Drive(94)

“Come with me,” he beckoned, and I shook my head. “I can’t.”

He cursed as he ran a hand through his hair.

“You can’t expect me to leave my life for you, Crowne. Last time you—”

His eyes snapped to mine. “I what, Stella?”

“You forgot me,” I whispered. “You showed up at that concert with another girl. Did you forget?”

“I was so hell-bent on trying to get you out of my head, Stella. It meant nothing. Nothing to me.”

“But it meant everything to me, Reid. You—” I swallowed. “It doesn’t matter. It can’t. I’m with Nate.”

“Stop saying his goddamn name!” Reid hissed as he looked at the floor between us, taking rapid breaths before he slowly brought his gaze to mine. “I’ll keep waiting.” He leveled me with the sincerity in his voice and leaned in to kiss my temple. “I never forgot you, Stella. Not you, not us, not any of it.”

He pulled back, leaving me spent completely by his smell, his words, and his eyes trailing down my body. “It’s not too late.” He opened the door behind him and slipped out, taking his warmth away.





Burn

Usher



I walked toward the private bar to avoid the eyes of everyone at the party. I needed a minute to get my head together. Tumbling from his words, the faint press of his lips against mine, his promises, I stumbled blindly into the room and was stopped short by the sight of my sister, Neil, and Reid drinking at the bar.

Paige saw me and stopped my retreat. “Stella.”

“Hey,” I said, approaching her.

“We’re hiding. Uncle Moto is trying to DJ now.”

Reid piped in, “How many uncles do you have?”

“A million,” my sister and I said in unison.

Paige was three sheets to something as she sat a shot of tequila down in front of me. I looked back at Reid as the blood rushed to my face. It was there, the heat, the burn, his words pulverizing all reasons to stay away from him. He loved me, and I was helpless against the pull. I needed to get away before the flames licked me and the rest of him consumed me.

“You okay?” Paige said, looking over her shoulder. “What’s going on?” she asked between Reid and me.

“Nothing,” I murmured.

Paige looked accusingly at Reid. “I thought this was over.”

“It is,” I snapped.

She turned in her seat, surveying us both. “Clearly it isn’t.”

“Paige,” I protested, realizing my sister was the most intuitive drunk in the history of mankind.

“Bullshit,” she snapped. “I could sense it then and I can sense it now.”

She glared at Reid. “She has a boyfriend, you know.”

“Stop it,” I barked.

Reid nodded with an, “I know,” his eyes burning a hole through us both.

“Paige, I’m fine,” I said, trying to keep the angry, tequila-filled Latina at bay. Seemed I wasn’t the only one with some unspoken resentment.

“You can’t get upset, Stella. I can’t ever see you like that again!”

I jerked her to face me. “Stop!”

She pulled away from my grip to face Reid head on. “No. Not this time. He needs to know.”

“Please, Paige. Please,” I pleaded.

“Know what?” Reid asked, his jaw turning to granite. Neil took a step forward. “Paige.”

“He needs to know you had a stroke the last time he left your door.”

All animation fell from Reid’s face.

“Yeah,” Paige continued. “After you decided to drop by that New Year’s Eve and pay her a visit. She had a stroke in her sleep.”

Reid stumbled back as if she’d just struck him. “What the fuck?”

Neil gauged Reid’s shock and interjected. “Paige!” he scorned, trying to do damage control, “Reid, chill out, man,” he said, backing him away from the both of us.

“It’s true,” she snapped at Neil before she looked back to Reid. “Loving you damn near killed her. She went down hard, Reid. Proud of yourself? Because you hurt her, my baby sister! She had to put medical tape on her eye to keep it closed for months so she could sleep normally.

I skipped right from horror to humiliation.

Tequila. Is. The. Fucking. Devil.

Or Paige was. I couldn’t definitively decide at that moment.

That was the most embarrassing fact about my stroke, aside from my slightly lazy eye, which everyone swears is barely even noticeable. I was over the theatrics of the whole episode, which was ironic because that’s what got me in the hospital in the first place. Waking up with my motor skills on the fritz was terrifying, but I recovered quickly. Still, my family made too much out of it. I wasn’t dying. I didn’t have a condition. I’d had a reaction. And Reid was feeding into it.

He was throwing Neil’s arms off as he tried to get to me. “Stella.” His face fell as his eyes swam with unshed tears while he tried to push past Neil, who was doing his best to try to keep him from confronting me. I remained calm because I had to. My heart was threatening to start that odd beat. As much as I wanted to push past all the debris between us, I was helpless against it. My family, my new life with Nate, even my own damn heart refused to let him past it.