“But he might show up.” Kelly winked at me. “I have a very good feeling about this.”
I gulped like a cartoon character.
“I don’t.”
Pate squeezed into the mix and sat on the counter.
“I think you look hot.”
I laughed and hugged her quickly.
“I wish you could come with.”
She shrugged.
“I’m babysitting.” She giggled. “With Hunter and Vice.”
“Both of them?”
“Cain assigned someone to all our places. The kiddos are not ever going to be alone.”
“Oh.”
“Pate, head into the other room, okay?” Michelle waited until she was gone and spoke in a low voice. “He told you about the killer, right? How bad it is?”
I nodded.
“I thought he was just trying to get rid of me.”
“Trust me, sweetheart, that is not what he wants,” Michelle said, leaning her chin on my shoulder. “No matter what he says. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“You think I should do this? Really?”
She smiled.
“It worked for me and Mase.”
“Really?”
“He was being pigheaded and it took a mini-skirt to push him over the edge.”
“At my birthday party!” Kelly crowed triumphantly.
“Really?”
Cass flicked her finger.
“He went down like a toy soldier.”
I giggled at the imagery. Mason was a big guy. I couldn’t imagine him or Shane toppling for anything. But I’d also seen the way Mason looked at his wife. He adored her.
“Okay.” I nodded, trying to be brave. “Let’s do this.”
“And if he doesn’t show, I’ll just text him a picture,” Cassandra said as she whipped out her phone with an evil laugh. “Smile pretty!”
I stared at her phone like a deer in headlights and she winked at me.
“Perfect. So innocent and virginal.”
“I am a virgin,” I blurted out.
Everyone turned to stare at me. Kelly put her hands over Pate’s ears. She had snuck back in, apparently. I blushed.
“Sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Michelle said with a laugh. “I don’t think it’s right to keep girls in the dark. Then they can’t protect themselves or make their own decisions. But maybe this is a good time for you to go to your room and read, hon.”
Pate gave me a quick kiss and a thumbs-up before dashing from the room.
“Have fun tonight!”
I shook my head fondly.
“What a great kid.”
“She’s the best,” her mother said fiercely. “And she thinks the same of you.”
I started to tear up, and Kelly cursed, fanning my eye makeup with her hands.
“No crying! No crying!”
We all dissolved into laugher.
“All right, ladies. Let’s do this.”
Cass gave me a mischievous smile.
“I can’t wait to see his face.”
The Mason Jar was transformed for my party, with one corner closed off with old sawhorses painted red. There were streamers and even a festive-looking balloon banner. The rest of the place looked the same. But there were pretty candles and a whole section of the bar for us in the section they’d reserved for my birthday.
I giggled when Jaken came over with a tray of shots. He eyed me, then pretended to ask for my ID. I did a shot with everyone who wasn’t nursing and then sipped a coke and vodka and chatted with the girls. I got tipsy pretty quickly, which honestly seemed like a good thing.
I was so nervous that I needed the liquid courage.
Nervous he wouldn’t show. Even more nervous that he would.
It helped me forget that the one person I wanted to see more than anyone was not here. Would not be here. He was not coming, which was fine. I refused to think about how Shane had rejected me, how he’d left and told me I had to move out.
Not today. Do not think about it today.
Crap. Now you’ve done it, Park.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I stood up, thinking I would run to the bathroom to fix my makeup. That way, no one would know that I was fighting off the water works. Or maybe I should just go outside, I thought, turning toward the door . . .
A huge man stood frozen there, his body silhouetted in the doorway. I knew those broad shoulders anywhere. That thick head of hair. Those strong legs.
Shane had actually come. He was here. For my birthday.
He did care. He didn’t hate me. He had come to wish me happy birthday!
A smile of pure joy lit up, and I took a step forward. Shane strode across the room toward me. I almost took a step back. There was something so predatory in his face. He stopped less than a foot away.
But he didn’t look like he was here to wish me happy birthday. He didn’t look happy to see me at all. He looked furious. His eyes tore up and down my body. I felt myself start to shiver from the fury I could sense just below the surface. This had been a bad idea.
A very, very bad idea.
“What the fuck is this?”
“It’s a party, Shane. Join us,” Mason said in a mild tone of voice. I hadn’t seen him come to stand nearby. Shane just stared at me, his jaw ticking. I opened my mouth to speak and his eyes shifted down to stare at my lips.