Page 23

23

Dakota

S omething about Minori’s story set my teeth on edge. I looked like a dead man. Unless I was mistaken about the subtlety laced between the lines of her words, a dead man she had once worried her father had murdered.

Fucking yikes.

That wasn’t just something you went around telling people. It was like saying you looked like their asshole ex or a famous murderer. Why would you do that, even if it were true?

Still, when Jax set a plate laden with pizza in front of me, it was eminently distracting. I never would have thought the pizza at a random karaoke bar would be amazing, but there it was. It was great. The crust was chewy and crusty, the cheese hot and gooey, and the tomato sauce that perfect level of acidity that a good pizza needed to counteract all the fat in the cheese.

I wished for a moment that Prudence were there, and that was... odd. I’d known Prudence for such a short time. If I were missing someone, shouldn’t it be my family or best friend? Except frankly I didn’t want them there. My parents were the worst buzzkill ever, such boring bland people, they reminded me of overcooked pasta. No flavor, no interest, no backbone, nothing at all to recommend them.

And Donnie?

I blinked repeatedly, because that was... it wasn’t possible to summon someone just by thinking of them, was it? It couldn’t be magic. I hadn’t even been thinking that I wanted him there, but the opposite. The realization gave me a stab of shame, but also, I didn’t want him there .

Yes, we were having fun, but I was with my coworkers. This wasn’t a club. It wasn’t time for Donnie to flirt with everyone in sight and go home with the hottest guy in the room.

He wasn’t allowed to have Jax.

Jax was fucking mine.

But it was Donnie. Donnie was standing there in the doorway, smiling at the woman who’d been bringing our drinks with his flirtiest smile. He slipped her something, I assumed a tip, and then turned to the room at large, grinning that bright grin that always drew everyone in.

The smile that always got all attention on him, and even the guys who’d been flirting with me before his arrival always turned right to him.

I turned sharply to look at Jax, but his eyes weren’t on Donnie. They were on me, and filled with concern. “Are you okay?”

What did he mean was I okay? Did I stink of jealousy or something? It wouldn’t have been surprising, since Donnie was there. Donnie, who slept with every guy I’d ever been remotely attracted to in every club we went to together.

I was clutching Jax’s arm so tight that his jacket was wrinkling under my grip. Shit.

I loosed my hold, but instead of pulling away with relief, Jax reached over and covered my hand, keeping me from withdrawing. “Who’s that?”

My jaw hurt, I was clenching it so hard, and I had to pull it open through sheer force of will. “Donnie,” I finally croaked out. “He’s my... my roommate. I didn’t invite him here. I didn’t even tell him where I was going. But he’s been obsessing over how I’m working too much and I’m going to burn out.”

Jax raised that one perfect, smooth eyebrow that made him look like a model for Armani, and he sort of half-glanced at Donnie. “Want me to have him removed? Seth will do it.”

Across from us, the very large security man was slightly tensed as though prepared to stand up, watching me and Jax, head cocked in my direction. Like it was all up to me, and he was prepared to either accept or eject Donnie based on my word.

Mine.

And neither of them were even looking at scruffy, model-perfect Donnie.

“Hey Kody,” Donnie said, grinning at me as he skirted his way around the table toward me. “You should have told me it wasn’t real work. I wouldn’t have worried so much.”

He was effortlessly beautiful, as always. Looking somehow both like he’d just rolled out of bed and like he’d had a whole team of hair and makeup people to make him look that way.

“It’s fine,” I said, to no one in particular. “Everything’s fine.”

Jax squeezed my hand, bumping me with his shoulder. He still didn’t look up at Donnie, who was standing over us.

Donnie, who was pressing in, as though he wanted to push his way onto the bench between me and Jax, even though there wasn’t a bit of empty space there.

Behind me, Maia cleared her throat. I turned to look at her, and she was looking at Donnie. “I guess if you’re crashing, you can sit down here, next to Jilly. She’s good at keeping an eye on troublemakers.”

It was a little playful, yes, but it wasn’t... it wasn’t entirely playful. There was some tension in her, and in the words, and she didn’t let Donnie protest as she shooed him down the table toward Jillian. She put him in a chair she’d been inhabiting before, and stood there next to the table, between him and me. Like she was going to protect me from him.

Like everyone in the room wasn’t instantly charmed by his very existence.

That was a first for my whole life. Everyone loved Donnie. Everyone wanted to be close to him.

My coworkers were friendly enough, leaning across the table and introducing themselves, shaking his hand, but—but Jax didn’t even glance his way. He smiled down at me. “Are you going to sing?”

“Oh no, I?—”

“You don’t want him to do that,” Donnie interrupted from all the way down the table. “Kody sings like a cat in heat.”

Jax didn’t look away from me, and his smile only faltered for a second. “I haven’t spent much time at this, but it doesn’t seem to be about that. It’s not like all of us are going to be stars.”

“That’s right,” Maia agreed, and she came up on my other side, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the end of the table, right out of my seat and toward what looked a lot like a firing squad to me.

But somehow, when the music started, a cute poppy sixties song about “his kiss,” it didn’t seem quite as scary. Not with Maia standing there with me. Not with all my coworkers smiling at us. None of them cringed at my voice, and they applauded when we finished the song—Seth even stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a wolf whistle. I knew that was for Maia, not me, but still.

It was... nice.

When I walked by Donnie on the way back to my seat, Jillian was leaning on his shoulder, as though she was holding him in his seat, even as he was staring down the table at Jax.

Jax, who was looking at me.

Just me.

I couldn’t hold in my own smile in return. “Your turn?” I asked as I sat down, and everyone around me roared. It was seconds later that Seth was dragging him up to the front to pick their own song and just... fuck me, it was a work event, and I didn’t think I’d ever had so much fun in my life.

I forgot all about Donnie.