Chapter 16

“Anyway, how long are you staying with your parents?” Dray asks, redirecting the conversation back around to Mack. He plays with the straw in his glass, pushing the ice cubes around. “Only the weekend, but I swear if they make even a single comment about me and Zach I’m actually gonna punch a wall,” he says with a bitter laugh, before Zach slips his hand into Mack’s, and the latter’s expression softens.

Aw. They’re cute together.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so, as Nick and Jack make ‘awws’ and ‘oohs’ at them until Dray kicks them both. Well. It’s supposed to be a kick, but he can’t even reach Jack, so it’s more like he just wiggles his leg in the air in their direction.

And then he snuggles back into my shoulder.

Heat spikes through my system, but it’s not the normal panic-fuelled one which comes with someone touching me when I don’t expect it, and instead I feel…warm. And cosy. And…calm. It’s nice. I could seriously get used to this.

“Where did you get your tattoo done, by the way Fyfe? I’ve been wanting to get another done for ages, but couldn’t find anywhere that could do the design I have in mind justice,” Zach says, leaning forwards in his seat to talk to me across from the others.

“Oh, my sister runs a shop in Cambridge, she did it for me. If you’d like, I can put you in contact with her?” Zach’s eyes brighten immediately, and he nods excitedly. “Yes please, that’d be awesome! I was admiring the detail on yours, it’s so tiny but intricate!”

I smile fondly - talking about my tattoo is something that always makes me happy. “It gets bigger over my arm, Ailsa really went to town on the detail there. It took her ages, but she wanted to have it completed before I left for uh, a job.”

I hadn’t been able to get a visible tattoo whilst I was working in the normal part of the police, they really weren’t fans of that, but when I was told I was going undercover to investigate a smuggling ring - well, that was my chance.

Ailsa had already sketched out the design and practiced it, we’d come up with it together years before, when she started to think about becoming a tattoo artist. She worked really hard, and got it done and healed ok, right before I left for three years.

“Ooh really? Is it easy to show us?” Zach asks, scooting his seat slightly closer. I trace the lines of the tattoo around my finger, bringing myself back to the present. “Yeah, I’ll just take off my jacket,” I say with a small smile as I strip off my leather jacket.

I’m wearing a simple white t-shirt underneath, and so the majority of my tattoo is on show, except for the bit over my shoulder. Sounds of appreciation come from all of them, but Dray is silent. He’s looking at my arm too, except it’s the other one.

He gently places a hand on my right arm, right over a long, jagged scar. I forgot about those. I got involved in rather a lot of knife fights whilst undercover. Hence why I got stabbed so many times. My arms are a bit of a mess, but the tattoo draws the attention away from them on my other arm.

Dray looks up, locking eyes with me, questions in his eyes. “Did you used to be involved with people who wanted to hurt you?” He suddenly blurts out, and everyone’s attention moves from my ivy leaves to Dray’s hand on my arm, and his question.

“Uhh- huh?” Is all I end up coming out with. I’m glad he didn’t jump to asking if they were self-inflicted, whilst I’ve never harmed myself, it was something Ailsa and my therapist used to be very worried about.

Dray suddenly realises how close his face has gotten to mine, and how silent everyone else now is, and he quickly removes his hand from my arm and sits back. “Sorry, I didn’t- I just- you’re ok, right?”

I feel like laughing, and so I do. It comes out as a little chuckle, but it still surprises him. If only he knew. “I’m fine, I once got mixed up with the wrong crowd for…work reasons, but I left that all behind a while ago, and since I moved here, I’ve been even further from it all.”

Nick laughs awkwardly, and jokingly says “you sure you didn’t used to be involved in some shady drug dealing business?” With a shrug, I take a sip of my cold water with ice cubes in it. “Hmm, you’re sort of close, but also completely wrong at the same time,” I say with a smirk.

Everyone only seems to be more concerned now, and keep glancing at Dray, wondering how someone like him made friends with someone as obviously suspicious as me. Or, maybe they’re not thinking that, and it’s just my insecurities talking on their behalf. We’ll never know.

“So long as you’re safe now, working as a- hang on, you’re working as a law teacher. If you used to be involved in shady shit, that’s kind of…ironic, actually,” Dray says with a laugh, resting his head on my shoulder again.

Glancing down at my glass, I hide my little smile at his gesture.

“Mm, I find law interesting and decided to use the…skills I already had, and knowing about the law just happened to be a transferrable skill.”

The way half of them are looking at me (the others are practically falling asleep, AKA Dray, Nick and Mack) says they truly believe I’m a drug dealer. Whilst I’ve been finding this all funny, I feel like it’s time to end their confusion.

Normally, I hate when people think I’m some kind of bad boy drug dealer, just because of my appearance, but for some reason, chatting with these guys like this, I don’t really mind.

“I promise I’m not a drug dealer, I used to be part of the police,” I finally say, smiling slightly at the relieved looks on Rick, Jack and Zach’s faces. “Oh, wow. Unexpected,” Zach says, adjusting Mack’s sleepy head on his shoulder slightly.

Dray shifts, sitting up and using my arm to steady himself. “Wow, why’ve you never told me that? I thought when you said you had a job before teaching that it was something totally boring, but you must have loads of cool stories to tell then!”

I grimace, and glance down at my lap. I hadn’t realised it, but my hands are already starting to shake slightly. Dray’s gaze follows mine, and he sits up straighter. “Or not, makes sense. Anyway, I feel like we should get going now, I’m literally about to pass out,” he says with a small laugh.

There are nods all around, and as Dray gets up from his seat and heads towards the door, he trips over the two steps leading from the main part of the restaurant up to the high tables at the back.

He falls down the steps, and is about to hit his face into the floor, when my reflexes kick in and I grab his arm, pulling him back up the stairs with a jerk. In doing so however, the momentum from the pull brings him right into my chest, and we somehow end up with me essentially hugging him.

After a moment of rather surprised but not unpleasant eye contact, Dray blushes slightly, before pulling away, picking up his wallet, which he dropped on the floor as he fell. “Thanks Fyfe, totally thought I was about to kiss the floor there,” he says, laughing lightly.

Rick snickers behind us, whispering “nah, you just almost kissed Fyfe instead,” before Jack elbows him in the ribs, nodding in Nick’s direction. Nick looks rather…sad? Why would he be- oh. He probably has a crush on Dray.

Oh. Does- does Dray like him back?