Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons MC #4)(2)

I met Amethyst at the school where we work; she was the receptionist there until recently, when she left to take a better-paying job elsewhere. She definitely isn’t the type of girl I’d usually be friends with, but when she invited me out I decided to accept, for a change. I had no idea, however, that I’d be ditched for the first guy who approached her.

Great.

I knew I shouldn’t have come out, but I wanted to do something different for a change, to push myself out of my comfort zone. Act my age. Enjoy being out. Try to have a carefree night. When I hear Chris Brown’s “Zero,” I head to the packed dance floor. Alone or not, I’m not going to miss out on dancing to this song. With my eyes closed, my hips move on their own accord, swaying in time to the music. I open my eyes just in time to see two beautiful women rush at me. It takes me a second to realize that I know them.

Holy shit.

I haven’t seen Anna and Lana since high school. I was a year older than them but still saw the two of them daily because of Adam. My chest suddenly hurts. Adam usually wasn’t too far away from Anna, but surely that had changed with time?

“Hello, stranger!” Anna says, smiling widely.

I shake my head in surprise, beaming at the two of them.

“Anna Ward? Oh my god!” I say, my eyes on her face. I then turn to Lana. “Lana Brown! I should have known the two of you would still be friends. Do you want to go outside so we don’t have to talk over the music?”

They’ve been best friends ever since I can remember. I feel a pang of jealousy at everything I must have missed out on over the years, but I push it aside. Anna moved away the year Adam and I broke up, but I have no idea what’s happened since then. I’ve been completely out of the loop. My relationship with these two was lost along with Adam.

Anna nods, smiling again, and we all walk out the front. The bouncer eyes us warily until Anna says, “We won’t leave this spot,” which has me confused.

“How have you been?” Lana asks me, bringing my attention to her.

“Good,” I tell them. “Just got out of a relationship, getting back into the dating scene.”

If you can call what Trevor and I had a relationship.

“How’s that going for you?” Anna asks me with that cheeky grin of hers.

I wince. Not so well. “I feel like I’ve been thrown back into the dating pool with no floaties.”

Trevor ended up being a train wreck, so who knows what else is waiting for me out there. We dated for only a month, after meeting at a museum. I’d taken my class there for an excursion, and he’d been the tour guide for the day. He’d slipped me his number as we left, and after two days I’d finally called him. He was good-looking and I hadn’t been on a date in so long, so I’d accepted. He started to get really clingy after the first two weeks, wanting to see me every night and blowing up my phone asking where I was. I didn’t want him to meet Cara, and I wasn’t exactly flexible to meet him whenever he wanted, which was way too regular for my liking. When he told me about his foot fetish, yeah, I was done.

We all giggle.

“I can be your float,” Anna jokes.

“You’re not single,” Lana reminds her best friend.

“Oh,” she replies, squinting her eyes. “Is that a rule? Do I have to be single to guide her in the right direction?”

I need more than a guide: I need a miracle.

And I need to stop wishing she would tell me about Adam. Is he married? Does he have children? How would I even feel about that? I hate the man, but I also love him. I always will. It is complicated. Do I want to see him? No. But knowing how he is doing wouldn’t hurt my soul.

Lana giggles. “No, but you have to know what you’re talking about.”

Anna scowls, while Lana and I share a laugh at that.

“I got Arrow, didn’t I?” Anna says, on the defense, her hands on her hips. “And trust me, it wasn’t easy.”

“You’re with someone?” I ask, interested to hear about the man who stole Anna’s heart.

Her face lights up. “Yeah. His name is Arrow. He’s . . . amazing.”

Lana and I share an amused look as a dreamy expression plays on Anna’s face.

“How did you meet him?” I ask.

She suddenly looks a little unsure. “Through my brother, actually.”

“Oh,” I say, keeping my expression neutral. “Well, I’m glad you found someone, Anna. And I hope your brother didn’t give him too much of a hard time. He always used to tell me that he thought you were too good for any man.”

Anna makes a face. “He still thinks that. So, tell me everything. Where have you been all these years?”

“I’ve been here,” I tell her. “I never left the city. I went to college and got a degree in early-childhood education.”

That is the truth, sort of.

Really I’d gotten pregnant and had my daughter, Cara, when I was twenty. Being a single mother, I struggled. Cara’s father didn’t want anything to do with her, and so I never asked him for anything. I worked and put myself through college, barely having enough money to eat most days but making sure my daughter had everything she needed. They were rough times, but I knew they’d pay off in the long run, and they did.

“You’re a teacher? That’s awesome!” Lana says, smiling widely.