Page 23 of Burning Rivalry

It took a minute or two of waiting until the door swung open, and she emerged, her nose and cheeks pink like she might have shed a few tears. She stopped short on finding me waiting, her shoulders sinking. “Tell me you aren’t waiting here for me.” She sighed.

“Would that be a crime? Caring whether you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” The way she sniffled told another story, as did the emotion hanging thick in her voice. “Thank you.”

“I only wanted to help.” Why was I defending myself? There was no reason to any more than there was a reason to flinch when she did. “You don’t have to be embarrassed or anything.” How fucking awkward. I wasn’t helping a damn thing.

Instead of rubbing that in my face, a grunt burst out of her. “Have you ever wanted to keep one single thing about your life private?” She held up a finger in front of my face. “Just one thing for yourself after so much of your life was suddenly considered fair game? I couldn’t even have that.”

“Trust me.” Closing my hand around hers, I lowered them both until they hung between us, still clasped. “You’ll have plenty of life for yourself. There’s still time to build it, and it’ll belong only to you.”

She released a long, silent breath, gazing up at me. I liked it almost too much. This moment, the two of us, the sense of her letting her guard down, allowing herself to be so vulnerable, I could almost see myself kissing off the lipstick she’d reapplied.

That was nothing new.

What was new was the way she leaned toward me, lips parting as I slowly lowered my head.

Until I caught sight of Lucas out of the corner of my eye. Dropping her hand, I turned to him. “I think Hadley needs to go,” he murmured, giving Claudia an apologetic look. “She’s in bad shape.” The man’s timing in the kitchen was impeccable, but not so much outside of it.

Minutes later, the four of us made our way outside. “But I wanted to go on that crazy ride that takes you waaay up into the air,” Hadley reminded her, blinking hard as she tried to pull her friend into focus after drinking too much wine.

“Uh… not tonight,” Claudia decided, guiding her to the car while Lucas and I followed. “Unless you want to puke all over yourself.”

“You sure you don’t need help?” It was clear Lucas felt left out, let down. I had wanted to punish him for having the audacity to think Claudia was available. I knew that now. It made me no better than a small, petty man like Kristoff, who had let jealousy over a woman I didn’t want destroy a years-long friendship.

“No, we’ve been putting each other to bed like this for years now,” Claudia assured us once I helped Hadley into the passenger seat of a small Honda after the valet brought the car around. Something durable, not flashy in the least, probably because she grew up the way she had.

Hadley gazed up at me, her hazel eyes unfocused as she swayed ever so slightly. “I shouldn’t have drank so much wine,” she confessed as if I didn’t already know.

“It happens.” Considering it brought an end to her incessant flirting, I wasn’t unhappy that it had.

Until she leaned out through the open door and threw up on the pavement, mere inches from my shoes once I backed out of the way. Claudia groaned and hurried around from the driver’s side, looking horrified. “Don’t worry,” I told her. “It all stayed outside the car.”

“I’m sorry,” Hadley whispered, tears on her cheeks. “I was nervous. I drank too much.”

It looked like none of our evenings were ending as we’d hoped or imagined as Claudia closed the door, holding up crossed fingers while hustling back to the driver’s door. “Wish me luck.” She sighed, meeting my gaze over the car’s roof before ducking inside.

It wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Hadley had given me an excuse to get out of the evening without having to let her down gently.

If only things could be that simple with Claudia.

10

CLAUDIA

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right.” I’d lost track of how many times I had to assure Hadley I didn’t hate her after what happened back there. She was a grown woman. It wasn’t like I felt I had to take responsibility for the things she did. I wasn’t embarrassed.

If anything, I was too busy being relieved for embarrassment to play a role as I helped her go through the motions of changing into pajamas, then tucked her into bed with two bottles of water on the nightstand and a bottle of ibuprofen which I found in her bag.

“Get some sleep now,” I murmured, stroking her hair back from her forehead. “You’ll be fine.”

“He probably thinks I’m a joke.” It was the last thing she mumbled before closing her eyes with a pitiful groan.

Clearly, she was talking about Sebastian. Did he think she was a joke? And why did I care if he did? I only knew as I changed into a T-shirt and leggings that I was relieved to have an excuse to get out of there without turning Lucas down. The resentment I felt toward myself was nothing compared to what I felt toward Sebastian for pushing my hand.

But at the end of the day, I could have said no to the whole date idea. I hadn’t. Part of me maybe wanted to see what Sebastian was like outside the restaurant, in the real world. When he wasn’t strutting around like he was hot shit, I should’ve known he would have been the same asshole as ever.