Come to Me Quietly

She must have seen the excuse I was trying to work in my head because she suddenly squeezed my hand. “Please, Jared. I know things have been weird between us, but I really wanted to spend tonight with you. Even if it’s only for old times’ sake.” Redness colored her cheeks, as if her admission caused her some kind of embarrassment. But still she forged ahead. “It would mean a lot to me.”

“Aly… ,” I said quietly, just under my breath.

“Please,” she whispered. Then she smiled and took a single step back. “Let me get you another beer.”

She didn’t wait for my response, for my agreement that I would stay, because she already knew I would.

Had she always held this kind of power over me? A glimmer of a smile and a brush of her hand and the girl would get her way? Memories swirled through my mind like the whirlwind she was, the little girl who’d barely had to look at me and I already knew what she wanted or needed. Mom once told me Aly had me wrapped around her little finger. She’d been wrong. Aly had held me in the palm of her hand.

“Fine,” I mumbled as she edged away. She crossed the yard to a cooler sitting under the patio. Lifting the lid, she leaned down and disappeared behind it. She dropped it closed. Something inside me fluttered when she smiled across the yard at me as her face came back into view. Popping the cap and tossing it to the trash, she beckoned me to join her with a tic of her head.

Sighing, I gave in because I had no fucking idea how to tell this girl no.

Slowly, I crossed the space, never dropping my gaze as I approached, and accepted the proffered beer that she held out toward me. “Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome.” She twisted off her cab and tapped her bottle neck with mine. “To old times.”

Under my breath, I laughed and said, “To old times,” even though there was a huge part of me that didn’t share the sentiment. Old times hadn’t made me feel like this, as if I wanted to wrap her up and hide her away. They didn’t cause my blood to pound in my ears or make me want to knock that smug smile off Dickhead’s face when he glanced her way.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true.

Protecting her had always been my job.

But now it clearly was for different reasons.

He had started talking to someone else, but still he managed to keep her in his line of sight, a subtle trailing of her movements, each motion counted and calculated, as if he was assessing when he was going to make his move.

Possessiveness rose in a wave and crashed over my being.

Yeah, maybe Aly was right. I didn’t need to go anywhere. Right here was exactly where I was supposed to be.

“Come here, I want you to meet some of my other friends.” Aly took me by the hand and led me to the group of people she’d been standing with before.

A thrill shot through me with just that touch.

Dickhead’s brow rose to his hairline when he saw us walking toward them, hand in hand. Aly introduced me to a couple of new friends who’d arrived, a couple of girls who were obviously too flirty and some dude named Sam. I barely acknowledged them because I couldn’t stand the feel of Dickhead’s eyes roving over me as he sized me up. I could feel him considering, adding me up in the same breath he put me down, judging.

Nothing pissed me off more than people making assumptions they didn’t have a right to make.

Aly turned to him and gestured between us. “Gabe, this is Jared. He was one of my very best friends growing up.” Hesitantly, she looked at me. “Jared, Gabe.”

Gabe. Of course, Dickhead was Gabe. The same guy who tried to get her to come over to “hang” out with him in the middle of the night. How fitting.

I shoved my hand out in front of me. “Nice to meet you, Gabe.”

He shook it, squeezing it hard. A warning. “Likewise,” he said, his voice tight.

I wanted to laugh. He had to be fucking kidding me. He was warning me?

Staring him down, I crushed his hand in my hold, silently promising him I would do anything to keep Aly safe. Safe from him. Safe from me. Safe from anyone who even for a minute thought of messing with her. Clearly, this douche bag didn’t deserve her any more than I did. I could see it there, written all over his self-righteous face and in his eyes, the nice guy act well played. Perfected.

Unbidden, my hand clamped down on his as thoughts of him with Aly swam through my vision like some fucking horror flick that you really didn’t want to see but can’t look away from, the slasher kind where there is blood and guts and gore and nobody comes out alive. When I was a kid, they always gave me nightmares until the cause of my nightmares became real and utterly unbearable.

Thinking of her with him felt pretty much the same.

I pulled away from him, and Aly took my hand again. “Come on, let’s find a good spot to watch the fireworks.”

With her voice, I shoved off the images, turned, and gently smiled at her, ignoring the guy whose gaze burned into the back of my head with outright hate.