Page 8 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

JAX

PRESENT DAY

“ J ax!” I hear my name yelled as we’re following the crowd to leave the stadium. Kamryn and I look at each other before we both stop and turn around.

“Sophie! Hey,” I greet when she walks over to us. She’s donned in Cincinnati memorabilia with what looks like Chance’s number on the breast pocket. “Kamryn, this is Sophie. Sophie, my sister Kamryn.”

“Hi. Big fan of your clothes,” she gushes. Sophie is clearly sunshine personified.

“Hey, thanks. Jax says you just moved here with Chance?”

“You know him?” she asks Kamryn and not in a mean girl way.

“Yeah. I went to college with him and his brother Brandon. Small world.” Kam says and pops her sunglasses on her face.

“Really small,” she notes and then gasps. “So you’re the sisters we’re supposed to meet for drinks?”

“Guilty.”

Our laughter echoes and blends in with the sounds of others still leaving the stadium. Still high with excitement off of the win.

“Chance said we’re all meeting at the Tipsy Tavern for drinks?” Sophie questions after she looks up from her phone.

“That’s right down the street from my place,” I chime in.

“Perfect! You can just ride with me if you didn’t drive here.”

“We actually walked. But a ride would be great and I’ll give you directions. It’s kind of confusing to get to.” I tell her as we set off to the parking lot.

But as we set off towards her car, all I can focus on is the we’re all meeting part of what Sophie said.

I won’t be the girl who asks who all she means because I’m a twenty-eight year old woman, dammit!

I can conquer whoever’s going to be at the bar.

Right? My self-conscious questions a little nervously. Right! I tell myself.

I put on a brave face and wordlessly, we follow along with Sophie. She’s definitely a bubbly person and I can see how Chance became enamored with her. You can’t help but want to smile and be happy around her.

“So what do you do for work, Jax? Not to sound like a creep, but I know what your sister does,” Sophie says casually as we climb into her car.

“I help Kamryn out on the marketing side for her brand, I have a podcast and vlog channel, and then I have some other brands that I work with when needed.”

“You’re like a marketing genius, then.”

“I guess I do okay,” I say, not the biggest fan of being praised for my work.

“Don’t let her fool you, Sophie. I can’t do half of the stuff she does. So all of the social media stuff and the website for my company is all her doing. ”

Absentmindedly I fiddle with the ring on the middle finger of my left hand that has bees printed on it.

I don’t know what encouraged me to wear it today after all these years.

Maybe I’m trying to embrace summer with open arms and bees signify that.

But now after seeing Nate, I’m kind of regretting it.

Sophie and Kamryn chat like they’ve been friends forever and I occasionally interrupt to direct her where to go but their chatting gives me time to think.

Think about who I saw. Think about what this means that I saw him.

Think about how the ring on my finger feels tighter than ever and I spin it to hopefully loosen it up.

The downside to living near the stadium is that the ride to the bar takes no time at all. Sophie finds a spot to park and I purposefully take my time getting out. I trail behind them as we walk down the sidewalk to the bar.

You can do this , I tell myself over and over again as the bar gets closer. After all, we’re adding new patterns to our life and this seemingly small deviation from our routine is a new pattern. Crap, I’m regretting telling the world that.

The door to the bar sticks and weighs a ton, as shown by Sophie struggling to open it.

But once we’re through the scene that greets us is one brought to you by the old school looking taverns.

The well-worn bar is shoe-scuffed with metal hooks under the countertop for purses and bags.

A shelf of liquors, with a mirror, lines part of the back wall to get you to look at yourself as you choose your next drink.

A digital jukebox sits on the opposite wall and the black low back stools line the entirety of the bar.

“Hey, Sophie,” a voice I would know like my own greets as we walk further inside. I have to swallow down my wince when he speaks.

“Nate. Great game.” Sophie greets the man who was once mine with a hug .

“Thanks. Chance and Bryce are outside,” he tells her.

“Cool. Nate, these are my friends, Kamryn and Jax.” Sophie holds her hand out to point us to him.

“Nice to meet you,” he says and his voice has the audacity to hit me where it hurts and simultaneously make me swoon.

“You as well,” Kamryn greets.

I, however, avoid eye contact although I can feel his eyes burning a hole in my face, and I loop my arm around my sisters and we follow Sophie outside to the covered patio.

My sister isn’t the only good secret keeper.

But I do admit that keeping this from her for years has eaten me alive.

She doesn’t know Nate—well, she knows of the guy who was my best friend before he became something more.

So it was easy to ignore that part of my life when she was dealing with settling into adulthood and then losing Liam.

And then again when everything with Trent happened.

But now that he’s here I know I can no longer ignore that I’ll have to tell Kamryn about the history she’s blind to.

I also know that if my friendship with Sophie continues, I’ll have to talk with Nate. There is no avoiding it anymore.

“Baby!” Sophie squeals when we walk out to the patio.

Seeing them together is comical. Where she’s around my height at 5’2” with tattoos that I can now see, covering every available inch of her body, Chance towers over her with naked skin. But they work and seeing how they light up around each other brings that green monster around.

“Hi, Baby Belle,” he coos.

Kam snorts. “Care to enlighten us on that nickname?”

“If you insist,” Chance chides. “Oh, this is Bryce and Nate should have been at the bar getting another beer.”

“He was.” Sophie answers for us and moves to sit on the bench that lines the back wall of the space .

“Nice to meet you both,” Bryce tells us.

“Likewise,” I say with a smile. “So back to this nickname.”

Kamryn and I take our seats and I realize too late that an empty one is next to me. Asking my sister to trade spots would look juvenile, so I stay where I’m at while every muscle in my body tenses with his impending arrival.

“He came into the bookstore I was working at in Tampa,” Sophie starts.

“Don’t forget to mention you were wearing a yellow dress.” Chance interrupts and pops a kiss on her cheek.

“I was getting there, ya goof.” Sophie says with an eye roll but looks less than annoyed and if the smile on her face is any indication I doubt we’ll get the full story of how they met.

“Anyways, I was stocking the shelves with new releases when he came into the store looking for one of the newest fantasy books for his sister. I thought it was sweet. Until he came in the next week and the week after that and so on,” Sophie says with laughter in her voice.

My body coils like a snake ready to strike when the chair next to me now holds a body I know quite intimately. And that familiar cologne mixed with his natural body scent wafts towards me. I do my best to ignore him and focus on my new friend's love story.

“Did he keep using his sister as an excuse?” Kamryn asks.

“Nope. His mom, then his aunt, then his grandma, and then his other aunt.”

“What? The women in my family are readers,” he claims and we all laugh at that. “Soph made me nervous.”

“You? Nervous?” Kam asks, baffled. Which is understandable because on the rare time I visited her, Chance was the class clown of their group .

He shakes his head and they share a look that can only be had from years of knowing one another. “I was never nervous because Liam always made the jokes to ease the tension.”

“That he did.”

Despite Kamryn being best friends with Liam, he and I never had that brother-sister relationship that some might think.

Liam was practically a stranger to me. And I’m sure it wasn't on purpose. But once him and Kamryn got together, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

Plus, they had James and Emily to do couple things with.

So I never truly experienced his fun personality like Chance and Kamryn reminisce about.

Mainly because I was locked in Nate-land.

It was the safest place for me to be. So I kept to myself the majority of the time. And I liked my life like that.

I look over at Nate from the corner of my eye and see him with his elbows on his knees, looking into his glass of beer.

His corded forearms are a beautiful brown ochre decorated with floral prints and an older looking digital camera captured.

His wrist is decorated with an expensive looking watch and a gold bracelet.

Simple and understated. He shifts my way and I look back towards the group.

“But anyways, after the fifth trip to the bookstore I finally asked her out.” Chance says and looks at Sophie with the gentlest of eyes.

“Fifth?” Bryce asks with humor.

“Yep.” Chance follows that up with wrapping his arms around Sophie. “She was wearing this light yellow dress that dipped low in the front. And when I finally got the courage to speak to her, I called her Belle.”

“So, the nickname makes sense,” Bryce says as he watches them with fascination .

“Exactly. And then I promised to follow him anywhere,” Sophie finishes.

“When’s the wedding?” I ask and don’t miss Nate turning his face in my direction. Does my voice affect him as much as his affects me?

Sophie leans into Chance’s side and they share a look. “We just got engaged a few months ago but were thinking next November with a joint bachelor and bachelorette party after the season ends.”

“Well, if you need a wedding dress, I’ve always wanted to make one,” Kamryn offers.

Sophie’s squeal is piercing enough that I plug my ears and I don’t miss anyone else’s covering of their ears.

“Damn, Sophie.” Chance mutters and wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her back into his side.

“Sorry,” she announces. “But a dress designed by THE Kamryn Brooks is every girl's dream.”

She’s not wrong. It took considerable effort to keep my sister from making her own wedding dress and it’s something she recently dipped her toes into to offer to other brides.

While wedding dresses aren’t her brand’s main focus, I can see the wheels turning in her fashion designer brain just ready to tackle something else.

“I’d be happy to do it.”

Bryce sighs. “Since we’re on the topic of love, you all can help us out with Nate and his love dilemma.”

I chose the wrong moment to take a sip as I choke on my beer and continue to cough to clear my throat.

“Are you okay?” Kam asks.

“Yeah,” I wheeze out and grab a napkin from the table to wipe my chin. “It just went down the wrong tube.”

Kamryn rubs my back and looks around me to look at Nate. “Love dilemma? ”

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” he says and tries to dismiss her. But I don’t miss how the grip on his glass has gotten tighter or the clench in his jaw.

“Oh, come on,” Bryce starts.

I for one want to sink through the floor if I know where this is going to go.

“Your not so unrequited love from college that you had to leave because your dad was sick who you magically see today? If that’s not the making for a second chance, I don’t know what is.”

I see my sister look at me from the corner of my eye, but I avoid her. The noise around me fades as I think back to that winter break. We made plans. So many plans. And they were gone quicker than the first snowfall in Pennsylvania.