After he left, the room was suddenly very quiet, very awkward, and very tense. Gunn had put Luke’s guitar to the side and seemed to be waiting, standing there. So was Luke. Both were watching me.
I raised a hand to the ceiling. “Uh, I’m sure Emerson will be back. So, no worries. That’s all I’m saying.” My tongue swelled, doubled its size, and I couldn’t talk around it. “Yeah, so.” I pointed upstairs again. “Braden’s a little heated right now. I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble, or worse, get naked.”
I was halfway to the door before Luke said, “Braden’s not wrong, but he’s pushing this because of Elijah. You know that, right?”
Elijah. There went another punch to my gut. I turned around.
Luke stood there, a hand resting on the microphone stand, and my god, he looked lethal. A serious expression filled those eyes, an intensity clung to the set of his shoulders, and his lips were set in a firm line.
I tugged at the collar of my shirt. “I know. Braden wants me in the band. He thinks I’ll get bored and go back to Elijah.”
“Will you?”
Luke’s words were so soft, I almost missed them. My senses were already in overdrive, but he sped them all up again. That was the power he had over me. Shit. I’d forgotten why I had avoided him all these years. It had become habit to stay away from him, but man, I turned around. I needed to not look at him. “I don’t think I can anymore.”
Too many memories were threatening to spill in my mind, all about Luke, so I hurried upstairs and joined Braden at the bar, sliding onto the empty stool beside him. He slid a beer over to me and held his hand up. “Another, barkeep.”
His second beer was placed before him, and the girl leaned forward. “I don’t give a shit what pretty boy band you’re in, I’ll boot your ass out if you call me barkeep again.” She was thin, tall, and had long straight blonde hair that fell past the middle of her back. She had a heart-shaped face and dark eyes. Straightening, she skimmed a hard eye over me and nodded. “I’m Kelly.”
“Bri.” I pointed a thumb next to me. “The idiot’s my brother.”
“The idiot can be all nice to me in the morning hours, but when it comes to—” She stopped. “You know, I’m not even going there. Be nice or I’ll tell everyone you have a tiny dick.”
“I don’t.” He sat back, as if offended, but the wicked gleam in his eyes told me otherwise. He liked this one.
“They don’t know that.”
He groaned, picking up his beer to take a sip. When she left to help another customer, Braden watched her go, his eyes trained right on her ass. “See that, Bri. Don’t walk like that. Ever.” He turned to me, lifting his beer in a salute. “A public service announcement courtesy of your former womb-mate.”
I took his beer away from him. “You should stop drinking. That’s my public service announcement.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re worked up. If you drink any more, you’re going to get drunk, and Luke will get mad at you.”
He took his beer back. “I play better when I’m drunk. I think he’d thank you.”
Then I looked over his shoulder, and a new ball of tension formed in my stomach. This wasn’t going to go well. “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t drink for another reason.”
“Why?”
I nodded behind him. Emerson was coming through the door. He paused at the bouncer, said something, and threw his head back to laugh. He was in a good mood. That meant I probably wouldn’t be by the end of the night. Then he looked behind him at the door that was held open by someone, but I couldn’t see who it was.
An arm appeared first. As they walked inside, a tattoo on the inside of his arm was visible, and I knew who it was. That ball of tension doubled in size. I wanted to smack myself in the forehead. I should’ve known. There was only one person who made Emerson forget to be an asshole…most of the time.
I said, “Because Emerson’s back.” And so was Elijah, but he wasn’t my brother’s problem. He was mine. Just as I thought that, Elijah’s green eyes scanned the bar and landed right on me, like he knew the exact location I’d be.
It was done. For real. Judging by the guarded look in his eyes, he knew it, too.
“Oh hell,” Braden muttered. “Are you going to be okay?”
I felt my head moving up and down. “I think so.”
Then Elijah was right in front of me, and without a word, I slid off the stool. I led the way, knowing he would be right behind me. Luke and Gunn were coming up the stairs. I opened the door that connected the basement stairs to the bar. Luke paused at the top of the stairs, drawing to his fullest height as he saw who was behind me. I felt Elijah’s hand touch the small of my back, and all the nerves in my body jumped.
Luke’s gaze fell to his hand, and just like that, his grey eyes turned dark. I shivered at the anger shining in his eyes. I looked away and walked outside of the bar. Elijah followed behind me.
Once outside, he leaned against the building and put a cigarette into his mouth. Exhaling, he said, “You with him now?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “No.”
He paused, narrowed his eyes at me, and then shook his head. “I should’ve remembered who I was talking to. Always such a coward.”
“Fuck you.”
That got a laugh from him as he put the cigarette into his mouth again. Then he murmured as the smoke left him, “I don’t get you. It took one night, and you were my girl, but Luke—shit. How long have the two of you been dancing around this? You screwed him already?”