“I’m not able to recall her name, dear. I’m sorry. I’ll look at the logs, though. She’s been checking on the progress almost every week. She always mentions how excited she is for her students to spend time here when it’s finished.”
Oh.It’s Abby.
My heart constricts in my chest hearing that Abby has come back here without me. The Rec Center is important to me and knowing that Abby has shown an interest in that pulls at my emotions.
“No, no need to check. Thank you, Doll.” I lean down to kiss her cheek and I walk towards the exit.
The whole drive home I’m thinking about the fact that Abby’s been going to the Rec Center every week. Why the hell didn’t she tell me, first of all? And secondly, fuck. It just does something to me knowing she’s as excited about it as I am.
Pulling into the driveway, I hit the garage button and slowly pull my truck in. I kept the back blinds open when I left this morning, so walking into the house right now I’m hit with the sunlight streaming through the glass doors.
“Fuck.” I say, lifting my arm to shield my eyes before heading to my room for a shower and hopefully a nap. My body is aching and I know a hot shower and some decent rest will help ease some of the tension from the last few weeks of brutal hits I’ve taken.
After grabbing a fresh pair of sweats and slinging a t-shirt over my head, I throw myself onto my bed. Just as my eyes begin to close, my phone vibrates.
Abby
We need to talk.
Shit. The four words everyone hates to hear. A thousand fucking things run through my mind. Is she done with our arrangement? Done with me? Damn, I didn’t even consider this ending, I probably shouldn’t have been so fucking naïve.
Ok. Coffee shop?
Abby
I’m already here.
Unsure what kind of conversation is going to come from this, I race to the coffee shop. This place has kind of become our neutral meet up spot to avoid me showing up at the apartment when Chase is home. Abby opens the passenger door and climbs up in my truck, placing a coffee for each of us in the cup holders and gives me a sweet smile. Okay, so she doesn’t look like she’s in a bad mood. Maybe this won’t be a bad conversation after all.
“Thank you,” I say while merging back into the lane to drive home.
“We have to be more careful, Ford.”
I give her a quick look from the corner of my eye, “Okay…” I trail off. “What happened?”
She brings her bare feet up on the seat as she looks my way.
“Mia knows about us. Well, at least she knows that we’ve kissed. I didn’t give her any other details, but just wanted you to know that she figured it out.”
Phew. I blow out a loud sigh.
“Why are you smiling?” Abby looks at me confused.
It doesn’t bother me if Mia knows about us. Hell, I’d love for everyone to know, and I understand that Abby doesn’t right now, but I already plan to have a talk with her about my feelings soon.
“Honestly, Abby, I don’t care that Mia knows. Hell, you can tell her whatever you want.” I let out a laugh, taking a peek at her expression while I’m driving. She’s eyeing me intently, like she’s not sure what to make of my reaction to Mia knowing, or lack of reaction.
“Okay…?” she says with a questioning tone. The wheels seem to spin in her head as we make the ten minute drive through downtown into my small beach community. The more I’ve thought about this whole thing over the last couple of days and weeks, I know I’ve broken her biggest fucking rule that she set in place for this arrangement. I know for me this feels like more than just fun, but I can’t figure out if that’s how she sees it too.
* * *
“You live alone in this big house… you should have a pet. A dog, probably. German Shepard. You strike me as a German Shepard kind of guy,” she casually says as we’re pulling in. She’s so goddamn random sometimes, I fucking love it.
“One day maybe.”
Abby’s been over enough by now that she lets herself in and makes herself at home and fuck, if that doesn’t make me happy every time. Sometimes I think she also feels like we’ve crossed some lines with this whole friends with benefits thing. We’ve spent practically all of our free time together since that weekend in Jacksonville and I haven’t even entertained the thought of another woman, although not for their lack of trying. Any time I’m out with the boys or on the road, there are still plenty of women lining up to see who they can wrangle in for a night and a few years ago, hell even just a few months ago, I may have been the guy to take them up on that offer. But now? Now I race back to my phone after a game to see Abby’s post game text that is usually waiting for me. There are fucking Skittles stocked in my pantry because I know they’re her favorite. I purposely put her in my shirts before she leaves so she’s slowly, but surely, growing a collection because there are few things sexier than seeing her in my clothing. Shit, I’m keeping secrets from my best friends because it’s what she wants right now. I’m so far in over my head with this girl and I never even saw it coming. Sure, I knew I was attracted to her physically, but over time it’s grown to be so much more than that. Everything about her is beautiful. Her kindness, her compassion, her sense of humor, she’s one of those rare souls that you meet once in a lifetime and you don’t let go.
Grabbing her hand as she walks through the sliding glass door, we make our way down towards the edge of the pool and take a seat on a lounge chair. I pull her back flush against my body as she sips her coffee and watches the waves on the shore, a sight and sound that I know is comforting for her.
