Squatting down, Rafe heard the recognizable sound of glasses clanking together as Trish pulled her stash of Angel’s Envy from below the bar. Pouring the gold liquid into the glasses, she shook her heard. “I don’t think I’m the type of woman you want on your arm, baby.”
“Yeah, well, the woman I wanted on my arm made it pretty fuckin’ clear she didn’t want to be there.”
“You still hung up on that married woman?”
Rafe’s surprised eyes shot to hers as he lowered his glass of whiskey from his lips.
Trish laughed. “Rafe, you’d been coming to my bar drinkin’ yourself stupid for weeks. You didn’t think I was gonna let one of those drunken nights go to waste without pumping you for information, did ya?” She arched her brows. “And I told you then, which I know you don’t remember, so I’ll tell you again. No woman who shares her heart with two men is worth it, baby. You want it all—not part. Wait till you find a woman who will give it all to you. So I don’t want to see any more moping around about that two-timing slut.”
Rafe cocked his head from side to side, popping his neck as he rolled his eyes. “Nah, I’m not moping about her.”
“Then who? You’ve already managed to get your heart trampled on again? I’m not liking your taste in women, baby. I need to teach you how to pick ’em.”
Rafe laughed. He knew for a fact that Trish would more than like Fallon. Fallon may not be Trish’s preference of a blonde, but she had a body and an attitude that would drive Trish fucking crazy. “You’d have liked this one,” he assured her.
“I don’t think so. I tend to pick sides, and I’m always on yours. She broke your heart, she’s on my shit list.”
Rafe slid his glass across the slick bar. “Just one more and I gotta get goin’.”
“I see how ya are. Come in my bar lookin’ handsome as ever, drink my Envy, then leave me. I’ll remember that the next time you stroll in here and try to take one of my blondes, which by the way you need your ass kicked for.”
His head rolled back on his neck and he laughed. “Ah, Trish. I should’ve let you have ’em. They were good—don’t get me wrong—but they enjoyed each other more than me. Besides, I’m done with that shit.”
Shaking her head at him, Trish sighed heavily. “This one’s messed you up something bad, hasn’t she? Aw, baby. You love too much too fast. She’s not worth it.”
“She is, Trish. She’s the true kind.”
• • •
Knock-knock.
Jade’s brown head of curls popped through the crack in the office door. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey, come in,” Fallon replied, scooting up from where she was lying down on the velvet couch, wrapped in a blanket.
“I told you, you could sleep in the apartment and I’d gladly take over your house, seeing as you are back to sleeping at the club every night.”
Which was true: Fallon hadn’t slept at home since the night she’d made love to Rafe and woken up in his arms only to walk away from him. All these years she’d blamed the people in her life for turning their backs on her and her baby, for being the reason she felt so much hurt and betrayal, that she locked it up tight and threw away the key. But she was coming to find out that self-inflicted pain was much worse.
Choosing to walk away from her daughter, choosing to walk away from Rafe—those hurt more than when she had no choice at all.
Stepping into her office, Jade plopped down on the desk chair and swiveled around to face her. She looked beautiful. Her eyes were done smoky and sexy, lined heavily with charcoal liner and accented with subtle false lashes. Her lips were dusted a rosy pink that matched her cheeks and her—
“Wait a minute. Why aren’t you dressed?” Fallon asked “The ball starts in an hour—it’s gonna take you every bit of an hour to get to Fort Carson from here. Go. Get. Dressed.”
“Oh, I’ve already told Graham I’m not going. He’s gonna meet me here afterward,” she lilted, her cheeks darkening a shade of pink. Fortunately for Jade, Dexter’s cheating ass turned out to benefit her when she used Graham as the proverbial shoulder to cry on.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re going instead. Graham is expecting you there in ninety minutes to walk you in, so you better hurry your butt up and get ready.”
Leveling her sights, Fallon glared at Jade. “That is absolutely not happening,” she snapped.
Pouting like a toddler instead of the grown woman she was, Jade folded her dainty arms over her chest and stuck her lips out in a pout. Pouty lips didn’t work on Fallon. Not much could at this point.