The sight of Josh at the bar, sitting there with Aaron, made me freeze in my tracks. The second Mitch said someone was looking for me, I should have known exactly who it was.
Josh had been very quiet since he had taken me to the cemetery and told me about his life. And I had been just as quiet since that same day. I still played the moment in my mind when I dropped to my knees and started to clean off that little headstone, thinking I had somehow solved a puzzle that was none of my business.
Plus, the letter I found - and Delilah - that was something very serious. Whoever wrote that letter was in love with Delilah in a much different way than a person would love a young child.
Mags worked the bar, knowing she was the only one making any real money.
She was washing a glass when she saw me and hurried to nod in Josh’s direction.
“Brooding hot guy and his fancy friend are asking for you,” she said. “Took a drink from me but refused anything else until they talked to you.”
“Both of them?” I asked.
“Well, just the one,” Mags said. “Do whatever you have to do. Just don’t bother anyone else.”
“I’m not going to steal your business, Mags.”
“You’d better not. I’m saving up for Trevor’s braces. You’d think his fucking father would give a shit, but he doesn’t.”
“I’m sorry about that,” I said.
“Yeah. Me too.”
Mags put the freshly washed glass down and shook her hands. She pointed to the end of the bar and walked that way.
Josh had his eyes locked on me and I gave a wave.
“Hey, I didn’t know you worked here,” Aaron said with a sense of naiveness in his voice that made me wonder how in the hell he and Josh were friends.
“And what’s this I hear about you bothering Mags?” I asked. “The bar is hers tonight.”
“Yet I got my way,” Josh said.
“Need a refill or anything?” I asked.
“Just out for a quick drink,” Aaron said. “One beer and I have to get home.”
“He doesn’t want the wife mad at him,” Josh said.
“I don’t blame him,” I said. “A married man with a kid at home should maybe be home after work.”
“Oh, I’m not married,” Aaron said.
“He’s too afraid to ask,” Josh said.
“I’m not afraid. I just haven’t found the…”
Josh nodded. “… the balls to ask her.”
“You’d better do it soon,” I teased. “Rae’s a catch. Someone might come along and steal her away.”
“You think?” Aaron asked.
“Please don’t start anything, Amelia,” Josh said. “You don’t want to know the complexity of that relationship.”
“It doesn’t help that my best friend is a complete asshole,” Aaron said. “And that the mother of my son hates his guts. For good reasons too.”
I looked at Josh.
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Could be worse,” Josh said to Aaron. “I could be obsessed with cats.”
“Cats?” Aaron asked.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” I said.
“Wait,” Aaron said. “Are you obsessed with cats?”
“Me?” I asked. “No. My roommate is. Again, don’t ask.”
“It’s amazing in her apartment,” Josh said. He waved his right hand across the air. “Everywhere you look. Pussy.”
Aaron laughed and snorted. “You still joke like a dumb teenager, Josh.”
“He still acts like one too,” I said.
“You didn’t seem to mind the way I was acting,” Josh threw at me.
My cheeks warmed up and the look on Aaron’s face and the grin that grew told me he knew what Josh’s comment meant.
“So, what’s the big plan for tonight?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Quick drink and home for me,” Aaron said. “This guy has some work to do. Decisions to make.”
“Hey,” Josh said. “My life, my business.”
“Decisions?” I asked.
“It’s nothing, love,” Josh said. “Just need to put together some artwork. Come up with some new ideas. Figure out my voice. Nothing new. I do it my way and that tends to piss people off.”
“Pisses everyone off,” Aaron said.
“I can understand that,” I said.
Aaron’s phone started to ring. He jumped up and gave a quick wave to me. “I’d better take this.”
“Rae is pulling on the chain there,” Josh said to me.
“True love,” I said. “Comes in all shapes and sizes, Josh. Don’t judge what he has. Just because you don’t know what that’s like.”
“I don’t know what true love is?” he asked.
I leaned against the bar. “Do you?”
We just stared at each other. I thought for a second I could break him down a little, but he devoured me with that stare. That dark-eyed, brooding stare. The story hidden behind those eyes that I wanted so badly. Just like Josh himself.
I wanted him so badly.
“I’m sorry for what happened the other day,” I said. “The way I reacted when I-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Josh said. “There’s more to the story, love. Just like your story. That’s the whole point of two people together, right? You each take your story, put it on the table, and then decide if you can make something happen with it.”
“What about a bar?” I asked. “Feel like putting your story on a bar?”
“The bar is kind of dirty.”
“And your story is clean?”
Josh laughed. “You really know how to push at me, love. I like that about you.”
“Yeah, well there’s a lot I like about you too, Josh.”
“Like what?” he asked.
I pointed to the bar. “Sorry, it’s too dirty here. Remember?”
With one quick move, Josh reached across the bar and took my right wrist. “When are you free again?”
His fingers stroked the inside of my wrist, sending tingling pulses across my body.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule. I’m very busy.”
“There’s more I have to tell you. And I will.”
“I’m not hard to find.”
“Neither am I, love.”
“I would never want to bother an artist hard at work.”
“Except you already did that,” he said. “You couldn’t get the hot water to work. Remember?”
I swallowed hard.
He grinned.
“Hey, listen, I’m sorry, but we have to get out of here,” Aaron said as he returned to the bar.
“Free time is up,” Josh said. He pulled his hand from mine and downed the rest of his beer. “Better make sure this guy gets home in one piece. Or else it’ll all be my fault.”
I lost my breath for a second, wondering what to say next to Josh.
I wanted him to stay.
I wanted him to keep drinking.
I wanted him to tell me everything.
“Come on, let’s roll,” Aaron said. He put money on the bar. “Good to see you again, Amelia.”