Losing You (Stars On Fire Book 4) (3 page)

Gwen was the first to notice him. She started to smile but it froze when her eyes landed on Lizzie.

“Holy fucking shit!” Gwen exclaimed.

“Language, Gwennie,” Ollie remarked as he poked at the inflamed logs with a stick.

“Lizzie?” Gwen said, ignoring the hated nickname Ollie used.

Tom caught the huge smile on Lizzie’s face before she launched herself towards Gwen and his ears were filled with girl squeals followed by Ollie’s squeals of “Holy shit,” over and over.

Surprise a success.

Four high school friends reunited.

After the excitement of seeing Lizzie died down a bit, the hurt came out. “It’s about fucking time you came home!” Gwen yelled. “Eight years, whore.”

“I know,” Lizzie responded, properly chastised. “I’m here now.”

“Good!” Ollie said, giving her a bear hug and kissing her cheek.

“So, how are you guys? Fill me in!” Lizzie commanded.

“Oh, he’s still the same ol’ Oliver,” Gwen responded, jerking her head towards Ollie. “Leaping from woman to woman faster than a gold-medal Olympic manslut.”

“Gwennie, I’m surprised you saw that from behind your mountain of romance books.”

One would swear that these two hated each other, but it’d been like that since high school and they still hung out, though as of late, the jabs had become more frequent and a little more personal. This volley on the milder side.

Lizzie laughed and sat down on one of the chairs. Tom took a seat on the arm of her chair and the foursome chatted for a while, catching up and grilling Lizzie about life in Denver and her return to Chicago. Looking up, Tom’s eyes wandered over the party and he sighed when he saw Molly making her way to him. He didn’t want to deal with her now. She’d picked a bad time to finally show her face.

“Pooh bear! There you are!” Molly sauntered up to his side, looping her arm with his, pressing her fake tits against his chest.

Pooh bear? What the fuck?

Tom quickly glanced down at Lizzie and Ollie and Gwen, all working hard not to laugh.

“What have you been doing? I’ve been looking all over for you.” She purred, actually purred, but he caught the spark of dislike in Molly’s eyes instantly when they landed on Lizzie next to him. Tom shook his head in disbelief. He didn’t want a scene and set to defuse the situation.

“Lizzie, will you be okay for a bit?”

“Sure. I’ll just stay here and catch up with Ollie and Gwen. Have a blast, Pooh bear!” she said, winking at him.

Goddamn it!
That was gonna follow him around for some time to come.

Marc

Sluggishly walking up the front steps to his best friend’s house, Marc had one thought on his mind—Tom’s secret stash of Red Bull. He needed to wake the hell up. Last night . . . or was it this morning . . . he’d crashed hard when he’d rolled into his bed. To be honest, he was kind of surprised he’d even made it there after all he’d done at that party.

When he woke up, he’d been so completely disoriented, he didn’t know what day it was, only this nagging feeling that he needed to be somewhere. He’d remembered in the middle of his shower—Tom’s party.

Having hurried through the rest of his shower, Marc had gotten himself dressed in his standard jeans and t-shirt. Tonight he’d chosen an old school Last Star shirt . . . well, not that old school. Only from when the band had first started to perform shows . . . about five years ago.

When he’d glanced in the mirror, the shirt still looked good. Him on the other hand . . .

After dragging a hand through his damp hair in an attempt to style it, he’d left and had made the couple block walk to Tom’s.

These parties as of late had been missing something . . . four somethings actually. Four of his closest friends. His childhood friends, Marty and Todd, his old co-worker, Mia, and his younger brother, Clark. Together, the four formed the band Last Star which just got signed to a record deal and were now in LA working on their debut album. Their dreams were coming true and Marc was beyond happy for them but he missed them.

For years, he saw Mia every single workday and most weekends. The guys he’d known his whole life, and while Marty and Todd may not be related by blood, Marc considered them his brothers. He saw them at least every weekend. Now that they’d been gone for a few months, it was taking a bit to get used to not having them around all the time. He’d been branching out, meeting new people, but it was wearing on him. Those four had kept Marc out of his head . . . but now, that was becoming more difficult and he’d been waking up more and more often not remembering the night before or the bad flashbacks that had pushed him to the drugs in the first place . . . at least for a little while.

Reaching the kitchen, he opened the fridge and opened the produce drawer and grabbed two hidden Red Bulls.
Not the greatest hiding place
, he thought, kicking the door shut as he opened the can and downed the contents.

Tossing the empty in the recycle bin, Marc crossed the room to the back door and stepped out onto the patio. He quickly scanned the faces for Tom and found him over by the cooler. The other man noticed him and lifted his chin in acknowledgment. Marc returned the gesture and made his way to his remaining best friend.

Marc hadn’t known Tom as long as the other guys but the moment they’d met he had known he’d found a friend for life. And when Mia entered the picture, it had been the six of them. A six-pack of best friends.

All of them meant the world to Marc, each in their own unique way, but Tom . . . if he had to single one out as his ultimate best friend, Tom would be the one. Marc smiled at the thought and stuck out his hand to shake Tom’s.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Tom asked in greeting.

“Not too much. Sorry I’m late. Had some trouble waking up today. So, how’s the party going?”

“It’s one of my parties . . . it’s fucking great,” he answered, his gaze locked on his face and Marc knew Tom could easily figure out from his bloodshot eyes why he had difficulty waking up. Too much alcohol and drugs had a tendency to do that. He waited for the lecture that didn’t materialize. That’s fine. Not like he wanted one anyway.

“An old friend of mine is here. I’d like to introduce you to her.”

Marc’s eyes lit up. “Her? Mmm . . . I like the sound of this.”

“Yes. A female. Has it been
that
long?” Tom asked good-naturedly.

Marc jabbed him in the ribs. “Longer than I care to admit,” he responded.

Lizzie

“Let go, Foxy,” Lizzie said, pulling on the tug toy in the young dog’s mouth. The dog whipped her head back and forth, about yanking Lizzie from her seat. “Whoa, doggie,” she chuckled. She loved dogs but with her crazy job, it never seemed like a practical thing to do.

Maybe now . . .

Tonight, not only had she gained Tom back in her life, Lizzie had her other best friends from high school back. She could kick herself for letting so much time come between them or she could just go with it and be there now.

Definitely the latter
, she thought, watching Ollie sneak some ice down the back of Gwen’s shirt.

“Oliver!” Gwen screamed and Lizzie laughed and turned her attention back to Tom’s dog.

Tom had the life she wanted—being a part of a couple, a pet, friends. She hadn’t been the other half of a couple since . . . Lizzie glanced up when she heard crickets actually chirp. It’d been a
long
time. Maybe since college. Shit. Had it been that long? At least tonight brought her back to her friends—and it felt so nice.

It would feel even better if she was spending time with Tom. Instead, he was being Pooh bear to Holly or whatever the hell her name was. Tom had a girlfriend and Lizzie didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Lizzie.”

Speak of the devil
, she thought, looking in the direction of his voice. She tipped her head to the side as she regarded the sexy as hell man beside him.

“I’d like to introduce you to a great friend of mine. Marc Kerr, this is Lizzie McCullough.”

Dropping the dog toy, she extended her hand. “Marc, nice to meet you.” His touch sent warm shivers down her spine as he enveloped her hand in his. Looking up, she saw intense eyes the color of an overcast sky regarding her with what—she wasn’t sure. She’d never experienced that look before, and the feeling it gave her was quite intoxicating. She wanted more.

“The pleasure is mine,” he replied, the underlying sensuality of his voice captivating her.

All her focus was on his face. His piercing light blue eyes, his dark brown, wavy hair, his full lips flanked by two teasing dimples. Her eyes traveled over his strong body. He wasn’t stick skinny nor overly bulky . . . just manly. When her gaze returned to his face, she saw those dimples in full force, an amused expression on his face. That smile was totally worth the price of getting caught checking him out. Though she still blushed.

Foxy dropping her toy on her feet along with a nudge of her head dragged Lizzie’s attention away from Marc.

“Foxy,” Tom spoke, “Leave Lizzie alone.”

“
Arf!
” the dog spoke back, pushing the toy closer to Lizzie with her nose.

“Foxy, bring me the toy,” Tom ordered. The dog barked again, this time dropping it at Marc’s feet.

“I see your dog is well trained, Tom,” Lizzie observed, laughing at Foxy’s antics.

He playfully glared at her. “It’s because she’s showing off for you.”

“I could leave . . .” she suggested, pretending to walk away.

“Hell, no! I just got you back!” Tom exclaimed, pulling her soundly into his side.

“How do you know each other?” Marc asked.

“High school party many years ago,” Tom answered.

“How’d you two meet?” Lizzie asked in return.

“I met him while he was on a job site. I was there to interview the owner and we just hit it off,” Marc replied.

“When was that?” she asked curiously.

“Ninety-eight? Ninety-nine?” Tom answered.

How had she not known about Marc? Eight years he’d been a part of Tom’s life and this was the first she’d heard of him and the guilt poured over her head like the slime on Nickelodeon when she was a kid. “Wow. A long time then,” she said, trying her best not to sound jealous because that’s what she was. Jealous of all the time Marc had been able to spend with Tom while she was alone in Denver, slaving over a stupid job, and she had no one to blame but herself.

“Yeah,” Marc said. “He’s been the best.”

Tom looked at Lizzie, eyes raised expectantly.

“What?” she asked.

“This is where you say, ‘Yeah, he is,’ or ‘I one hundred percent agree.’”

“Oh . . . sorry,” she replied then turned to Marc. “So, what do you do, Marc?”

“I’m a reporter,” he answered, but laughed when Tom bumped into her side with an exaggerated huff. Lizzie laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Definitely the best,” she said quietly.

“Now, that’s more like it,” Tom said jovially, pulling her closer to his side and giving her a strong squeeze.

Though she savored being up against her best friend’s side, her eyes were locked on the man in front of her. Marc had, with just a look, lit her body on fire, and she definitely wanted to explore that. Years without that feeling fueled that desire. Lizzie wanted him and the degree in which she did electrified her.

“Pooh bear . . .” came the grating voice of Tom’s girlfriend in the distance.

“Goddammit,” Tom grumbled, his body going tense.

“Pooh bear?” Marc asked, chuckling at the name.

“Fuck off,” Tom said with a laugh before turning to Lizzie. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m being summoned.” He motioned for Foxy to follow him and the pair left Lizzie alone with Marc.

Neither of them spoke nor did they move. The silence wasn’t awkward; it was full of energy. The air hummed with it.

Marc shook his head like he was trying to break free of something and then cleared his throat. “So, Lizzie, is that short for Elizabeth?”

She nodded, still totally incapable of speech. His smile was lascivious in a way that had to be illegal somewhere. The more she regarded his lips, the more she saw it wasn’t really a smile. More like a sensual smirk full of confidence and that drew her to him and made her feel like a pile of putty waiting for Marc to do whatever the hell he wanted to her.