Distraction (29 page)

"No, because you didn
'
t pick any up,"
Ginger added from behind. Damn. I opened the fridge and looked inside. My
shoulders slumped.

"Crap, I forgot. I
'
ll pick some stuff up at the market
later." I closed the door to the fridge, and my stomach protested.

"I
'
ll take you out to eat."

"
Thanks, Tristan.
"

"Oh, no, I
'
m fine, but thanks for the invite." Alyssa's words
dripped with sarcasm.

"Do you want to come along?"

"Nah, but you two have fun."

Tristan and I stepped outside, and I hurried to put my shades
over my eyes. The pain medication hadn
'
t quite kicked in and the
brightness hurt.

Chapter
18

Tristan

Elle and I ordered the same thing. She definitely held her
own,
scarf
ing down half her plate without saying a word. I only hoped
the amount of food she wolfed down agreed with her.

"
You feeling better?
" I looked at her in awe.

"Much," she said. "Thanks for the food."
Elle squirmed in her seat. "And thanks for last night," she managed,
her cheeks reddened.

"I
'
m glad I called, but seriously, what the hell got into you?
You don
'
t drink much.
" My voice was clipped, last night’s worry still fresh
on my mind.

"I was,"
she stuttered.
"Well, um,
I wanted to have fun." Her explanation didn't do anything but piss me off.

"Fun? Last time I checked, fun didn
'
t include puking
your guts out in a trashcan. You could
'
ve died, and how the hell did you
get home?" I hadn
'
t thought about her driving until then.

"Um," she blushed again and it hit me. She got
fucked up with Green.

"You were with Green, weren
'
t you?"

She nodded.

Goddammit. "Why in the hell didn
'
t he stay to
make sure you were okay? You could
'
ve died from alcohol poisoning, not that the bastard cared.
He left you on the bathroom floor." I balled my fists under the table. The
only thing on my mind at that moment was kicking his fucking ass.

"
Well, I
'
m fine, as you can tell, and you were there, so…" She
shrugged her shoulder.

"And you think that makes me feel any better? He shouldn
'
t have let you
get that messed up to begin with." I hadn
'
t meant to raise
my voice, but shit, she should’ve known better.

"You know what," she shot back with venom.
"You should worry about your own relationship and less about what I do
with mine."
Elle'
s green eyes blazed, her brows pulled together.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Immediately her face softened, and she pulled in her bottom
lip between her teeth. "Tristan, I heard something last night, but I don
'
t know how to
tell you without hurting you." She squirmed in her seat. I couldn't think
of anything that could be that bad.

"Hey," I started. "Just tell me. Whatever it
is, I
'
ll deal." She played with her napkin. I waited,
semi-patiently, until she decided she was ready.

"Last night, I heard you were going out of town."
She stopped when I laughed, remembering her confusion last night at seeing me.

"Sorry, go on." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well, this is the bad part." She swallowed, hard.
"Uh, I heard that Kellie cheated on you with Robbie." She fidgeted
against her chair. Elle looked at me then, sincerity pouring from her bright
green eyes.

"Yeah, I knew about her and Robbie. It's why we broke
up. I tried to tell you a few times, but I never got a hold of you. And I didn
'
t want to leave
something like that on your voicemail." I cleared my throat.

"When Kellie talked to you that day in the library…"
I paused, and took in
a deep breath.
"I
'
d already broken things off with her. She only said those
things to you because she was pissed at me."

Her eyes glistened with tears. I reached across the table,
resting my hand over hers. She blinked and tears
escaped
, rolling down
her cheek.

"I
'
m sorry, Elle. I called Kellie as soon as I left. I know I
should
'
ve stayed. I should
'
ve explained why she did what she
did, but I was too mad. She hurt you." I moved my hand away. Flashes of
Elle and the pained expression invaded my head.

"I
'
m sorry she hurt you. I
'm just...sorry.
" I looked
away, unable to finish.

"Don
'
t worry about any of that. I mean, what she did wasn
'
t your fault,"
she whispered. I looked up. Her tears dried, replaced with a sweet smile.
"
You aren
'
t going to go ape shit crazy and kick his ass?"

I grinned. "Already did." She shook her head, still
smiling. I changed the subject. "Where
's your car?
"

"At the club. I rode with Eric." Just the mention
of his name rubbed me the wrong way.

"If you have your keys we can pick it up."

"Oh, that'd be perfect. Eric planned to take me out
again tonight, and I was going to wait until then to drive back home. But if
you wouldn
'
t mind, that
'
d be great."

She planned to go out with him again. Fucking perfect.

"No problem at all. You going to the same place later?"
I sipped my water. The gesture helped calm the shit storm stirring in my head,
heading straight to my heart.

"Yeah. Alyssa and I have been there a few times, and I
had fun last night." Color rose to her cheeks again and she looked away.

"Which club? I may meet up with y
'
all later."

"Oh, um, okay. It's The Garage. The place is on
Thirty-Eighth Street."

"
Cool, let
'
s go get your car."

Elle

Tristan
'
s nonchalant attitude about Kellie cheating on him had me
worried. However, he really didn
'
t seem upset. Even stranger, was the truce between him and
Alyssa. I liked that they were being civil, but it still seemed odd.

After Tristan dropped me off at my car, I picked up a few
groceries at the market before heading home. Ginger, of course, complained when
I didn
'
t get her type of cereal or the ridiculously expensive
organic milk she preferred. I wasn
'
t in the mood to listen to her bitching. When I threw a
twenty in her lap and told her to get it herself, I thought she
'
d snap. She didn
'
t.

"
Nice backbone, Elle.
" Then, keeping the twenty I
'
d thrown at her,
she left the kitchen.

Aliens must have taken over Ginger’s body or something. I
laughed. They could keep her hateful ass.

"You okay, Elle?" Alyssa looked at me strangely
before grabbing an apple off the counter.

"I think so?" I laughed again. "Ginger just
gave me a compliment, or well, as close to a compliment as I
'
ve ever heard
from her."

"Wow." Her brows lifted. "That is weird. So,
you going out with Eric tonight?"

"Yep, that
'
s the plan. You and Bret wanna go? I think Tristan may go,
too. Oh, by the way, you two seemed friendly this morning. What gives?" I
folded my arms, scrutinizing her.

"Let
'
s just say we have a truce right now, but who knows how long
that
'
ll last. We are talking about Shrimp, ya know."

"Okay," I said, slowly. I seriously felt like I was
missing something, and I hated every minute of it.

"I
'
ll let ya know if Bret and I are gonna go later. I think he
said something about hanging out with some guys from the team."

"Oh." I wondered if Robbie would be one of the guys
she referred to. "I
'
m gonna rest for a while. I don
'
t want to look
like hell tonight."

"Ya know," Alyssa said, wiggling a finger at me.
"This new you is totally working. I seriously like the change."

"Um, yeah. Thanks. I mean, never mind the whole ‘love
the person for who they are
'
crap."

"Stop being so sensitive. Besides, you know I
'
m right." I
gave up, feeling my headache return.

Chapter
19

Tristan

Elle needed to understand
how much she meant to me,
especially after talking with Heather the other night. For the first time, I
felt as if I had a real shot at being with her, or I hoped anyway. Working
around Green would be tricky. Elle didn
'
t date much, but the fact she'd
started dating him at all forced me to confess my feelings sooner rather than
later. Just thinking about them being together made my stomach twist into
knots.

I needed music to help me think so cranked up my radio as I
drove home. Elle said they were going to the same club tonight. After the
fucked up state he left her in last night, I refused to give him another shot
at getting her drunk and leaving her vulnerable. Fuck. I didn
'
t want to even
go there. I also knew I needed a buffer. I couldn't show up alone. I didn't
want to look like I was trying to crash their date. Even if it were true.

The idea came to me. I couldn't believe I hadn
'
t thought of it
sooner. I
'
d call Bret and make sure he took Alyssa to the club tonight.
Having Alyssa around would be a gamble, but I needed a distraction. Yes, I am a
genius.

A stupid-ass grin rested on my face the rest of the drive home,
until I noticed a black range rover sitting in my driveway. I gnashed my teeth
together when I parked beside Kellie. Upon further inspection, I noticed she
wasn
'
t sitting inside. Which meant she
'
d taken it upon
herself to wait in my house.

I couldn't believe I forgot to get my key back. No problem,
I'd remedy that shit in a minute. What the fuck was she doing? Only one way to
find out. With a heavy sigh, I turned off the ignition, grabbed my keys, and
headed in.

I opened the door pissed, until Kellie looked up at me. Her
red, blotchy face killed a small fraction of the irritation I felt toward her.
What the fuck had
Robbie do
ne? Sudden anger flared at the thought of him hurting her.
Sure, our relationship had been strained, but I didn
'
t want to see
her hurt. I opened my mouth to speak, but Kellie took over.

"I
'
m so sorry, Tristan. For everything." Kellie
'
s crying
increased.

I couldn't make my voice work or my legs move. I stared back
at the wounded look in her dark eyes. Her slim shoulders shook and she hiccuped.
Fuck.

I walked over and stood in front of her. Kellie let out an
uneven breath and then looked up at me. She didn
'
t have a shit
ton of black running down her face, and even with her face red from crying, she
still looked beautiful.

"Kellie," I said, deflated, and she backed away as
if I
'
d hit her. Her dimples dented as she pressed her lips
together.

"Why?" Her voice caught and stuttered in the end.

I took a small step back, allowing more space between us. I
knew what she wanted. I could be a dick and tell her I broke it off between us
because she cheated, but we both knew the truth. I was in love with someone
else.