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The curtain frees me, and I step out with one leg, tipping the cell towards me. “Raith!”
Suddenly, it stops ringing, and a text pops up within seconds. I squint as I attempt to read the message, but my slippery fingers tussle with the phone. Soapy water runs everywhere, helping the cell to slip from my fingers and into the floor.
“I’m gonna kill him.” I scurry back into the shower, hurrying through what was left of my few minutes of peace and quiet. “If he calls back, I will be an only child.”
No sooner do I get the words out than the phone begins to ring again. “Yeah, he’s dead to me.”
Once again, I scramble for my cell, and the shower curtain wraps around my foot. I grab my phone, answering it, soaking wet, with a whisper yell. Yes, it’s a thing; ask any mom. “What? I just want a shower for the love of all that’s holy.”
“Sorry, Witch Hazel.” Raith chuckles.
“You do realize, Witch-hazel is a plant made into a product for healthy uses.”
“I did not, and I don’t care. It was satire and funny as hell.” He laughs again, irritating me even further.
I sigh heavily and release myself from my captor, better known as the shower curtain. “What do you want? The twins are napping, and I was finally getting a shower.”
“Oh, now I am sorry.” Raith pauses. “I can imagine how much you needed that; based on the last time I was there, you desperately needed to bathe.”
“I hate you,” I stick my tongue out at the phone, mostly because he was right and because he’s an ass. “tell me what you want, so I can stop dripping all over my floor.”
“Right.” Raith hesitates again. I know there’s something he wants to tell me but isn’t going to say it. “Someone is moving into the Black’s old house, so you’ll need to give them the key when they get there.”
I’m reaching for a towel when he spits it out, and my head snaps up with this unexpected news. “Do you know who it is?”
“I’ve had several people call, but mom reminded me of it. So I told her I’d call you.” His words are muted as he messes with something in the background.
“Well, who is it?” I jump when I look up and see Mia at the bathroom door. “Hey, baby girl, is your brother still asleep?”
“That’s my signal to run; talk later, sis.”
“You didn’t tell….” Raith hangs up while I’m mid-sentence.
Mia’s still standing there, giggling. “Please tell me your brother’s still in bed.”
“No, he’s gone.” She laughs harder as I race past her toward the stairs, wrapping my towel around me as I go.
“Taylor. Taylor, where are you?” I run through the house, searching every corner. “Taylor! Answer me!”
As I round the corner to the kitchen, I see the evidence no mother wants to see when she’s clothed in a piece of material and a child on the run – clothes and the backdoor open.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I screech, tightening my towel as I sprint out the door.
I spot his pull-up at the corner of the house; I rush to find the gate ajar. “How did you get the childproof gate open? Taylor!”
Without any thought, I dart through the gate and bolt down my driveway as I get a glimpse of him headed toward the fence by the road. “Taylor! Get back here, son.”
When I clear the cover of the houses, I notice a motorcycle at the neighbor’s house. I rush over to the escaped inmate, sweeping him up and turning to hightail it back to the house.
“Please tell me, whoever that is, they’re not witnessing this from a dark corner,” I mutter, clutching my son to my chest as my towel begins to slip.
“Hey there!” A deep voice stops me in my tracks, and my stomach fills with dread. I shudder with a memory from years ago when I was a teenager, and my ultimate crush murmured these exact words in my ear.
It was seven minutes in heaven; the room was so dark that he couldn’t make out who I was, and I made sure not to say anything that would tip him off. I knew if he figured it out, I would never get what I came to this ridiculous party for in the first place.
He’s what every girl in our school wished for; intelligent, handsome, with tattoos, and a body of a god. I dreamed endlessly of kissing him, being wrapped in his muscular arms, and him taking me just like they do in romance novels.
Griggs Black was the most popular, sought-after, hottest guy in the school, and he wasn’t only my neighbor but my brother’s best friend. Making me – off limits to him.
