Mixed Up(63)

"That's playing dirty, Raven,"

With the flash of a grin, I spun on the balls of my feet and headed back over to the bar.

I was playing dirty-but so did he every time he kissed me.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Parker





One phone call to my mom had cleared the issue of the Karras' temporary invasion of Dirty. Sure, Mom had made some suggestions I flatly denied-like I was doing this to make Raven happy-and handled it.

I wasn't doing it to make Raven happy, per se. I was doing it because I wasn't stupid, and the happier she was, the happier I was likely to be.

If our relationship was maintained by us either fighting or fucking, I was going to choose fucking.

Our conversation this morning hadn't exactly gone as I'd intended. Of course, it going as I'd intended implied I'd had a plan, and I'd been winging it like hell. I didn't know what I wanted to say to her until I finally had the chance to say it. It was new, it was scary, and it felt as though we were balancing on a tight rope, just waiting for the other shoe to fall and it to come crashing down.

It had been nine hours since that conversation.

There was always the chance I was looking too much into it. I didn't know if we were truly in the same place, and I was getting to the point where, inside my own head, I was debating whether or not it was a better idea to walk up to Ryan and ask him if he cared that Raven and I apparently had feelings for each other. 

On one hand, I'd seen him go after the guys who broke her heart or fucked with her.

On the other hand, his reaction to me doing this behind his back would surpass that. It wouldn't even be the act itself, it would be the secrecy. Her entire family would act the same way. I wasn't oblivious to the fact that her mom had tried to set us up when she was seventeen. She'd dropped it pretty quick after Raven had accidentally dropped a match on one of her bushes, but there was no doubt that at the first whiff of any kind of niceties between us, everyone would hone in on it and start asking questions.

Much the way my mother currently was, except there were a lot more Karras' and Archers, and they were a hell of a lot crazier than the Hamiltons.

Plus-I was still leaving in a few weeks. A potential job was lined up in Washington state, and the money notwithstanding, the challenge would be fun. I hadn't lied to Raven earlier when I'd told her I might not leave. The problem was, I needed security, despite the fact I liked to travel.

If I was going to stay in Whiskey Key, I needed a reason.

And I wanted her to be my reason.

I shut off the lights in the kitchen and poked my head into the bar. "Is Raven here?" I asked Sienna.

She set a glass on the shelf and looked over at me. "She's in her apartment. She told me to tell you to go up."

"Thanks." I smiled and took a step back.

"Parker?"

I leaned out of the doorway again and met her eyes. "Yeah?"

Pausing, she bit the inside of her lower lip. "Is something...going on with you and Raven?"

I stared blankly at her for all of a second. "Why would you ask that?"

Instantly, she blushed. "Nobody except her closest friends go up to her apartment. I've only ever seen Brett and Ryan go up there. You guys have been getting along all day, and I guess I jumped to conclusions. Sorry."

We needed to be meaner to each other.

With a snort, I said, "Don't worry. We're just working on something for the bar. Her family is less likely to need her at ten at night than they are at ten in the morning."

She smiled and threw me a thumb up. "Gotcha."

"Thanks, Sienna." I winked and headed back into the kitchen. The second the door shut, I shuddered. That girl had been too in my space ever since I'd started working here, and if Raven really knew that she'd attempted to kiss me the night she asked me out-something I'd blocked from my mind-then I doubted the working environment here would be as enjoyable as it was.

Never mind that I had to interview someone for the kitchen to replace Alex, and the guy who was coming in was the guy who'd tried to hit on Raven.

I knocked on the door to Raven's apartment and tried the handle. It clicked, opening the door, and I stepped in. The sound of Ed Sheeran traveled down the staircase to me. The woman had a real obsession with Ed Sheeran, it seemed. If she wasn't humming to his music in her headphones, she was listening to him, and maybe even-

Singing him. She was singing him.

Shape of You got louder the closer to the top of the stairs I got. So did her voice. And god, she could mix cocktails like a beast, but an alleyway full of cats would get a higher score than her in a singing contest.

"Is something dying up here?" I asked the second I opened the door at the top of the stairs.

Raven jolted, holding a glass of white wine in her hand.