Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(25)
“No. I don’t even like to bring him up. Just keep him away from here, that’s all I ask.”
“Why should I have to? Macy’s here all the time.”
“That’s why you should have to.”
“So if Jared and I do start dating, your girlfriend can visit you at work, but my boyfriend can’t? Just because of your girlfriend? Fuck that. You know that’s bullshit.”
“That pretty much is bullshit,” Janelle pointed out.
“Mostly it’s because I, personally, can’t stand your boyfriend,” Ghost said.
“What if I couldn’t stand your girlfriend?”
“Can you not?”
“I happen to like her. My point is, you wouldn’t give a shit if I liked her or not. You’d still bring her here. Am I wrong?”
“You’re not wrong,” Janelle said brightly.
“All right, point f*cking taken,” Ghost practically growled. “But I would hope I could appeal to what better judgment you might have left, if any. I would hope, for the sake of our friendship and all the years we’ve worked together, that you wouldn’t bring that guy around me, and you definitely wouldn’t create a situation where he and Macy might come face-to-face. We have to see him sometimes at her rodeo shit, but we shouldn’t have to deal with him at my f*cking job.”
“Because you’re jealous,” Starla said. “You’re f*cking jealous because he had her first. You delicate flower. I never thought I’d see it.”
“I am pretty delicate. What about you? No hint of jealousy toward Macy because you’re thinking of banging her ex, if you haven’t already?”
Starla did her best to school the ever-loving f*ck out of her features, but Ghost probably wasn’t fooled. Macy had been heavy on Starla’s mind last night and today. It wasn’t jealousy, per se, but—oh shit, it probably was. If she were going to consult a compatibility checklist, Macy had every quality in a woman that Jared could possibly want. It was somewhat of a cruel reverse miracle that those two hadn’t made it work. From their common interests and values to their mutual dark beauty, they just fit. Belonged. And Starla couldn’t be more opposite from that girl.
But that really wasn’t fair to Ghost, who was so crazy in love with Macy he sometimes couldn’t see reason. From what Starla had seen, Macy’s feelings were mutual. Chemistry was a f*cked-up thing. That matchup gave her a little bit of hope. Not much, but it was something.
“I’m not jealous of Macy,” she said. “She’s all right. But what I do isn’t any of her business, and I hope both you and she can please keep that in mind?”
“I seriously doubt Macy will give a f*ck what you do, Starla,” he said, but she got the feeling there was more hostility behind those words than he put into them. Nevertheless, he turned his attention to the TV, seemingly done with the conversation.
And what had it all been for, anyway? It wasn’t as if anything would come of last night. Jared hadn’t texted, called, or otherwise gotten up with her, and though he’d said he would, and she’d hoped he would, she hadn’t expected him to. Not really. No, all she got was stupid-ass, half-indecipherable, I-flunked-second-grade texts from Max and a dick pic. Quite the romantic, that one.
Across the room from her and adjacent to Ghost, Janelle sighed as she walked over to turn off the neon Open light. Starla hadn’t even realized it was closing time. “I really, really miss Brian,” Jan said as she did so. “And I think he’d better get back here as soon as he can.”
Grim silence settled over the shop as Starla and Ghost reserved comment. But she figured Ghost was probably thinking the same thing she was. Janelle was right. Brian was as fun as anyone in the studio, but he was also the boss, the authority, and quite often the referee. Too much longer without his guidance and natural leadership, and they all might implode. At that particular moment, Starla wanted more than anything to know he was back there in his office so she could walk in there, shut the door and unload on him. He would say something brilliant, something she needed to hear even if it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. And suddenly everything would make more sense and she would have a clearer idea of what to do about her crazy life. God, yes, she missed him.
But a funny thing had happened. For the first time in as long as Starla could remember, Brian wasn’t the dominant presence in her thoughts. Today, that particular honor had gone to a tall, bearded, blue-eyed dad who’d rescued her more than once and kissed her hand like a knight in shining armor. Her heart did a silly flip in her chest every time she thought about it, when she’d always figured she was way, way beyond the infatuation-based palpitations. They never happened to her. Neither had she ever really tingled or felt electricity or stared in slack-jawed wonder whenever a man touched her. That must only happen for those weak, blushing virginal types, she’d often thought, which she most definitely was not and never had been…even back when she was a virginal type.
Jared had made her feel as if it was the first time she’d ever been touched at all. With nothing but a kiss on the back of her hand, a whole new universe had opened right in front of her eyes.
Hell yes, she wanted to explore it. She just didn’t know if she could afford the trip.
Chapter Eight