Page 52 of Gatsby's Starlet
I’d never been into a woman like this before, never this fast, never this locked in, and maybe I was coming on too strong without realizing it, pushing her into something she wasn’t ready for.
“You’ve met Zeynep?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah,” Evie said, and this time she nodded a little too quickly, like she wanted to move past it. “When I was here last.”
Her hand stilled on the table after that.
Just… stopped.
Like whatever she’d been doing, whatever small movement she’d been using to keep herself grounded, cut off all at once.
I felt my brow pull slightly.
That didn’t sit right.
“She’ll love your shop,” Lucy said. “Girl’s got an old soul. Hopefully Mystic lets her outta his sight long enough to come with me.”
Spinner snorted. “Man’s gonna be a pain in the ass till that baby’s here.”
“He’ll be one hell of a dad,” I said, but my attention wasn’t fully there anymore. “Kid’s gonna be locked down tight.”
“Nobody in their right mind is messin’ with Mystic,” Spinner added.
“Speakin’ of people you don’t mess with…” I muttered, more out of habit than anything, my gaze shifting toward the bar.
Horse.
Sitting there like a storm waiting to break, eyes locked on Brenda while she moved like she didn’t feel it, which I knew wasn’t true.
“Guy needs an intervention,” I said.
Lucy’s head snapped that way. “It’s his own damn fault. Brenda’s a great woman, and if he can’t commit after all these years, she’s smart to move on.”
“I don’t get why he doesn’t just claim her,” Spinner said.
“Backstory?” Evie asked quietly, but she didn’t look at them when she said it, her attention still somewhere else for half a second before she forced it back.
“His wife—Caroline—died a long time ago,” Lucy said. “Brenda’s been there ever since, but he won’t take that step. Now she’s got a new guy, and he actually treats her right.”
“So he feels like loving someone else means betraying his wife,” Evie said, her voice softer now, distant in a way that didn’t quite match the conversation.
“Yeah,” I said, watching her instead of them. “Looks that way.”
“That’s tough,” she murmured. “Grief… it changes people.”
“Or fucks ’em up,” Spinner muttered.
Lucy shot him a look. “Don’t start.”
“Oh, shit,” Spinner said suddenly. “He’s doin’ it.”
I followed his gaze and felt my jaw tighten. Horse had one of the sweet butts pulled onto his lap. Didn’t look right. Didn’t look like him.
“See?” Spinner said. “Intervention.”
“He needs to get his shit together and commit to Brenda,” Lucy snapped.
Evie watched the bar, her expression quieter now, but her arms had crossed at some point and she hadn’t even seemed to notice. “Brenda doesn’t look like she cares.”
