But when her hand came across the table and rested on mine, I knew my words hadn’t gone unnoticed. My initial reaction was to jerk back and stop her from touching me, but it was surprisingly nice for her skin to be touching mine. The voice subsided, and I found myself lifting my eyes to hers.
“I don’t know your entire story, but I want to know you, Beau. I don’t care if you never tell me what God awful things happened to you in your life. I don’t need to know unless you want me to.”
I shook my head. She didn’t want to know me. She thought she did because she felt something when she was around me, but it wouldn’t last. I would take her down with me. She’d figure out the fucked-up shit in my head, and she’d run for the hills. If my own mother didn’t stay, what in the hell would stop her from leaving?
“I know that’s hard for you to understand,” she continued. “I get it. I’ve thought a lot about you in the weeks since we first met. I know you feel unworthy because of your past. I see it all the time. What happened to you to get you in foster care does not define who you are, Beau.”
Anger flooded my veins. How the fuck would she know anything about what had happened to me? “Oh, you mean the fact my mother left me and never came back? The one person who is supposed to love you more than anyone else in the world? Don’t fucking pretend you know me just because you work with foster kids. I’m not a fucking project.” I slid out of the booth, and that’s when I heard it.
“Oh, my God!” Voices shrieked from behind me. I turned just in time to see Johnny walking across the restaurant. Three girls had recognized him and were about to cause a scene.
“Fuck,” I said, walking away from April. I strode toward Johnny. We had to get out of here. I wasn’t dealing with any of that.
“It’s Johnny Gibbons!” Just as I approached him, the other two gasped.
“It’s Beau Anderson!”
“Where’s Bex and Tanner? Oh, my God, Jaded Regret is here!”
Johnny smiled and shook their hands. They pulled us both in for a selfie as I saw April standing on the outskirts of the growing crowd. She wasn’t smiling. In fact, she seemed hurt.
Of course. I’d opened my fucking mouth and hurt her. Well, this was exactly why I chose not to talk most of the time.
“Well, that was fucking crazy,” Johnny said, peeling the car out of the parking lot. He watched in the rearview mirror, hoping to lose anyone who might try to follow us.
We’d gotten stuck inside the restaurant, signing autographs and taking pictures, until the manager had come out and made everyone move. That’s when we’d taken the chance we’d been given and escaped.
I hadn’t seen April since I’d caught her standing on the edge of the crowd, watching the two of us getting accosted by fans. It was still crazy to me that people wanted things I signed or to take a picture with me. I needed to apologize to her, but I wasn’t able to find her in the crowd, and we’d had to take the chance to leave when we could. Then again, maybe it was for the best that I’d upset her. Maybe she wouldn’t want to get to know me anymore, and it would solve the problem I had with feeling something around her.
“You know what Bex is going to say,” I said. A chuckle bubbled up in my chest but I stopped it. I was glad Johnny was going home to her and not me. Now he got the brunt of her bitchiness.
Johnny groaned. “She’s going to tell me she was fucking right and I should’ve taken Heath. Damn, I hate when that woman is right.” We exchanged a knowing look, and he laughed. I’d never seen anyone love a woman the way Johnny loved Bex, so I knew as much as we were bitching about it, he would put up with anything from her because he loved her more than life itself.
I didn’t understand that feeling.
“She sure is going to tell you that,” I agreed. “Can I come home with you and watch?”
“Shut up. She may be right and she may rub it in my face that she was, but I know a quick way to shut her up.”
I held up my hands. “I don’t need to know.” God, we all knew plenty about their sex life.
Johnny laughed again. I wished laughter would come that easily for me. “Soooo . . . April.” It was a statement, not a question. One I planned to ignore.
I gazed out the window, watching the scenery fly by as Johnny careened the sports car onto the highway to head home. I pulled out my phone as it chimed, seeing a text from Natalie.
What the hell happened? I see you two all over Twitter. You’re TRENDING! Hashtag JadedRegretHotties. You two can’t go anywhere!
“Oh, shit,” I said.