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"There you go, beautiful girl Let whatever is bothering you go," Lydia says, but I more or less have to read her lips She closes her eyes and joins uys try to dance with us, but we shoo them away and keep to ourselves I liftmy hips sway froe of awareness, lost somewhere in my own semiconsciousness, when I feel it Goose bumps break out all overI open net, I see hilass wall, and his blue eyes are burning into er is clear in his eyes I watch as he tosses his drink back and hands the scantily clad waitress his elance in her direction

"You okay?" Lydia asks, noticing I’m frozen on the dance floor

"Yeah I Uh I was just looking at the VIP rooure out which one we’re in"

"Oh We’re right up there" She points to the second floor To the roo in on us, Flynn follows our gaze, and I watch as he looks down and sees all the guys from Easy Ryder beneath him He can see down, they can’t see up Itthere Was he watchingwhat to do under the scrutiny of his stare, eventually I atteain But I’ve lost the vibe--the at lost in the man Another drink is definitely in order Lydia pouts but leaves withher arm into mine as we make our way into the elevator to return to the second-floor VIP room

Security pushes a button and the doors slide open Inside, the guard presses number two…but then I realize there is no button for the floor above us "There’re only two floors on the panel How do people get up to the third floor?" I ask

"You need a security card" He motions to the top of the panel "Slips into the slot and takes you upstairs Boss man, his friends and employees only"

I know I’ve had way tooin public It’s only a whisper of the words, but the beat thu in unison with"So with Hozier The last few lines of the chorus croons about falling in love a little bitup, wondering if Flynn’s singing the co, I blow out a shaky breath Feeling bereft, I decide I need a fewwith the tour , him I need to find a ladies’ room, but really I head to the elevator to search for souard is on the phone, but he opens the door to the elevator when I arrive A few seconds later, the doors slide open--I hadn’t even noticed eren’t going down "Boss esturing for o I walk toward the same room I was just in, only one floor up My insides churn at the sight of a wo for Flynn’s attention as he stands in the corner, arhtly over his chest I may notice the tall, svelte blonde, but Flynn…his eyes are trained on azes locked, until he pushes off the wall and, with a few long strides, stalks to me I can see the flex of his jaw and the darkness in his norht-blue eyes

His friend froh a nition dawns "You’re Dylan Ryder’s girlfriend, right?"

Flynn looks at his friend, then back to h his words aren’t for h my peripheral vision, I see his friend’s brows dran, then understanding hits hi for trouble" Blake shakes his head, but a minute later the room is cleared of everyone except Flynn and me

Flynn looks down, then closes his eyes and takes a breath before speaking

"My led every day to make ends meet and never had tiht Had his secretary actually waiting in the car the day he h his hair I reach out to touch him, but he puts his hand up "Don’t" The disdain in his voiceMy niece, Laney, has a half-sister three weeks younger than her Compliments of her father’s TA"

"I’h I’ any comfort, since I’uy"

The irony is, he was never the other guy From the first tiuy But I nod anyway, respecting what he’s saying a hell of a lot more than I respecthis to peer through the glass floor We’re standing al

"Friends?" he asks "Can we go back to being friends?"

It feels like a heavy weight is sitting on ht to put a stop to what shouldn’t have started to begin with But noonder, can we really go back to being friends after we’ve been through the blur and crossed the line?

Chapter Twenty-Two

Flynn

Alana Evans doesn’t shut the fuck up And I mean that in the nicest possible way She’s been rade, and basically it’s been twenty years of one long run-on sentence I kid Becca that Laney is really Alana’s daughter, with the lack of breaths when she gets on an excited rant, but the truth is, Laney is a lot like Alana because Alana and Becca basically grew up as sisters and they’re a lot alike Nurture trumps nature with those three

We park in the short-terstro now For the past year, a lot of people have recognized ht away These days, the recognition dawns faster, sometimes instantaneously More heads than usual turn as we pass, but it takes my conceited ass a eous It’s not new--she didn’t grow fro, she’s pretty e of seventeen, I thought about it for a few hbor’s pool and she earing that white bikini that became translucent when she went in the water

It was a hot July night, the stars were twinkling, my sister had fallen asleep, and the air was thick and hue dick Luckily, one thing didn’t lead to the other, and the nexton froh duct tape in the world