All For You (Rocktown Ink #5) by Sherilee Gray (fantasy novels to read txt) 📗

“Yep.” He smiled down at the photo. “This is old, but one of my favorites. She’s five now.”

Lila obviously had her wires crossed. This dude had a kid, which probably meant he had a woman as well. Of course he did. He was gorgeous, why wouldn’t he? “She’s so cute.”

He grinned wider and flicked through a couple more pictures. “This is her now. Full of sass and smart as a whip, best thing that ever happened to me.” He flicked back to the original picture. “You think you could do something like this?”

“No problem.” I pulled out my phone as well and showed him some of the portraits I’d already done.

He whistled under his breath. “Fuck, babe, you’re really good.”

I beamed up at him. “I love doing them. I always get nervous before, but you can’t beat seeing the happiness on a client’s face when they see the finished piece. Pets, kids, loved ones they’ve lost. It means a lot to them, and giving them that happiness means a lot to me too.”

Something in his eyes changed, the intensity cranking way up. Yep, there was interest there, a whole lot. “So Lila mentioned you were new to the area. How does your old lady like it here?”

“No old lady. May’s mom and me hardly knew each other when she got pregnant. She lives in Portland with my baby girl.”

“Oh, that must be tough.”

“I miss May, but me and her mom get along, so it’s all good.” His gaze moved over me. “You want another drink?”

Lila gave me a stealthy thumbs-up behind him and my face heated. He seemed great, sounded like a good dad. I’d be an idiot not to at least get to know him and see if anything was there, right? A biker was kind of perfect for me. They were cool with casual, liked to travel, and they didn’t have hang-ups or judge someone on the way they looked.

Something clenched behind my ribs.

Mase had never judged me on the way I looked either.

No. Stop it.

Mase wasn’t an option. He’d made that clear a week ago.

So even though my heart wasn’t in it, I said, “Yeah, that’d be great.”

We talked for the next hour, conversation coming easy. He was an interesting guy, and yes, I’ll say it again, insanely good looking—but the whole time I had to force myself to stop thinking about Mase. And I needed to stop thinking about him.

So when everyone moved to the dance floor and Brick grabbed my hand and pulled me out as well, I went with him. I let him pull me into his arms and hold me as we swayed to the song.

I hadn’t realized until that moment how desperate I was to be held, to be comforted. I was a ball of confused emotions and feelings. Grief for Gran, pain over my brother letting me down again, and longing for Mase. The pain had nowhere to go because there was no changing any of it, and I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with the yawning feeling of loss growing inside me.

When the song ended, Brick loosened his hold and looked down at me. He wanted to kiss me.

Could I do that, could I let him kiss me when it felt so completely wrong?

“Thanks for the dance,” I said.

“No problem.” He tucked my hair behind my ear.

I glanced over his shoulder, not sure where to look, or what to do—

My gaze slammed into familiar blue eyes.

Mase was watching me, us, and his eyes were blazing. Anger and jealously and…hurt. The force of it sliced me down the middle. How long had he been there?

Yes, we’d agreed we couldn’t be together, but neither of us had hidden how much we wished things were different. I would never have danced with someone else if I’d known he was there.

If it had been me standing there, if I’d had to watch him slow dance with another woman? My stomach churned. Just the idea made me feel ill.

“You okay?” Brick asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But…I’m sorry, have to go.”

He frowned.

“You’re a great guy, but I can’t…I can’t do this.”

He searched my gaze. “What’s going on, Trix?”

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” I said again and rushed across the bar to where Mase had been standing. By the time I worked my way through the crowd, he was gone.

I spotted Dane. “Can you tell the others I had to leave?”

“Sure.” His brows lowered “You okay? What’s going on? Did Brick say something…”

“No, Brick was a sweetheart, he did nothing wrong. I just have a headache.”

Dane slid off his barstool. “You want a ride?”

“No, thanks, I called Ian.” Ian drove Rocktown’s one and only taxi.

Dane had no choice but to let me go, and I all but ran out, calling Ian as I went. He was never too far away, the perks of a small town.

Twenty minutes later, I climbed out of the taxi, my heart racing and my palms sweaty. I had no idea what I was going to say to Mase, only that I needed him to know that nothing happened between Brick and me. That nothing was going to happen with anyone else.

Jimmy would already be asleep in his basket in the trailer; I’d let him in before I went to The Mule. But I still walked quietly so I didn’t wake him. The place was dark, apart from a dim light coming through the living room window.

I knocked softly and waited.

Nothing.

Shit.

My heart pounded harder. I couldn’t leave without talking to him. I didn’t want him to think I didn’t care, that I could just move on and forget him. It made no sense, none of this, we hadn’t been a couple, this wasn’t a breakup. I didn’t know what we were, but I didn’t want to hurt him, I couldn’t bear that.

I tried the door handle. Not locked. Was that for me? Was he hoping I’d come to him when I got home? I walked in, closing