because seriously, the microscope keeps getting more intrusive. “Tough crowd,” I murmur so only Nate can hear me .

He chuckles and leans forward on the table.

Giving his attention to whatever Bryce is waving his hands about.

While Nate and I had our moment this morning, I’m still walking on eggshells around him.

Letting him in and just giving into the history that we have–it would be so easy to drop all of my walls around Nate.

Our server brings out our food and my mouth waters at the pasta sat in front of me. But my gaze can’t help but notice the pizza on Nate’s plate. Jerk. He knows my food weaknesses. Specifically pasta and pizza.

“I’ll split my pizza if you share your pasta,” he says when he looks at my food and then to me with a smile that can only be described as dazzling.

“Deal.”

We start on his pizza first and then move on to the pasta.

When we’ve polished off the entire meal, I’m stuffed to the brim and the alcohol is all soaked up.

Kamryn’s knowing smile from across the table is one that I’m choosing to not acknowledge.

When we were in high school and our parents would take us to dinner, sharing meals like this is what we would do to have the best of both worlds.

Her seeing that I’m doing this with Nate, no matter how small the exchange, shows that the bricks I had up to keep him out are finally coming down.

“How did you remember?” I ask Nate as our dishes are being cleared from the table. He tilts his head as if he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. “The food,” I clarify, although it could also be said for the candy basket he brought me.

“I remember everything,” Nate tells me and our eyes lock again.

It’s like that moment in movies where everything blurs: people, sound…

life. There is this energy running through me at the thought of finally kicking down that last brick wall.

Sure we said friends. But a tentative friendship at best. Only, when he says stuff like that, I want to bypass the whole friendship route and try to pick things back up to where we were in college.

“Alright, gang!” Chance booms once again and it’s enough to break the connection between us. “Let’s go.”

Him and Sophie pop up from their seats, eager to get the rest of the night started.

It’s fun seeing these two so excited to get married and all the celebrations that come before getting married.

One by one we all push up from our seats and head back out to the strip.

In the two hours we were at dinner, it seems like Vegas is finally waking up.

Chance and Sophie lead us to a cocktail bar that is filled to the brim with all kinds of celebratory parties that we all have to sandwich ourselves to stay together.

The closer I get, I’m hyper aware of Nate and his patchouli scent, and something else that I can’t quite place.

People bump into us from all around like a pinball machine.

Hands locked together, we manage to find an empty table and flag down a cocktail waitress to order some drinks.

I’m not sure how long we’ll manage to last here. Or how we’ll find our way out.

Thirty minutes later our drinks are being delivered.

“Shots? Really?” Kamryn yells over the noise.

We’re all adults so we can agree that shots, no matter what’s inside, leads to bad decisions.

“Do we need to call your husband and have him fly out to save you?” I joke.

She gives me a devious look and I plug my ears again to avoid hearing all the things my sister and Mason get up to.

“It really can’t be that bad,” Nate says and his voice rumbles over my body and sends tingles to my core .

I look up at him and meet his eyes. “Picture walking in–nope, I can’t even say it.”

His laughter sends vibrations over my body and I feel his torso brush against my arm. God, pull it together Jax. It’s an arm , I tell myself.

“Okay, cheers. To an amazing group and hopefully an unforgettable night,” Sophie cheers loud enough to be heard over the sound of the music and the lively crowd.

I eye the brown liquid like it’s a pit of snakes before my glass is tapped by the one next to me. My head turns and I meet Nate’s eyes.

“Bottom’s up, Bee.”

Our eyes stay locked as we take the shots. My mouth would go dry if I wasn’t downing fire in the form of liquid.

I cough and set the glass back down on the table. The room comes back into focus and I grab my cocktail and take a sip of that. While this place is busy, it’s definitely not the party scene. And once we leave some cash for our waitress we’re onto the next place.

“Oh, the light show,” Kamryn says when we get to the Bellagio.

We stay standing on the sidewalk to watch the rest of the fifteen minute show before heading into the first casino we can find.

Walking to the entrance and through the lobby, the sound of slot machines echoes throughout the room.

People of all, hopefully, legal ages fill the area.

Sophie and Chance run off shouting Blackjack while the rest of us look around with our eyes as big as saucers.

Kamryn takes a step away but pauses when she realizes I’m still here.

“Go ahead,” I tell her.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Go wipe the floor with them. ”

Her glee is infectious as she kisses me on the cheek. “I’ll see you later. Text me when you’re ready to head out.”

I watch my sister run further into the casino with a Poker table in her sight. And then it was just me, Nate, and Bryce.

“Huh. I see some very single ladies begging for my attention,” the black haired baseball player says. “You two have fun.” And then he’s off leaving Nate and me.

“Could they be any more obvious?” I ask. I’d be offended if Nate and I weren’t on speaking terms. Because as it stands, I’ve gotten more comfortable around him as the night has progressed. Or maybe that’s the alcohol.

“I don’t know, Bee. They might need a skywriter to spell it out,” Nate teases. “Come on, let’s go do what Bryce said and have some fun.”

“Are you a gambler?” I ask as we walk into the pit.

He shakes his head. “I can’t say I picked that up. Unless you count playing Go Fish or UNO with Kayla and bartering Oreo’s.”

“Cute.” I tell him, although I feel a bit of melancholy when he mentions the sister that I never got to meet.

It’s going to be tough to move around this elephant that’s taking up space with him.

It’s hard knowing that we missed out on so much.

But I want to. Move past this, that is. I just haven’t told him yet.

“She was a tough opponent,” he says and our feet take us in the direction of the slot machines.

We walk down the row of machines, determined to find one that’s not occupied.

I’ve never been a big Casino fan. What I’ve seen has been solely in movies or TV episodes.

It seems time can pass people by the longer they sit in front of a machine and tap incessantly on a button.

Luck is on our side when we turn down the next row and find an open one.

Luck is not on my side when we only see one chair in the area.

“You can sit on my lap. I won’t bite,” Nate says and there is no hiding the smile in his voice.

“Sure you won’t.” I say and follow him with my heart beating a mile a minute.

Nate takes a seat on the chair and pats his leg with a smirk, a raised eyebrow, and an unspoken dare.

Shaking my head, I move to stand between his legs, his eyes meet mine like they did all of those years ago, before I turn and take a seat on his leg.

His hand automatically wraps around my waist and I will myself to not turn and meet his eyes.

This position is already intimate as it is and all it would take is the slight turning of my head to fuse our lips together.

Add on the dim lights of the casino, save for the lit up machines, and yeah.

My thoughts are running before I know I’m ready to walk.

I jolt when he moves and I have to wrap an arm around his shoulder to keep from falling. Although I know he would never let that happen.

“One dollar in and then we pull the lever. Seems easy enough,” Nate says and I barely hear him over the blood rushing through my ears. Is it from our proximity or the deep tone of his voice hitting me in the chest? I don’t know. “Ready?” He asks and taps me on the hip when I’m slow to respond.

“Yeah,” I think I tell him loud enough but I can barely hear a thing over the sound of my heart beating louder than normal.

We play the game for the next thirty minutes, or maybe it’s an hour.

Time really has flown past us. I’ve gotten looser around Nate.

My body has sunken into him and my hand brushes along the exposed skin of his neck.

Drinks have been flowing since we sat down and before I know it we’re calling it quits and heading to the next spot in the casino which happens to be the bar.

“You’ve changed,” Nate notes and I turn to him with my eyebrows furrowed.

“Good change or bad change?”

“A bit of both.”

I take a sip of the margarita and look out onto the floor. “I don’t know how to get the other me back. The happy me. The fun me. The one who never second-guessed her moves.”

After Nate and Trent, my mind and who I used to be in general, went on a vacation. I used to jump into everything head first, damn the consequences. Now I do a lap, before dipping my toe in, and then taking the stairs to lower me down.

“Maybe you just need to remember what brought you joy,” Nate notes as we continue to sit at the bar.

I finish the rest of my drink and place it on the bartop behind me. “And you have a plan for that?”

He finishes his own drink and stands, holding his hand out for me. “I do. Let’s go.”

Tentatively I place my hand in his and let him pull me off the chair and he leads me to the entrance. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere only we know.” Nate says with a wink.