A new song started up and Nate placed one hand lightly on my hip, watching my face the entire time as if to make sure I was okay with it. His hand, being where it was, sent a jolt through me at first. Kane was the last person who had touched me like this. I shook my head and pushed all thoughts of Kane away. Dance. I just needed to dance.
I closed my eyes again and just felt the beat of the music and everything else faded away again. It was so crazy how music could take you away from all your troubles. How sometimes a certain song could tell your whole life’s story. I loved losing myself in music.
I had been so lost in the beat that I hadn’t noticed how close Nate and I were now. I was straddling one of his knees and had both my arms wrapped around his neck. I tried to pull back a little when I realized how close we were, but the grip he had on my hips tightened.
“Nate…” I started, but he interrupted me.
“Kelsey, just go with it,” he said with a slight begging in his tone.
“Nate, really, we need to put some distance between ourselves.” I was not feeling the least bit of attraction to Nate, but I could now see that by the look in his eye, he was looking at this more than what it was … just a dance with a friend.
I glanced toward the bar and immediately locked eyes with Kane. I didn’t think he would be working tonight.
He was standing there glowering at me and Nate. He wasted no time shoving his way through the crowd toward us. “Oh no,” I mumbled.
“What?” Nate asked.
“Kane.” I gave a nod.
Nate turned his head and saw Kane stalking toward us. “Don’t worry, Kelsey. I won’t let him near you.”
I gave Nate a questioning look. I wasn’t scared for Kane to be near me. In all honesty, the way Nate was acting was what was scaring me.
“What the hell?” Kane growled as he stopped in front of us. “Twenty-four hours, Kelsey. It has been twenty-four fucking hours since our fight, and you are already dancing with this tool?!” Kane shouted, and I couldn’t help but cower at the intensity of his voice.
Nate noticed and automatically jumped to the wrong conclusion. “Look, Kane. You need to leave. Kelsey doesn’t want to be around you. Can’t you see you are scaring her?”
Kane’s eyes slowly slid to Nate, and I could see the hatred laced within them.
“Back. The. Fuck. Off. My girlfriend,” Kane growled.
Nate let out a slight chuckle and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me to his side. “Girlfriend, huh? That’s not what she was telling me a few minutes ago.”
Kane’s eyes shot back to me. “Kelsey?” he questioned. “We had a fight. A misunderstanding. We haven’t even had a chance to talk about it yet and you are already making moves on someone else?” I could hear the hurt in his voice, but he also had an accusing tone and it pissed me off.
How dare him! He was just pressing his lips to someone else’s last night and he wants to give me crap about telling someone else I wasn’t his girlfriend anymore? Finally fed up with the pissing contest these two where having over me, I pushed through them. They both asked me where I was going and I spun on my heel and glared at them.
“I’m leaving. I’m not in the mood for bullshit tonight … from either of you!”
I turned and made my way to the exit of Shot’s. I had made it to the parking lot before I realized I had ridden here with Jessi.
I heard thunder, and lightning cracked across the sky as I stood beside Jessi’s locked car. Rain. Fucking great! I placed both hands on the roof of Jessi’s car and tried to control my emotions. Seeing Kane had be rougher than I thought it would. My heart still fluttered when he was around. Funny thing since I knew it was broken.
“Kelsey … can we talk?”
I didn’t bother to look up. I knew who was standing behind me. “Go away Kane. I. Do. Not. Want to talk to you, not now. Not ever.”
“Kelsey! God damn it! Would you stop and talk to me!” he shouted as he grabbed my elbow and turned me to face him, his gray eyes swirling with turmoil.
“Talk to you? What about, Kane?! Huh? You want to talk about how I knew I should have never taken the chance on you because I KNEW you would break my heart? You want to talk about how I can’t stand to be near you because it hurts too damn much?
Or do you want to talk about the fact that you took my heart, and put it back together, only to smash it into a million pieces?” I took a deep breath. “I’m completely and utterly broken now thanks to you. So, no, I won’t talk to you!” I could feel the tears welling, and before I could stop it, one fell down my cheek. I tried to break loose of Kane’s hold so he couldn’t see me cry; but who was I kidding, that arm was his until he decided to let go of it.
“Kels, if anyone is broken it’s me.” He finally let go of my arm only to gently cup my cheeks into each of his hands. “What happened last night is not what you think. You would know that if you will give me five minutes to explain.” The storm in his eyes seemed to calm for a minute before it came back with a vengeance. He immediately let go of my face and took a step back. “But instead of talking to me about it, you come here and fuck around with Nate? Really, Kelsey?”
“What are you even doing here tonight?” I yelled at him. I wouldn’t have come here had I known he would be working.
“I work here. Remember?”
“But I mean what are you doing here now? I thought you were off tonight?”
“Eddie’s kids are sick. His wife couldn’t get out of work. So I said I would cover for him. Stop avoiding my question. What in the hell would make you do this to me? Of all people, you had to come here with Nate?”
I balled my hands into fists. He had no right to be asking me anything, so I ignored his question and made an attempt to step around him but he grabbed hold of my arm, stopping me.
“Let go of my arm, Kane!” I yelled and jerked my arm free from his grasp. “This is all your fault!” I screamed.
The rain began pouring down on us. His black shirt became soaked through and was sticking to every inch of him, making it easy for me to see the muscles in his arms and chest twitch. He closed the short distance between us and looked right down into my eyes.
“My fault? Really? That’s rich, Kelsey,” he sneered.
My blood was boiling at that point. It was his fault! He was the one who couldn’t keep his lips to himself! I was the fool who thought he could be true to me. “What are you trying to say? That’s it’s my fault?! I trusted you, Kane! I trusted you so much. You kissed Katie! You let me down … you broke my heart.” I hiccupped a sob.