In a tight red strapless dress, Leigh swayed on top of the kitchen island as a bloke gripped her ankles, looking up her dress as she carelessly danced to hypnotic tunes with a bottle in her hand. Her blonde hair was a knotted mess over her head. Red lipstick smeared across her lips as she stumbled in red stilettos. I fisted the back of the bloke’s shirt and yanked him backward. “Get the fuck off her.”
The bloke flashed me a drunken smile and held up her red-lace knickers between his fingers.
“What did you do?” I threw a fist into his face, and the sea of people parted down the middle as he fell backward over the coffee table.
“Relax, Oliver,” Dex said, gripping my shoulder. “Take a shot. This is a party.”
“You should be watching her,” I pointed out, grabbing Leigh’s thighs to pull her down from the kitchen island. “I have a fucking job, a girl. I can’t be here all the time.” Leigh wrapped her legs around my waist, not letting off.
“You’re right,” he smiled, pointing at me, “You do have a fucking job. And I own you until Ghost is gone. Boys like us don’t get to have relationships. You need to let her go. You need to forget her.”
Forget her? Impossible. Mia Rose flowed through me, inked across every page of my soul which made me whole. Did he not know you couldn’t unread a book? If there was a chance, I’d find it. I’d want to read her over and over as if it were the first time all over again.
“I don’t have to listen to this,” I pat Leigh on the arse to motion her down, “I’m leaving.”
Leigh clutched me tighter, her legs hugging my waist with her arms around my neck, clinging for dear life as she pleaded for me not to leave her here. Her bare arse was out, and every bloke who walked by ogled and moved around to get a better view, so I carried Leigh out of the house and back to my car, unlatching her scrawny arms from around me to set her inside the passenger seat. She whined against my neck.
“I’m not leaving you, Leigh. I’m taking you home,” I reassured her, and Leigh lifted her head and looked around, noticing we were outside. Her body slid down mine and she got into my car. I jogged around the front of the hatchback and climbed into the driver side before starting the engine. “Where do you live?”
Leigh didn’t answer, and I turned my head to see her passed out beside me. I threw my head back into the headrest and let out a groan.
“I HOPE SHE’LL LIKE IT,” Mia said from the passenger side as we drove to Hyde Park, admiring a photo of Summer in a vintage frame she picked out from the market.
Last week, Mia had done a maternity shoot for Summer, and we were meeting them at the British Summer Time music festival they held each year over the fields in London, wanting to get together once more before Summer had her baby.
I clutched Mia’s hand, and her twelve freckles danced with her smile. “She’ll love it.” Mia’s hair was cut short like the first time I’d met her, a little past her shoulders, and she tucked the framed picture back into the gift bag between her legs as I pulled the station wagon into a parking space. “You ready?”
The sound of an electric guitar was carried by the wind, pushing through Mia’s locks as she twirled with Summer barefoot in the grass. Travis and I sat over a blanket in the grass while the girls danced in front of us as Pearl Jam played yards away on stage, and I kept my eyes on Mia as Travis talked my ear off, but all I heard was her laugh through the music. In a black romper and my fedora over her head, Mia lifted her arms high in the air as she spun.
“Earth to Ollie.” Travis snapped in my face. “Still in that honeymoon stage, yeah?”
“What are you talking about?” I leaned back onto my elbows, and Mia turned to face me, a mesmerizing smile glittering her features. She waved, and I waved back.
“You know what they say about the first year.”
“It’ll be two years this fall.”
“Bloody hell, I’m fucked.” He sighed, leaning forward and dropping his arms over his knees. He twisted off the cap of his water bottle. “What’s your secret?”
With Mia, it was easy. “First tip,” I pat his shoulder, getting to my feet as “Last Kiss” started to play, “never let the girl dance alone, mate.”
I approached Mia, grabbed her hand, and twirled her around. Her feet, pink painted nails, moved effortlessly over the grass until I had her in my arms. She clutched my shirt, and I tipped the hat back to see her face as I sang the haunting lyrics that touched a chord from what had happened last year. It was a testament to how far we’d come, and the hell we’d come back from—survivors.
Mia threw her head back. “Hold me, darling, just a little while,” she sang. And we continued to sway until the only song I knew by the band came to an end. I kissed her once, twice, before sitting back over the blanket.
Mia and Summer continued to dance, and Travis shoved his shoulder into mine. “She’s going to put my woman into labor if they keep dancing like that.”
I chuckled, swiping my bottled water and stretching out my legs.
A dark cloud loomed over the two of us, blocking the sun, and I looked up to see Leigh staring down at me with tears in her eyes and her hands shaking. She was wearing a short jean skirt and a crop top, her long blonde hair in a side-swept braid. I straightened my back, sitting up. “What are you doing here?” My voice was in my throat. I cleared it and looked past her to where Mia slowed her dancing, watching our interaction. “You can’t be here.”
“Nice to see you, too,” Leigh scoffed.
“Are you stalking me now?” I raised a brow, climbing to my feet. I tried to keep my voice low, but it was hard against my warning temper and the band playing in the background.
“I wouldn’t have to if you’d answer my calls,” a tear slipped from her eye, “You left me. I woke up in a motel room days ago alone without my knickers, having no idea where I was.”
“Whoa, I didn’t touch you,” I argued, and leaned down to face her. I shoved my finger into my chest to prevent it from digging it into hers. “I didn’t fucking touch you.”
Travis’s hand landed on my shoulder, and he pulled me back. “Calm down, mate. Let’s take this somewhere else.”
“No, Leigh, you can’t just show up. How did you know I was here?”
“Summer posted about it. You wouldn’t answer my calls, Oliver. You promised you’d take care of me, but you tossed me into a motel.” A tear ran down her cheek. “I was scared and alone, and you promised you’d look out for me.”
I had done that. Leigh had been drunk, and I’d taken her to a safe place and left her plenty of money to get a taxi so I could get home to Mia. I’d always find a way to get back to Mia. I ran my hand anxiously through my hair. “We’ll talk about it later. You have to leave.”
“Sure, Oliver,” Leigh crossed her arms over her chest, “I’ll just find a ride with one of the hundred blokes here, I’m sure any one of them would gladly take me home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You forget I’m sacrificing a lot for you. I’m the one who has nothing to gain and everything to lose in all this. I’m helping you out, and this is how you treat me?”