Bouncing up the staircase, Edward’s daughter's eyes light up when she sees me approach. “I’m bored!” she sighs when I come to a halt in front of her.
Looking behind me, our parents are caught up again in playing the perfect host and hostesses. Edward glances our way. His forehead furrows. His displeasure grows. Glancing back at his daughter, I feel a wicked smile spread across my face. “From the roof, I can throw a rock and hit one of the back flower pots like a bull's eye every single time.”
“Yeah right!”
“Want to see?”
She glances at our parents, hesitance hangs in her eyes, but curiosity gets the better of her and soon she jumps off the step she’s been sitting on for hours. “If you’re lying, you owe me 5 snickers bars.”
We sneak off through the crowd and I feel a little lighter for the first time tonight. With any luck, I’ll avoid the future that has been so perfectly carved out for me. But for now, I’ll settle for a break, if that’s all I can get.
Chapter Six
Hunter
She hasn’t called.
It’s been four damn days. Four days that have made me feel like I’m holding on to a damn thread when it comes to my sanity. Four days that have me twisted in knots like I never knew possible. Four fucking days that have been the hardest in my life to not break first, hunt her down, and make her tell me why is she avoiding me. I haven’t been able to get the way she tasted, the way her body responded, the thrill of taking her in my arms out of my head.
The elevator dings signaling that I am on Main Street and the doors slowly open. I’ve spent the last three hours in the gym trying to burn off any extra energy I can waiting for her to reach out and make me know what I felt between us wasn’t a lie. I take my phone out of my pocket and check it for the hundredth time today. My heart breaks when I see the screen show me absolutely nothing.
No text. No call. No signal by damn pigeon to put me out of my stupid misery.
She said she didn’t have a phone. But that doesn’t mean she couldn’t call from the salon. Or school. Hell, even a damn pay phone, if the world still has those.
Shoving the phone back in my gym shorts, I make my way out of the elevator and start to walk through the corridor towards the sun and sidewalk. If I didn’t have a game in a few hours, I’d hit up one of the many bars lining Main Street and drink this anxiety away. But as fate would have it, I’d be more than benched if I showed up lit from a few beers because I can’t for the life of me shake the pull she has on me. Pushing my sunglasses up my nose, I turn left and start walking up the street when I stop dead in my tracks.
No way in hell.
Standing awe-struck for a few moments, I debate what’s the best way to handle the situation.
A few feet away, Rochelle stands in tight jean shorts, a red tee, flip-flops and a Los Angeles Dodger’s baseball cap. Damn, she has good taste. She leans forward and plays with a puppy at her feet before rising and talking with someone I don’t recognize. Her eyes sparkle as she says a few more words to the person she is talking with before waving goodbye and beginning to walk my way.
My heart rate quickens. I glance nervously to my right. Something about meeting her like this, when I really wished she’d have reached out and called first, makes me suddenly want to disappear. Vanish. Pretend I never saw her in her dressed down, mouthwatering, daisy dukes.
Her eyes rise and catch mine. She stares at me for a beat before looking anxiously to her right, and then her left. When I think she’s about to bolt, I make a move and save us both the misery of avoidance.
“Didn’t know I’d be blessed with a gift from above today,” I say, as I close the gap between us. The closer I get, the more nervous she looks. She fidgets on her feet and her breathing quickens. Coming to stand in front of her, I reach up and take off her glasses and smile, “Hi, Angel.”
“I was going to call,” she blurts out.
She was, was she? How long was she planning on waiting before making her move? Did she plan on waiting until I had moved on and was wrapped around just any other girl? No chance in hell.
This woman fucking consumes me.
“I swear I was,” she stammers. “But I don’t have a phone. So I’d have to call you from the shop. And the more I waited, the more I worried.” I reach out and pull her close to me by the hand. Instinctively, I slip my arm around her waist and pull her tight against my torso. “And the more I worried, the more I talked myself out of it.”
“Worried about what?” I ask. Lowering my face to the crook in her neck, I breathe her in. God, I missed her. Pulling back, I plant a small kiss on her cheek, look her in the eyes, and confess, “I was the one who has the right to be worried.” She cocks her head to the side and questions me. “I gave you my number, not the other way around. Do you know how hard it’s been waiting, hoping you’d call?”
She looks at me astonished, like she’s just been told the most unbelievable thing in the world. We stare at each other for a moment. She’s hiding behind a wall I don’t yet understand, while I’m way too willing and ready to rearrange everything in our way just to keep her in my life a little longer.
“Why me?” she asks sheepishly.
“Why not you?” I counter, confused at what she means, though I have some clue. But I want her to say it.
She looks down. When she speaks next, it comes out as barely a whisper. “You can have any girl you want, any girl in the world, why me?”
Gently, I force her chin up and brush my thumb across her mouth.
