Love is something I don’t think he is capable of giving me, especially now that I’ve gotten a glimpse of the man behind the curtain. He’s been burned by Lacey. I once thought he might have been the one lighting the match, but upon further reflection of the encounter outside of Perry’s Seafood, I think it was Lacey who struck it. She looked sad, but it wasn’t a scorned lover’s sadness. No, that’s what Stone looked like. She looked like the one who lost a friend due to her own misgivings.
Is she the reason he’s like this? Afraid to commit?
Stone says he doesn’t intentionally seek to hurt women emotionally. I’d like to know more about that, but honestly, what’s the point? He’s not mine to explore and figure out, no matter how I adjust the picture and attempt to look at various angles.
I hear his motorcycle before I see the light coming down the driveway.
Stone.
His name in my inner thoughts is spoken like it’s a breath of fresh air after spending the day in a city of smog. Like coming home after a long vacation.
No, ma’am. You stop that right now.
It’s my nighttime companion, Loneliness, talking. It’s the physical attraction manifesting in my head as somethingmore.
You’ve battled this before. You know the signs of the beginning of war. Take up armor.
The light clicks off.
You’re excusing away his playboy behavior with weak observations that you hope are true. We aren’t supposed to justify behaviors anymore, remember?
The motorcycle shuts off. What would it be like to ride behind him on that thing?
You’re attaching yourself to a possible idea of him you’re piecing together in your mind.
He emerges under the porch light, walking down the pathway and up the stairs, his eyes zeroed in on me with an upward tug to his lips.
You’re letting the attraction fester into lust because there is no way youlovethis man.
“Hi, Lucy May,” he says with allurement in his tone. All my previous thoughts vanish in a wisp of smoke. He’s wearing pale pink shorts that rest an inch above his knees and a tight white t-shirt under an open white button down. His effortlessly hot lookis complete with a pair of white sneakers. “Like what you—” he says, but then stops, snapping his mouth closed.
I come to my senses. “What I what?”
He clicks his tongue and pops his mouth with his hand. “I was about to flirt with you, but I caught myself.” Stone sits down next to me on the swing, causing it sway back and forth, and I relish in the gentle breeze.
“Right. Thank you.”I almost regret telling him not to flirt with me. Since when has he listened to my requests, anyways?
“What are you doing up?”
“Couldn’t sleep. I sometimes struggle sleeping in new environments.” I lean my head back and close my eyes as we move back and forth, the wind kissing my face and cooling off the misty summer heat of the night. Why did I admit that to him exactly?
“I see. Is there anything I can do to help?”
I jolt, my laptop wobbling on top of my thighs. I narrow my eyes at him when realization hits that he’d been staring at me. At my expression, he puffs out a little laugh.
“I didn’t mean that in a flirty way.” His gaze moves upward before he tilts his head and closes his eyes, a look of peace transfixing his bruised face. “Genuinely trying to help. What do you need? Warm milk? Melatonin? Tea?” He barely opens one blackened eye and peeks over at me. “A massage?”
I want to be mad and shove him, but I can’t because I know he is honestly messing with me and not attempting to flirt.Even if I wish he was…
But for good measure, I do elbow him.
“Violent, Little Lion.” He tsks and closes his eye.
“Only when necessary.”
He laughs, and I join, kind of digging this side of him. Even though his eyes and nose are as bruised as a dropped apple, he looks tranquil sitting here in the middle of the night on his mother’s front porch swing.
I have the urge to ask him about Lacey again—or for clarification about what he said regarding women’s emotions—but I refrain with a bite of my lip. He’s being what I presume to be his authentic self. He’s not Mr. Harper right now. He’s not a playboy trying to win all the ladies.
