I don’t know how I survived this many years without seeing her.
I saw her every day in my thoughts, but it doesn’t come close to reality.
Since seeing her for the first time, I haven’t been able to stop looking for her. A few innocent questions to the locals gave me all the information I needed. The building she worked in, and where she lived.
I tried not to show my frustration with how easy it was to obtain those details. Especially after I watched her discard a flower from her windshield wiper as if it were a snake earlier. I could see her eyes were as big as saucers from where I sat on the other side of the parking lot.
Having a secret admirer is one thing, but if the attention is frightening her, I won’t allow it.
If anyone gets to stalk her, it’s me.
“Is there a reason you’re watching my wife?” A man’s voice comes from beside me suddenly. It’s low and controlled, not someone excited and looking for a drunken brawl.
“Who is your wife?” I ask after finishing the last of my drink, slowly turning toward the man. I recognize him.
I’ve seen him at the sanctuary.
He doesn’t respond, looking at me with the same level of recognition.
“I’m not looking at the blonde, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I don’t like you looking at either of them. What do you want?” He asks, just as seriously as before. He doesn’t know me well enough to know my intentions.
I like this guy. I can appreciate him looking out for the woman I care about, even if she hates my guts.
“Liv is an old friend. That’s all.”
“If she were a friend, you’d go over there and say hello.”
I smirk at his accurate assessment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Jesse, we’re leaving,” the woman with long blonde hair says from behind him, cutting a glare my way.
He wraps his arm around her shoulders and kisses her head. “Alright. Where’s–”
He doesn’t finish his thought before she cuts him off. “She went outside for some air.” I stand up from my seat, and she glares at me again. Clearly, she’s already formed an opinion of me.
“Hayes,” I introduce myself, reaching my hand out to shakehers, but her body flinches away. Apparently, she’s heard really terrible things.
Jesse pulls her in tighter, reaching his hand out instead.
“I’m taking them home. We don’t need an escort.” His hand squeezes mine briefly, and I see the warning. He won’t let me near Liv unless she allows it. And that’s not going to happen.
“Drive safe,” I offer, taking my seat again.
As soon as they leave the bar, I make my exit. I watch from the shadows as they all leave in one car, avoiding Liv’s tense looks over her shoulder.
I don’t bother following them. I know where they’re going, and where she’ll end up.
It takes about an hour and a half until she’s parking in front of her little yellow cottage in the woods. It’s like something out of a storybook with absolutely no safety measures, no flood lights, and hardly visible from the road.
She’s a sitting duck out here, and she doesn’t see me leaning against my bike at the darkest edge of her driveway.
“So, you told your friend about me?” I ask suddenly, and she drops her keys from her purse. They hit the ground with a clatter, but she doesn’t turn around.
“Leave me alone.”
“Why should I do that?”
