I was driving myself insane.

I had no right to know what was going on in his life. I knew that. After all, I had pushed him away with some pretty cold words. But for some reason my crazy heart still ached for him.

Sitting at the bar just before my Saturday night shift was due to start, I scrolled through the Vengeance Instagram site and my heart sank. There was Heath smiling brightly into the camera, his arm draped around the shoulders of a beautiful girl who was crushing her body against his. Jealousy spread through me like a brush fire.

It was irrational, I know. But seeing the picture made me feel sick and deflated.

I dropped the phone on the bar and rubbed my face wearily.

“Uh oh, what’s happened?” Leo asked, drying a margarita glass.

I shook my head and murmured an unconvincing, “Nothing.”

He nodded at my phone. “You’ve got a face like a trail of cat sick. What did you stumble across?”

“Nothing new,” I mumbled.

“Let me guess … you were cyber stalking your ex and found him in the arms of another girl?”

My head shot up. “How did you…?”

He held up his phone. “I saw it on Instagram too.”

I sighed. “Good news travels fast.”

He walked over to me, discarding his dishrag as he leaned his elbows on the bar in front of me. “She’s just a fan, H.”

I shrugged. “It’s not my problem anymore.”

“You sure about that? You’ve been miserable since the breakup. Even worse since he’s been gone. Why don’t you just admit it? You’re still in love with him.”

I chewed the inside of my lip and finally found the end of my tether.

“Fine. I’m still in love with him.”

Leo smiled. “So why don’t you go tell him? Put an end to this once and for all?” He straightened. “Tell him you’re still madly in love with him and want to have lots of nasty musician sex and make beautiful babies with him.” He smiled cheekily but when my eyes fell to my cell phone, he looked serious again. “He’s the lead singer in a band, H. Girls are always going to throw themselves at him. But it doesn’t mean he’s interested in any of them.”

I knew that.

“I know that.”

“Then what’s the problem, Patootie? Last I saw him, that guy was so beat up about you he couldn’t walk straight. Why are you making this so difficult on both of you? Wanna know what I think?”

“You’re going to tell me anyway.”

He ignored my sarcasm. “I think you should go and find him. Tell him you still love him. He’s never going to risk losing you again. Which kind of makes him the safest guy in the world to date, in my opinion. He’s done it once and it’s destroyed him. He won’t do it again.”

I hated how I felt. Torn in two. Miserable. Unsure. But it was easier to stay stuck in my misery than risk further heartache.

“Like I said, it’s not my problem.”

Leo gave up on me and returned to his tray of glasses, leaving me with my hearty helping of self-pity.

I was just about to torture myself by looking at Vengeance’s Facebook page when out of nowhere a cool pair of hands came from behind and covered my eyes.

“Guess who?” a familiar voice whispered in my ear.

I squealed. “Piper!”

She let go and I swung around.

“When did you get back?”

Before she could answer a pair of strong arms lifted me up from behind and twirled me around.

“Armie!”

He squeezed me into a big bear hug and then set me down, kissing me on the cheek. Behind him were Jesse, Zack and Tommy who each greeted me with hugs and winks.

I looked past them to the doorway, holding my breath as I waited for Heath to walk in.

But he didn’t.

“He’s not with us,” Piper whispered in my ear. “He and his brothers have gone for a drink with some friends. He said they might drop in later.”

Despite my disappointment I smiled brightly. “Are you guys hanging around?”

“Sure are.” Armie smacked his hands together and rubbed them together. “It’s beer o’clock.”

Apparently they had arrived back a few hours earlier and had gone home to shower and sleep. Friends of theirs were performing at the Palace so they would be hanging out to watch their friends play and to down a few beers.

Hearing this brought a much needed ray of sunshine to my mood and for the first time in weeks, I felt happy. I would get to hang out with my friends for the evening.

There was no further mention of Heath and despite knowing he was with his brothers, my imagination surged into overdrive and automatically arrived at the conclusion that the friends they were with included the girl from the picture on Instagram. I closed my eyes against my paranoia and shook my head at my own patheticness.

Thankfully it wasn’t long before we got super busy.

The band started playing—an acoustic band—and they were good. They had quite a big following so a decent sized crowd showed up to watch them play which kept us busy. Leo and Tony were flat out in the kitchen, making up pizzas and garlic bread, while Coralee, Bridget and I were rushed off our feet delivering beers, drinks and pizza orders to the tables.

But it didn’t matter how busy we got; all night my eyes kept straying in the direction of the doorway for any sign of Heath. Or if I grabbed an order from the kitchen, when I walked back out I would automatically scan the room for him.

But he never showed and the end of my shift I was exhausted.

Of course, the guys were the last to leave. They hung around until closing and even then it took Fat Tony throwing them out for them to leave.

“We’re going to the Sugar Shack, want to come?” Piper asked.

“I’m beat. I think I’ll just head home.” It was exhausting being a paranoid loser. “But we can catch up tomorrow, yeah?”

“You should go, H.” Leo interrupted. “You need some time out.”

“Oh yeah?” Piper looked at me suspiciously. “What’s up?”

I shot Leo a warning look. Which of course, he ignored.

“Our H girl has been burning the candle at both ends. I think she needs to be reminded of how to have some fun.” Leo said.

“Is that true?” Piper looped her arm through mine. “Come on. Come out for one drink. I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

Seeing her face, and not looking forward to spending the rest of my night alone with my imagination and paranoia, I nodded. “Sure. One drink. Why not.”

Fortunately, I had a change of clothes in the staff bathroom and quickly slipped into a pair of jeans and a cropped white t-shirt. We had to catch a couple of cabs to the Sugar Shack and by the time we arrived, it was almost midnight.

In the cab I was dying to ask Piper about Heath, but wanted to wait until we were alone. I didn’t want the guys to think I was still hung up on him. No one mentioned him. Or our breakup. And I felt more at ease to think they were none the wiser.

The Sugar Shack was a club in town. It was busy with the Saturday night crowd and when we entered an acoustic Nirvana song was playing. We were lucky to find a table towards the far side of the club.

“Drink?” Jesse asked Piper and me and then disappeared into the crowd.

“So, did you miss me?” Armie asked, sliding up next to me and flashing me his cheeky grin. He was wearing his glasses, which made him look like Science Geek meets Hell Boy.

I put my arm around him. “I always miss you when you’re not around, Armie.”

“Of course you do. I always said you were a very … very smart girl.” He was slurring a little bit. But he was so endearing. I adored him. He just loved to have a good time. Knowing he and the rest of the band were back in town helped fill the big fat hole in my chest. It helped. But did not completely fill it.

He rested his head on my shoulder.

Jesse returned with the drinks, but he came back to the table with an odd look on his face. I noticed it pass between Piper and him and straight away felt unsettled. I didn’t say anything. But I knew what it was about. It was Heath. And he was here.