Page 17 of From the Embers

“She has an eye for it,” Adi says as I frown.

“Huh?”

“If she recognised you from behind,” she adds with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

I laugh now as I shake my head, so she did see what happened earlier. “Funny. Very funny.”

Adi’s eyes widen as her eyes flick left. “And she’s a bombshell.”

I glance at her quizzically. I don’t have time to answer. She may look like the perfect woman, but she is far from it. Beautiful on the outside, but definitely not inside. People’s looks fade when you find out they’re an ugly person.

“There you are!” Hannah’s voice makes us both turn our heads. Yep, there is no mistaking her whiny voice. She has a drink in hand, two of her friends hot on her trail.

“I think I might need another shot,” I mumble to Adi.

“That can be arranged,” she whispers back.

six

Adelaide

The sight of the woman Denver just said was his ex is a startling discovery to say the least. When my eyes have finished rounding out, I take a big gulp of wine. She’s seriously beautiful—no, scratch that, she’s stunning, and has the body of a swimsuit model. You can see most of it through the dress she’s wearing. Hey, I’m all for ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’, but I never considered that I was the jealous type until she started flaunting it in front of Denver.

It’s the first time I’ve seen him looking uncomfortable. He shifts in his seat and puts the pizza slice he’s half eaten down on the board, leaning over to grab his beer off the bar. He’s close to my ear, and I feel the warmth of his breath on the side of my ear before I hear him whisper, “Play along, please, Adi.”

When he pulls back and brings his beer up to his lips, he keeps his eye on me and gives me a little wink. Okay, so something’s about to be up, but I don’t exactly know what.

“You found me again,” he mumbles to the beautiful woman now stationed right in front of him.

“Oh, geez,” I hear Brax mutter on the other side of me. Eric continues to eat and doesn’t bat an eyelid.

“Are you hiding from me?” She scans him over with appreciative eyes, then tugs at his arm, completely ignoring me. “Come dance with me, Denver! It’s been way too long.”

“Hannah,” he warns, removing his arm from her clutches. “I’m with someone, remember? I told you earlier.”

I’m so busy watching on, but trying to keep a low-profile at the same time, that I don’t realize he’s thumbing toward me until I look down at his hand, gesturing in my direction. “This is Adelaide,” he says. “Adi, this is Hannah, my ex-girlfriend.”

Hannah glares at me. It’s a cold stare, but there’s fire there too as her eyes narrow in on me. It’s awkward and cringeworthy at best. I’m about to open my mouth to try to be polite and say hello, though it’s far from what I feel like doing. I want to just disappear, but she averts her eyes back to Denver. “I thought you were joking when you said that,” she says like I’m not even here.

I snap my mouth closed. Wow.

“I wouldn’t joke about that,” he says firmly. “Adi and I are dating.”

I try to take it all in as he reaches an arm over my shoulders and tugs me to his side.

It’s then I get an even closer inhalation of that familiar spicy, woodsy scent I love so much. I’m no expert, but his cologne could make toes curl all over the globe, it’s that good. Then again, it could be the man wearing it so well.

Hannah’s eyes flick to me again, and then very notably, she glances down my body. Yes, I’m a bigger girl; my thighs are chunky, my belly on the softer side, and my hips are wide. I’m nothing at all like Hannah, and up until this moment I thought I was over any past complexes I had about my figure. I’m happy and proud of my body, but the way she is looking at me now, in utter disbelief that someone like Denver could be with someone like me, is a little confronting. I’m not used to this kind of scrutiny.

Valuing his worth over mine because of our outer looks just screams mean girl, and I don’t do mean girl. This isn’t high school.

But I decide to take the high road and not glare back—as much as I want to ask her what her fucking problem is—and take a well-needed breath. I play along like he asked. “He’s definitely not joking,” I add, cos why the hell not? I snuggle up into his side, instantly liking how warm his body feels and how much I’m enjoying his arm around me. Even if it is only fake so his ex takes a hike. “Not that I can call what we do dating.” I lower my voice, cupping around my mouth but so she can clearly hear me. “I probably don’t have to tell you that this man can go for hours.”

Denver chokes on his drink. Okay, clearly he wasn’t expecting that, or he seriously underestimated my pettiness. He recovers quickly, chuckles, then leans into me, pressing his lips against my forehead. The movement surprises me, and I take a sharp breath, trying to steady myself. The warmth of his mouth on me sends a pleasurable shiver through my body that I try to repress.

Team fucking Denver,, here I come.

I hear Brax splutter next to me like his swig of beer went down the wrong way, too. From my peripheral I can see he’s watching the whole debacle, as is Eric.