Page 26 of When You Stayed
With that, I followed my sister into the bathroom.
Ellie Ryan was a fantastic dancer.
We all knew this, but we assumed her abilities were limited to ballet. But no, the girl could draw a crowd, and somehow even make the rest of us look good while doing it. I could dance, but mostly that meant I moved around or jumped in place. The band playing was incredible, with a rockier, folk vibe.
We’d been dancing for well over an hour and finally taken refuge at the bar, ordering some drinks. Charlie slid my favorite mocktail in front of me, and I was grateful because adding alcohol to my already fucked-up scenario wasn’t a good idea.
“Royce, it wasn’t even the company who posted the original.” Nova turned her phone around to show me. She’d had her eyes on her phone ever since I had spilled the drama around Ford’s freak-out, and my accidental popularity. The video now had well over a million views, and while most of the comments were disgusting, there were quite a few in defense of me, saying this was obviously leaked from the company’s page, which I didn’t think was true until Nova just proved it.
“So who posted it?”
Nova’s hair was lighter growing up, but now it was dark, long, and sleek, which made her look almost exactly like her mother, Penelope. She turned her phone back around. “Probably some unknown user or something.”
Connor’s little sister had always been like an extra sister to me, andwhile I didn’t harbor any anger toward her brother, it worried me that she harbored it toward me. Throughout the years, while Taryn would hang out with her, and they’d invite me, I would hang back. But now, it had been well over six years, there was no reason to keep worrying. As far as I knew, Connor had moved on as well and was happy with his life wherever he ended up. It wasn’t like I hadn’t asked about Connor, or tried contacting him but the answer was always the same. Which was that he was doing great, but moved around a lot and work kept him busy.
Ellie sipped her Lemon Drop and then leaned in. “I know Ford is super stressed about work. By the way, he’s the one in charge. I didn’t want to say anything at that dinner, but it’s likehiscompany. But I bet he is being a dick because he’s stressed.” Her focus was on her glass as she added, “That or he has a crush on you.”
I nearly choked on my drink. “I can promise you, he does not.”
Finding out that he owned the company made my little outburst at dinner even more embarrassing.
Nova tipped her head back, taking a generous sip, and then blurted, “Connor once told me that he hated that Ford called you Rose. Said it seemed flirty to him.”
“He still has the Christmas card he tried to give you all those years ago. You left it on the side table and didn’t even open it.” Ellie added with a lick of her tongue over the rim of her glass.
My mind was a blurred mess when I attempted to remember that night.
“I’m sure I took it with me.” I tried to argue and defend myself against something that made me sound so unkind. Perhaps it ended up with all my other personal items that were still at Connor’s house. I’d never gotten my box of things from him, and it was still bothering me that he hadn’t even had the decency to give me my stuff back. So much time had passed that I was now way too embarrassed to bug Penelope or Nova about going over there to look around. Surely, they’d just tossed it all.
My sister reached over and grabbed my wrist, likely to get my attention over the loud music. “Whatever happened to that guy you were sort of seeing?”
“Julian?”
Her blue eyes sparkled under the lights. “Yeah, him. Are you guys still casual or what’s going on there?”
Ellie and Nova both watched me from over the rim of their drinks. I felt strange about explaining my dating life in front of them. Not that I owed them anything, but I used to date Nova’s older brother, and now with Ellie’s older brother I was…what? Fighting? My mind threw me back to being pulled flush against his chest, and how his hand wrapped inside my back pocket. In the moment I was seething angry, but there was no denying that I’d tugged that moment out and replayed it more times than I cared to admit.
Dipping my chin, I tried to brush past the subject of Julian. “Still just casual.”
The truth was Julian was fun when he wanted to be, and I enjoyed that side of him. He had too many opinions for my liking, at least where motorcycle clubs were concerned. I argued with him once about why I didn’t think biker clubs were bad, and he’d spent an hour outlining why they were a danger to society. He didn’t agree with what my father did, and he’d slighted half of everyone I knew in his monologue. It wasn’t going anywhere, but when I got lonely and he wanted to go out, I’d accept.
Taryn gave Ellie a look, and something silent passed between the two of them. “Well, either way, I think Ford needs to be taken down a notch.”
Ellie smiled. “He absolutely does. He’s been in a funk forever.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, while glancing up the stairs leading past the bar. Rodney would typically be scaling those to check on things, but I hadn’t seen him all night. Nick waved at me from his spot above though, and I gave him a small wave in return.
Ellie grabbed her small clutch. “Someone else drive, but we’re headed to my house. I have the best idea ever.”
SEVEN
FORD
This was such a bad idea.
I knew it was, but fuck, I needed to do something to punish myself for what I had said last week when Killian told me to stay away from Royce. The small, single fuck I let him see I had regarding his daughter was not just humiliating, it was dangerous. I had been down this path before, the one where I stared at her for too long. Or I drew her face from sheer memory in my sketchpads, which were later discovered by my own parents.
If anyone knew how deep my past obsession really went, they’d knock me over the head and toss me into the bay. I was a sick fuck who had gripped my cock three different times throughout the week to the video of Royce in that outfit.
