She hesitates as I push through the doors that lead to the parking garage and locate my car.
She huffs. “Because I didn’t want to talk to him, okay?”
I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips.
“For some reason, I wasn’t in the mood to be all cute and flirtatious.”
My teeth grind.
I don’t want her to be all cute and flirty with anyone but me.
Shit. There’s that feeling again.
“Which store are you at? The closest one to the house?” I predict, seeing as she walked.
“Why? What are you doing?”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“Oh no. You’re meant to be at work. Do not come and—Cole,” she chastises when she hears the rumble of my engine down the line. “You have more important things to be doing than collecting me from a store four blocks from your apartment. I’m fine walking. I don’t have that much stuff and?—”
“I don’t care, Freya. I’m coming to get you.”
She wants to argue, I can sense it even through the phone, but she wisely holds back.
“I’m fifteen minutes away. I’ll be in the parking lot when you come out. Do not even think about ignoring me.”
I swear, her breathing gets heavier.
“We’ll see,” she states before shocking the fuck out of me and hanging up.
“Well then,” I muse, putting my car in reverse and backing out of the space that is considered mine at the arena.
If anyone else were to hang up on me like that, I’d be pissed. But with Freya…fuck. I’m turned on. My temperature soars, and I hold the wheel in a death grip as I fly across the city to where she is.
Should I be at the gym in the arena right now? Absolutely yes. But do I care? Hell no.
I’ve got an hour until our team meeting. I’ll come up with a reason. Like the other guys, I can claim a family emergencyand slip away. Coach Watson knows I don’t have any family. I’m just hoping that, considering it’s the first time I’ve ever done something like this, he’ll be lenient.
Fuck it. Even if he’s not, I’ll take the punishment because I’m doing the right thing.
My eyes dart everywhere as I pull into the parking lot of the store. I’m achingly aware that she never actually confirmed if she was here or not, just allowed me to continue assuming she was.
I kill the engine and climb from the car, spinning my baseball cap around to hide behind, and then I sit myself on the hood of my car and wait.
I keep my head down, but only so much, because I need to find her. If anyone spots me, well, they might just discover that I’m not always so friendly, because there is only one person I’m here for. And until I lay eyes on her, no one else may as well exist.
My heart pounds steadily in my chest. I’ve never done anything like this before. There has never been a reason good enough to force me to walk out of work early.
But then there was Freya…
Finally, I find the woman I’m here for standing at the checkout. My breath catches as our eyes meet through the windows. My fists curl at my sides with my need to march in there and pull her into me.
Our eye contact holds as the rest of the world, and time, falls away.
She should be doing something, but instead, she stands there frozen.
I don’t know how many seconds pass, but it feels like a lifetime. Or it does until she suddenly rips her eyes from me to focus on the cashier.
