Now fully dressed, I dash down the stairs, my skin tingling with excitement at having Erika in my house for yet another morning. Maybe I should just ask her to move in with me and go all in on the being-together-and-dating thing.
That’s not taking it slow, Leon.
Shit, yeah, that’s stupid of me.
For years, I’ve imagined her waking up in my arms, having breakfast together, swimming naked in the pool, spending lazy Sunday mornings making love, laughing over dinner with friends, and now I know she feels the same way about me; italmost feels surreal. Now I want all of those things with her more than ever.
I step into the kitchen, and the happy feelings in my body disappear in an instant, causing all the blood to drain into my feet as my eyes land on someone I haven’t seen in a very long time, and she’s standing next to Erika, who is the love of my fucking life.
“Sage dropped by,” Erika announces, nodding in her direction, her voice deadpan and void of emotion. “Sutton is already in the conference room; she let Sage in.” There’s bite to that comment. “You two used to… you know… apparently.” Fuck. That’s all we did.
But I haven’t even thought about Sage since she left Edmonton. Not once. Or heard from her, and it was presumptuous of her to show up unannounced.
Fuck my life.
After today, my team won’t be allowed to let themselves in, or anyone else, for that matter. Not now that Erika is in my life fully.
“Hey, Leon.” Sage gives me a flirty finger wave.
“Hi.” My temples begin to pound.
“Sage is just back from Australia. She’s been coaching tennis down under.” Erika gives me a hard stare over the rim of the mug she’s drinking out of.
I haven’t seen her in what, over two years?
Sage hops off the barstool and walks toward me. “Miss me?”
No. “Eh…” I can’t explain what makes me hesitate, but I do. Maybe it’s nerves or the anxiety I feel clawing at my skin that’s causing me to forget how to form words or maybe it’s the fact that my no-strings-attached hookup from way back is standing in my kitchen next to the woman I want to marry but who might just decide to tell me to go fuck myself and die a painful death because my past is too painful to come face to face with. Iwouldn’t blame her if she did, but I will not let that happen, not now that we’ve come this far. “I didn’t miss you, Sage,” I finally admit.
Sage pushes up on her tiptoes to kiss me, but I stop her in her tracks, stepping backward.
“Don’t,” I warn. What the fuck is she doing?
“Still not into kissing on the lips, then?” Sage asks, sounding amused, fluttering her blue eyes at me and flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder.
“No.” I stiffen when Sage taps her hand against my chest, which makes my skin crawl. “And stop touching me.” I bat her away, stepping out of Sage’s clutches.
“Since when do you not kiss on the lips?” My head snaps to the side when Erika blurts that out, looking perplexed, the little valley between her eyes deep with confusion.
Sage chuckles and looks up at me, rolling her eyes. “It’s too intimate, apparently.”
Please shut the fuck up, Sage.
“What are you doing here?” I blurt out. Of all the times, why did she show up today, now, when Erika is here, and we finally agreed to date? What did I do to deserve this living hell? I hate that my past is haunting me like the ghost of bad choices.
“I’m back for a week to see my family, then I’m off to England to coach, so I thought I would drop in, you know, catch up,” she says, sounding hopeful. She means to fuck, but hell no.
“I’m leaving in ten minutes,” I check the wall clock, not entertaining her advances. “And you need to leave right now.”
“I can come back tomorrow.” Sage is persistent, I’ll give her that.
Erika jumps in and says, “We’re going on vacation.”
Sage slaps her forehead with her palm. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry. Did I interrupt something?” She then waggles her fingerbetween the two of us. “God, I feel like such an idiot. Are you two together?”
“Yes,” Erika replies with such fierce confidence that it makes me want to run over to her and kiss her breathless.
Sage laughs and then drops a truth bomb that makes me feel uncomfortable. “Well, I never thought I’d see the day Leon Hill would finally settle down.” She shakes her head and tuts.
