“It’s Sydney’s birthday,” Tilly told him. “You let her go out and have some fun. I’m sleeping over, so I’ll watch whatever you want.”
“You should go,” Kirsten whispered to me. “You don’t have enough fun.”
That was true enough.
“We’re going too!” Gino called out. “It’ll be great.”
I sighed. I was going to lose this battle before it even began.
“Just for a little while,” I said finally. Mostly because I was starving and if we went out, I wouldn’t have to cook.
“Don’t worry about the kids,” Tilly told me. “I’m ordering pizza for us.”
“You’re the best, Tilly,” I told her and meant it.
“Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
***
An hour later, a waitress put a big-ass T-bone steak in front of me and my mouth watered. I didn’t eat out very often, and when I did it wasn’t expensive steak dinners, but it was my birthday. Last year, two weeks before my twenty-third birthday, my parents had disappeared in a boating accident and my life had been turned upside down. I’d become guardian to three children, a homeowner, and promptly gotten dumped by my boyfriend at the time. And life had been a cluster fuck of insanity ever since.
“You think Frank swings both ways?” Gino asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Lila laughed. “He better not—he’s all mine, dammit.”
Lonnie chuckled. “You can have him. He’s probably the same asshole he’s been since high school.”
“Bite your tongue!” Lila said. “Stop trying to dash my dreams.”
“You just need to get laid,” Gino said. “You don’t need a narcissistic prick like Franklin for that.”
“Would you guys leave me to my fantasies?” she demanded. “Geez.”
“Here’s everyone trying to get laid and I’m just really into this steak,” I said, putting a bite in my mouth and sighing happily. I had a side of baked macaroni and cheese with bacon, buttered collard greens, and a house salad drenched in blue cheese dressing. Not to mention fresh skillet cornbread, a Rutherford’s specialty, with honey butter. I already knew we’d get triple mocha lava cake when we were done with dinner, and though I would never normally have dessert twice in one day, I was treating myself.
“You need to get laid more than the rest of us put together,” Lila muttered, giving me side eye.
“Sex is the last thing I need,” I replied, putting a bite of mac and cheese in my mouth. “Between two jobs, three kids, and that house to take care of, I barely sleep, much less date or have sex.”
“You don’t have to date to have sex,” Lonnie pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s not my thing.” I focused on my food. I really didn’t want to talk about sex or dating since I hadn’t done either in a year.
“Bartender’s really cute,” Gino said.
“I’ve known Curtis since grade school,” I said, making a face. “He’s got a girlfriend.”
“What about that guy over there?” Lonnie nudged me and all but forced me to look at a guy in a cowboy hat who was checking me out from a few tables over.
“Not interested,” I said quietly. “Come on, guys, knock it off. You know I don’t have time for that kind of stuff.”
“Now that is one fine piece of Texas beef,” Gino murmured, his eyes following a guy in tight black jeans, a ripped up concert T-shirt, and black boots.
Lila followed his gaze and nodded. “Oh, he’s hot. Come on, Syd, at least rate him. Scale of one to ten.”
The guy turned and said something to his companion, causing me to frown. Why did he look familiar?
“Er, eight,” I said automatically, since I knew my well-meaning friends wouldn’t leave it alone until I rated him.
But why the hell did he look familiar?
Then I saw his friend and the pressure in my chest made it hard to breathe.
My vision blurred, my skin felt hot, and my stomach threatened to bring up my half-eaten dinner.
I slid down in my seat, lowering my chin so I was looking down, though I kept the guy in my peripheral vision.
What the fuck was he doing here?
It had been more than seven years since I’d seen him. Well, seven years, five months and a few days. Then he’d left town and never come back. Until tonight.
The guy I’d rated an eight laughed and then he and a man I’d never wanted to see again moved toward the back, where a waitress had just put several tables together. I couldn’t believe he was here, in our little hometown just outside of San Antonio, with his new band. He’d probably be mobbed as soon as anyone recognized him, and hopefully I’d be long gone by then.
I never wanted to see, hear, or talk to Ford Malone ever again.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lila asked, swiveling her head to look around.
“Ford,” I hissed under my breath.
She froze. Only a handful of people knew about me and Ford, and two of them—my parents—were now dead. Lila narrowed her eyes and followed my gaze.
“Holy fucking shit. He looks so different. He cut his hair?”
“Who cut his hair?” Gino demanded, looking around.
“Shhh!” Lila and I both practically growled at him, and he immediately shrunk down in his chair, eyes wide.
“Why are we whispering?” he whispered urgently. “And who don’t you want to hear me?”
“No one,” I said, scowling. “Just keep your voice down.”
“But no one shouldn’t be able to hear…”
“I swear to god, I will run you over with your mail cart on Monday if you don’t hush up!” I told him.
“Do we get to hear the story or are you just going to sit here and yell at us?” Lonnie asked, popping a toothpick in his mouth.
“No story, just don’t look, don’t engage, don’t anything.” I gave them all as serious a look as I could muster up since I was dying inside.
I’d truly never thought I’d see him again. And after what he’d done, how did he have the nerve to come to town like he hadn’t just walked away from the girl he’d sworn he loved? Sure, we were only sixteen and seventeen, but—I cut myself off abruptly. There was no reason to go down that road. It was over and done. I’d survived and put Ford out of my mind.
He was on tour with his new band so they’d be in and out in one day and by Monday, he’d be nothing to me again, just like he’d been for the last seven years and five months.
“I have to pee,” Lila whispered. “Come with me.”
“No. I’d have to walk near their table.”
“Dude, he’s dating that supermodel from England and sitting there with his band. He’s not even going to notice you.”
She had a point. God knows, he hadn’t given leaving me a second thought.
“All right.” I got up and kept my head down as I followed her into the ladies’ room. She did her business and I stood there, leaning against the wall.
“You okay?” she asked as she washed her hands. “You’re kinda pale.”
“I never thought he’d come here,” I admitted. “I thought…Oh hell, I don’t know what I thought.”