Page 47 of When You Stayed
How had I gotten to this place where I cared who Ford Ryan touched?
Because if I touch you, even once…I won’t stop.
I wanted his hands on me. I wanted his gruff voice against my ear.His hair between my fingers. Jasmine seemed to finally realize Ford wasn’t moving. She pulled back and then glared over her shoulder at me.
“What the hell are you doing in here?”
My petty smile made her glare worsen.
“I was waiting to talk to Ford about when he’d like me to come over tonight.” I abused the conversation we’d had about Gus, making it seem so much more than me playing with his cat, but I was too petty to care.
Jasmine narrowed her eyes, then swung her pretty, stupid face back at Ford. “Are you hooking up with her after me? I mean, I get that you’re in a motorcycle club, but that’s pretty messed up, especially after we?—”
“Sorry, I assumed our plans were canceled when you started making out with the fucker with cropped hair,” Ford cut her off.
“Julian?” How had he not seen how unhappy I was to see him?
I hid a delighted smile that he’d revealed his own jealousy. Jasmine was just a pawn, a tool to wound me.
“If you’d stuck around for more than the two seconds our kiss lasted, you’d know that I told him to leave. He was trying to use me to help his friend. It’s why we met at the Drip the other day. He wanted me to bump a band, and when I told him no, he assumed he could win me over with affection. Unfortunately, I don’t have any for him, so that didn’t go well.”
“Julian Thomspon?” Jasmine asked with a raised brow.
I blinked at her.
She let out a small sigh and then removed herself from Ford’s spread legs. “Julian brushed me off two days ago because he said he was into someone else. That was probably you. Now, based on how Ford only paid attention to me after he caught you kissing another guy tells me he’s also into you…So, I’m gonna go.”
“I’m not into her,” Ford argued.
That stinging venom curled inside my lungs this time.
Jasmine moved to her purse, where she dug through it until she produced a small tube and began reapplying her lip gloss. “You left meduring our date the other day after ignoring me the entire time. I can tell when a guy is into someone else, so save it.”
They’d gone on a date? That meant she wasn’t a pawn at all…she was someone real in his life. Suddenly, I felt like complete and total shit.
“Jasmine, there’s nothing going on with me and Ford. I was trying to piss him off for being a dick earlier. We’re childhood friends. Please stay.” I took a step back toward the door.
Ford’s nose flared as he finally got to his feet.
Jasmine flicked her gaze between us. “I don’t exactly believe you.”
My heart felt like it had been untethered from my chest, in the oddest way. Even after Connor and I broke up, I’d never experienced this before. I’d never felt as if I couldn’t catch a breath, or like my heart was so bruised, it wouldn’t beat properly anymore. I hated how deep Ford had already dug under my skin.
“Ford has never cared about who I date, or what I do. I told you…we’re childhood friends. We were just joking with each other. I’m sorry that I interrupted. You guys have fun, I’m going to go home.”
I turned away from them and began walking down the hall. There was a loud, chaotic shout that came from near the front of the club. It had several members hollering and excited, but I used it as an opportunity to escape. Two steps away from the hallway that would lead out back, I froze when I heard my name called.
It flung me back six years to the last time I had heard it spoken in that tone. That cadence.
Connor.
Turning slowly, I found my high school boyfriend standing there with that same familiar smile. Same dark hair, blazing blue eyes, and wide jaw. I walked toward him and flung my arms around his neck, hoping the feel of his arms around me would somehow stitch up the damage Ford had created.
My eyes landed over Connor’s shoulder, on Ford who lingered in the hall from which I had just fled. Jasmine shoved her shoulder into his arm as she rushed past him, her jacket on and purse swung over her chest.
My eyes closed as Connor hugged me back, then he pulled away and inspected me.
“Been a long fucking time, Roy.”
