Brutally Beautiful(51)

Just like always, death kills the conversation. Four sets of silent staring eyes were on me, all except for Kade. No, what Kade did affected me the most, a simple brush of the back of his hand over mine under the table that took hold of all of my senses completely. My insides fluttered. Now that I knew about Kade’s tragic past, I understood why we’d felt drawn together. People who have seen real life monsters up close will never feel understood by people who haven’t. What those people don’t understand, is that we still see those monsters, everyday. They will never understand how tragedy makes you bitter and spiteful, and how it always keeps its claws around your neck, ready to suffocate you.

“Um…what we were saying was that Dylan should have some karaoke on nights when us girls aren’t dancing to get more people to come out to the bar. That’s all,” Natalie said. “I’m sorry about your brother, hon.”

Bree laid her head on Dylan’s shoulder and kept quiet.

“Hey, they have a Karaoke bar in town. I should close the bar tomorrow night and then we could all hear this bird sing,” Dylan teased, pointing to me.

Bree’s face lit up, “I’m in.”

Natalie smiled, “I’m in for a day off and going out, but I have to see if I could get a sitter for the little monsters.”

Fran searched my face for my answer and I just shrugged, “Sounds fun.” I turned my head towards Kade, “Want to come with us and watch me embarrass everybody?”

Again, his smiled crushed me.

“I still say the location is the problem with this bar, Dylan. There’s nothing around here but the trailer park. What made you open up this place here anyway?” Fran asked.

My eyes caught the way Dylan looked at Kade, the same way Michael used to look at me after we’d bicker about something, and then he’d stick up for me in front of my mother, “Because I needed to be near my family. And this is the closest I’ve been allowed to get.”

“Pardon me,” Kade murmured, quietly pushing his chair back and walking off into the back hallway. Dylan ran his hands over his face, and gave me a pained stare. Curling his arms over his head, he cursed under his breath, “Bloody hell. Lainey you just had him smiling and I go and ruin it with my mouth.”

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” I said and walked into the back hallway, finding Kade in Dylan’s office looking out the back window. “You okay?” I asked, as I walked up behind him.

“Yep.” He snapped, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. When I stood in front of him, he growled. “Okay, listen. I don’t do talking and shit.”

“Kade, shut up. I just asked if you were okay. You said you were, far be it from me to tell you otherwise. Your brother is just speaking the truth. If you don’t like it, change it. And you are coming with us tomorrow night. You scare the shit out of the townies and I’ll make their ears bleed.”

I don’t think he could have stopped himself from laughing, but I know he tried. A delicious smiled danced across his lips, “What I’m hearing is that, now you think we’d make a great team.”

“So, you’re admitting to hearing things, Mr. Grayson?”

Kade hung his head and laughed. When he looked back up at me, I saw the laughter reach his eyes. “Friends, huh?” The stress and tension that tightened his face eased away gradually.

“We could try,” I said, slowly smiling.

His steel eyes softened as they held mine. Hesitantly, he reached his hand to my face and lightly brushed the knuckles of his hand from the bottom of my chin to the back of my jaw. The touch sent fire across my skin and every last nerve ending in my body awakened and tingled with warmth. Both of us stood there, silently watching one another, slowly leaning closer to each other until his hand slid up and wrapped around the back of my neck, threading his fingers through the strands of my hair. My knees instantly weakened and all my senses heightened with almost painful acuity. His scent of worn leather and whatever soap he used surrounded me, making me want to gulp deeply into his essence. The sounds of his close heavy breathing had my heart pounding as if it were surround sound. Everything seemed clear and just more.