But itisunfolding.
I set the mug on the floor.“I’ll tell you, but it’s a long story.How much time you got?”
“I couldn’t go anywhere even if I wanted to.Bring it on, Miss Travis.”
CHAPTER 29
Evander
Twelve?She’s been crazy for me since she wastwelve?
I’m speechless.
Phoebe was absolutely invisible to me at that time.We didn’t have the same friends.We weren’t in the same grades, since she’s quite a bit younger.
It’s not like she came up to me back then and confessed she was crushing on me, only to have me laugh in her face and tell her to get lost.I never even spoke to Phoebe back then.I barely knew she existed.
Which makes perfect sense, for a dude as self-centered as I was back in high school.I was focused on becoming a SEAL, like Cal.I was determined to get a spot on the all-state football roster, often in competition with several of Phoebe’s brothers.Most of all, I was busy vanquishing the cheerleader population.
I paid no attention to the little girl from the next ranch over.
And now she’s sitting here telling me that she wrote poems about me.Dreamed about me at night and daydreamed her way through the rest of the day with me in the starring role.She never forgot me, she says, even when she moved away to college and worked out of state.
Even during the three long-term relationships she’s had, including her most recent one, with some doctor dude named Rick, who wanted to marry her.
Phoebe’s body language reveals that sharing this is difficult.She’s leaning against the couch arm with her legs curled and her arms gripping the blankets tight across her front.Phoebe’s gaze has been mostly downturned, but when she does look at me, her face is twisted with embarrassment.
“You’ve carried this around a long time.”
“I have,” she says.
“You’re…steadfast.”
That gets a weak smile out of her.“A pit bull with a porkchop, as my dad would say.About me in general, not about how I feel aboutyou.He doesn’t know about that, or at least I don’t think he does.”
“I’ve always liked your dad.”
She looks away.Something hit wrong with my comment, but she recovers.“Thank you.I’ll tell him you said that.”
I throw another log on the fire and scoot closer to the couch.“But…”
Phoebe frowns.“But?”
“You were about to tell me that reality doesn’t match up with the fantasy.That I’m not the guy you put on that pedestal so long ago.”
She gives me a quizzical look and scrunches up her freckled nose.“Do you remember that night at Carla’s Creamy Cone?”
“Whoa.I haven’t heard anyone mention that place in years.The ice cream stand across from the school complex, right?”
“Right.Do you remember the incident?”
I shake my head no.
“It marked the start of all my complicated feelings for you.The night my steadfast crush was born.”
I think this is one of those times that I should keep my mouth shut and just let her speak.So that’s what I do.However, I brace myself to take responsibility for whatever dumbassincidentI was responsible for on the night in question.
I watch her fingernail pick at the fraying edge of the blanket.She tips up that pretty chin of hers and takes a deep breath before she begins.“I was with a bunch of my friends at an outdoor table.Sixth grade.It was one of those hot nights when the sound of air conditioners drowned out the crickets.”
