I lether play in my face for two weeks. For two weeks after our time in Londynville, I let her think she’d ghosted me. Yeah, she wasn’t answering my calls. Wouldn’t respond to my texts. And I let her make it. I figured she felt some kind of way about our connection based on her past relationship with Wilcox. I didn’t get why she wouldn’t just talk to me about it, though. But at this point, why she was doing what she was doing was neither here nor there. Her time was up. She was on my time now.
I sat outside of her storefront in the back seat of my Mercedes truck. Axel, my security, was in the front seat watching the door, while I messed around on my phone.
“There she is, K,” Axel said.
I looked up from my phone just in time to see Wyndi locking up her place. “Get her.”
Axel opened the driver’s side door and got out. I watched as he approached her. He didn’t get too close. He was a few feet away while he spoke. She replied, and he said something else. After a few additional sentences, she followed him to the truck. He opened the rear door, and she slid inside next to me. The entire vehicle was consumed with both her presence and the smell of her perfume.
“What’s good, Wyndsor Fairy?”
She rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth. “Hey.”
“So, you are alive. I wasn’t sure after two weeks went by without a response to any of my calls or texts.”
“I’m alive.”
I took her in. Really looked at her. “You don’t look so good. You sick?”
She turned to face me. “Look, Kaynaan.” She sighed heavily. “I know you’re . . . feeling however you’re feeling. But I’m in a low place. I can’t deal with all this passive aggressiveness and sarcasm.”
“Are you sick?” Immediately, I was concerned. I dug this woman. Even though we hadn’t known each other long, I cared about her.
Her eyes welled with tears.
Instantly, my hands cupped her face. “Wyn.”
She began to cry.
“Let’s go talk,” I told her, then I leaned up in my seat and spoke to Axel. “Ax, take us to my townhouse.” I wasn’t a flashy guy. I didn’t have ten houses, fifteen cars, and/or a fleet of yachts. I owned a home in Londynville and two homes in Illinois.
My main local residence was located in Lake Jackson, a few miles away from the Coyotes’ headquarters where we practiced and did almost everything associated with being on the team.The townhome was a purchase I made out of necessity. The Coyotes’ stadium was located just south of Downtown Chicago. It was at least forty-five miles from my house on a good traffic day. When we had night games, the drive home was a haul I didn’t like making. I copped the townhome because it was barely five miles from the stadium.
Wyndi’s storefront was located in the North Side of the city. It was a quick fifteen-minute trip to my townhome. It made sense to take her there.
“Got it.”
“My truck.” Wyndi pointed out the window as we took off.
“I’ll have somebody get it and drive it to my house. All I need is your keys.”
She nodded, then scooted closer to me and laid her head against my shoulder.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and held her to me as we rode. When Axel pulled up in front of my townhome, I realized that Wyndi had dozed off. He opened the back door of the truck for me, and I eased her out. I carried her up the stairs bridal style. She awakened when I placed her on her feet in my foyer.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
I led her down the short hallway and pointed to the door. She went inside, and I waited for her to come out like a kid.
“Oh.” She jumped a little when she exited the bathroom and found me leaning against the wall opposite the door. “I wasn’t expecting you there.”
“And I wasn’t expecting you to disappear on me, Brown Eyes.” I placed my hands over my heart in a dramatic fashion. “You hurt me.”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“What was your intention?”
She sighed like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. “To set you free, Kaynaan. To not get you caught up in all my drama.”
