Afraid to Fly (Fearless #2) (26 page)

We settled around the dining room table, a new addition since Kam had moved in nearly 6 months ago. She had always wanted a place for all of us to be together, especially with the baby coming. She was worried about failing at something she was already a natural at. And between me, Angel—hell, even CJ—that little one would be the most spoiled baby in the world.

“So, Raven, how long have you lived in Charlotte?” Blaine asked before filling his mouth with a forkful of rice and marinated pork.

She reached for her glass of wine and took a sip before answering. “About a year. I moved back to take care of Toby.” Her eyes nervously darted to where he sat beside her as she answered. As if she wasn’t used to talking about him.

“So you lived here before?” I knew Blaine was just making small talk and trying to be polite, and honestly, I was thankful for it. These were things I had wanted to hear from her lips, and not from a file. I knew she had lived in Virginia previously, and had transferred from her nursing program at Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond. But I hadn’t known about her living here in Charlotte in the past. Interesting.

“Yeah,” she answered without meeting his friendly gaze. “When I was younger.”

“Oh, cool. So how do you like it so far?”

Raven shrugged, pushing food around her plate. “It’s all right. Not much has changed, honestly. The economy still sucks anywhere you go, so work has been less than great.”

“Raven is one of the waitresses at the club I work at,” Victoria chimed in from beside CJ. “Haven’t you seen her?”

Blaine’s eyes flared as wide as his plate before he choked out a cough. “No,” he croaked, reaching for his beer. “Can’t say I have.” Kami was tight-lipped beside him, and CJ was cackling like a hyena at his cousin’s dismay.

“Oh, I’m sure you have,” he jibed. “Remember that one night?”

“
Oh wow,
the fried rice is amazing. Kami did you do something different?” I piped up, hoping to save both Raven and Blaine any further embarrassment. But Victoria hadn’t taken the hint, no matter how burning Raven’s stare was.

“Actually, she’s one of our best waitresses. Much too good to be working at a dump like that. Especially with Sal cutting hours.”

“You got your hours cut?” I asked, my voice soft beside her. I didn’t want to draw more undue attention to her, but I knew how badly she needed the money. If she couldn’t pay her bills and fell behind on rent, the state could take Toby out of her care. And DCFS probably wasn’t too thrilled about her working in a strip club as it was.

“Yeah,” she shrugged. “No biggie. It’ll pick up again, or I’ll be able to find something else.”

“I don’t mean to be presumptuous,” Blaine interjected, after recovering his voice. “But if you’re looking for something else to supplement your hours . . .” At that, Raven lifted her gaze, genuinely interested. “With me and Kam preparing for the baby’s arrival, I don’t see myself wanting to be behind the bar as much. And we already lost her on the floor. So I was thinking about promoting one of our waitresses to bartender, leaving a spot open. I can’t guarantee how many hours, and it may be pretty busy on weekends—”

“Yes!” Raven blurted out before he could even finish.

“Yes? Honestly, you’d be saving me the headache of trying to find someone.”

“Yes,” she repeated, looking over at Toby, her eyes filled with some unnamed emotion. “We’d love to.”

“Great! Come by tomorrow, and we’ll take care of everything.”

Just before we all turned back to our plates with gusto, I saw Kami look up and Blaine and smile, which he happily returned. She leaned into his shoulder, positioning her forehead right at his lips. And with eyes closed, his heart open for all to see, he kissed her.

I envied that small display of honest affection. I wanted to touch someone so unguardedly . . . love someone so unselfishly. They had what I had always wanted—unconditional, uninhibited love. And that yearning was only made greater by wanting that with someone who didn’t want it with me.

“I’m just happy to finally have a few more ladies around this place,” Angel said, as she reached over to snag another lumpia. They had wrapped and cooked a good three dozen and we were already down to the final few.

“I’m sure you are,” CJ muttered with a snicker.

“Don’t make me bring up some of the trolls I’ve seen you with,
Craig,”
Angel threatened, pointing her deep-fried roll at him. “Vic here is a definite upgrade from the butterfaces we’ve had to endure. You better not screw it up. Because I can’t tolerate another scarecrow.”

“Scarecrow?”

Angel tapped her temple. “All the necessary parts yet no brain.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me, love,” Victoria winked. “I’ve handled blokes much cheekier than him.” She reached over and pinched CJ’s cheek, causing him to blush scarlet from neck to brow as he damn near purred into her palm. The simultaneous clank of silverware falling onto plates around the table was deafening. CJ? Blush? Surely we had to be witnessing an act of divine intervention.

After dinner, we cleared the table and covered it with a Monopoly board, and the room crackled with childish glee. I had already filled in the gang on Toby’s affinity for board games, and Kami thought it’d be a great way to make him feel welcomed. Since he was mute, Raven read his cards aloud for the group at first. But after a few turns, Toby pulled out his notepad and shorthanded the instructions. It took longer and probably made his hand cramp trying to scribble things down as fast as he could, but he wanted that piece of independence. And, thankfully, no one denied him that.

We were a good hour into the game when both Raven and I had gone bankrupt, along with CJ and Angel. That left Blaine, Kami, Victoria and Toby to battle it out for victory.

“He’s really good,” I said to Raven as we watched from a few feet away.

“Yeah,” she smiled thoughtfully. “I remember playing games with him when we were younger. Candy Land. Trouble. Sorry. He was always quick, even then.”

“How old was he when you left?”

I watch the way her throat moved as she swallowed the bitter taste of remembering. “Too young.”

I wanted to press for more, but not here. And I seriously doubted she wanted me rummaging through her past with everyone present, having a good time. But I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to be near her. I just didn’t know if she’d let me.

“Hey, you wanna go for a drive?”

“Now?”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

She nodded towards Toby, who was snickering as he took Blaine’s money. “I can’t leave him alone.”

“He’s not alone. I’d trust Kami and Angel with my life. Blaine too. And oddly enough, as crazy as CJ is, he’s a good guy.” Just as I said it, he leaned over and whispered something in Victoria’s ear, causing her to squeal and smack him on the shoulder. If someone could learn to feel something for him within the span of just a few days, surely he couldn’t be all bad.

“I don’t know . . .”

“We could take him with us.”

She grimaced with uncertainty. “I don’t know if he’ll want to leave.”

I should have let it go but I wanted time with her more than I wanted my pride. “Well, we could . . .”

“Oh, just go, you two lovebirds,” Victoria called out from the table, surprising us both.

Raven’s face blushed deep rose, her blue eyes wide with embarrassment. “Huh?”

“He’s fine here with us, Raven,” Kami chimed in, a sheepish smile on her face. “We’ll take good care of him. Plus, I’m sure Toby doesn’t want to miss dessert.”

“Oh, yeah, buddy. Kami’s brownie sundaes are the shiii—uh, the best,” CJ added.

Raven looked at the eager faces around the table, each one sharing looks of reassurance. “Are you sure?” she asked her brother, leaning down to meet his eyes. He gazed back with complete certainty and nodded. Then he did something that caused tears to shine in her bright blue eyes, as well as every eye in the house. He placed his palm against her cheek.

I knew what that simple gesture meant to her—to them. Toby had been so closed off since she had come back into his life. And here he was, trusting again. Telling her that she could do the same.

“Ok.” She stood upright and turned to me, her gaze full of apprehension, but something else too. Maybe fear. Maybe hope. Maybe a mixture of both.

We were mere steps from my car when she said, “Wait. I’m not going.” I stopped in my tracks, my heart sinking into my gut.

“What’s wrong?”

A sly smile stretched itself across her face. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Unless I drive.”

Shaking my head, I fished my keys out of my pocket and tossed them at her. She liked to be in control, and I liked letting her take control. It was a win-win for us both.

“So where are we going?” I asked as we pulled out of Blaine’s quiet, suburban neighborhood.

“You’ll see.”

I reached over to fiddle with the radio, eliciting a slap on my fingers. “Driver picks the music, Trevino.”

I put up my palms in surrender, letting her have her way with the music dial. I was more than surprised when she stopped it on an oldies station.

“Were you even born when this song came out?” I asked as The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” played through the Bose speakers.

“Were you?”

“Good point.”

Silence hung between us for a long moment before she murmured, “My mom liked this song.”

“Before she . . .”

“I didn’t know her before she died. Not anymore.”

I didn’t know what that meant, or what to say. So I went with the one thing that felt appropriate. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s not me you should be feeling sorry for.”

I turned to study her profile in the setting sun. She didn’t look at me, her focus trained on the road, but I could see the regret in her haunted eyes. She didn’t want my pity, and I had none to give her. “I don’t feel sorry for you.”

I thought she might be offended by my words, but instead she nodded, understanding what I had meant. “Thank you.”

Minutes passed as she drove, the sounds of Michael Jackson, the Eagles, Cheap Trick and the Bee Gees filling the silence. She sang along quietly to some, loudly with others. I watched her with rapt attention, amazed by this woman who commanded all of my senses. She was gorgeous without trying, unintentionally funny, and her energy was infectious. I couldn’t look at her without smiling. I couldn’t be near her without wanting to be closer still.

When we pulled onto a dirt road and began to follow a steep path uphill, I knew exactly where we were going. Back in the day, we called it Lookout Point. It was the place us high school kids would go to drink cheap-ass Boone’s Farm and hook up under the stars. I had taken my fair share of impressionable young girls there, but I hadn’t been in years. Especially with someone I actually gave a damn about.

“Here we are,” she announced, putting the car in park. Then she reached behind the seat and grabbed her purse. “I’m glad you suggested a drive, Dom. It’ll make this a whole lot easier.”

Confusion settled on my brow. “Make what a lot easier?”

When Raven’s gaze collided with mine, I knew that bringing me to a dark, secluded area wasn’t by chance. She had a purpose—a mission. And that mission was me.

“Get out. I’m going to shoot you.”

T
HE LOOK OF SHEER
horror on Dom’s face when I opened my purse and pulled out my weapon of choice?

Fucking hilarious.

Of course, we were both in stitches when he realized that it was a camera in my hand, not a gun. But after our last time together on the roof of my building when he joked about me pushing him off, I just couldn’t resist.

“Ha Ha, very funny,” he grumbled. “I knew you weren’t going to
shoot me
-shoot me.”

I was still in hysterics. “Oh really, Trevino? So you just walk around sporting a what-the-fuck face? Come on. I want to get this shot.”

I positioned him just a few feet from the cliff drop, causing him to groan with nerves.

“Do I have to be so close to the edge?”

“Yes,” I insisted. He didn’t really, but I liked to mess with him. Dom was just too easy to screw with. “Ok, now act natural.”

He frowned, and I couldn’t deny myself the chance to capture it on film. “Natural? I thought that’s what I was doing?”