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CHAPTER ELEVEN
I DON’T NEED YOU TO BE MINE; I JUST NEED YOU.
Price
Sleep evaded me last night.I couldn’t shake the feeling I had when I saw Koen in Scottie’s camper, buttoning his shirt. There wasn’t enough time for them to have sex, but I walked in on something. It was all over her face.
Guilt.
I don’t want her to feel guilty, and it’s not my intention to interrupt her life. Last night's incident reminded me that I need to tread more lightly.
After drawing another picture (a bouquet of wildflowers), I take a much-needed nap. Then I grab a juice and return to my journal, determined to write actual words today.
When I decide to write about her, the words flow; my hand can’t keep up with them.
Her smile.
Her laughter.
The way she watched me work at my computer while sipping her wine. And when I wouldn’t acknowledge her, she’d standbehind me and tickle the nape of my neck before bending over to kiss my ear. She never played fairly. I’d turn in my swivel chair and plead my case for why I needed thirty more minutes to work. She’d unfasten my pants and straddle my lap with no underwear beneath her dress, making her case for why she only needed five minutes of my time. I never took for granted just how lucky I was to have someone who needed to be intimate with me before she could go to sleep.
When I shut my journal, I attempt yoga for the first time. It’s harder than it looks. By two in the afternoon, I get a delivery—an infrared sauna that fits nicely into the spare bedroom now that I’ve disassembled the bed and shoved it against the wall.
I sweat my balls off for thirty minutes, hydrate, and shower. Then I order a ride to the gas station to pick up my car with its new battery—just as Koen suspected. The general store is on my way home, so I stop to visit Scottie.
“Showing up at work on your day off makes you look like a loser with no life.” She grins while climbing down the sliding ladder on the wall of canned goods.
“Guilty.” I tidy up the produce area, restacking the sweet-smelling apples before they tumble with the next customer who decides they want one from the bottom of the pile.
“I saw your car got towed this morning. Is it fixed already?”
“It is. I just picked it up. I’m really sorry about interrupting your evening. I clearly walked in on something, and I felt like a total ass.”
Her face turns pink as she slides the ladder into the corner. “We just started seeing each other. It’s no big deal. He finished the puzzle, and well …” She curls her lips between her teeth.
“That blush looks stunning on you. I’m glad you’ve found someone who does the impossible by making you look even more radiant than you already are.”
She messes with her hair before flipping her bangs away from her eyes. I’ve made that blush a few shades darker. “This … you … him … it’s all unexpected and a little weird.”
I organize the mangoes and fix their crooked sign. “You make us sound like a threesome.”
Scottie coughs a laugh. “That’s not my style.”
“No? A shame. I’ve heard they can be fun.”
“Price Milloy.”
I chuckle.
“What did you two talk about?” She steps beside me, picking out the stray pieces of lettuce and kale that have fallen into the bottom of the cooler.
“I never kiss and tell.”
She shoulder-checks me. “Stop. You’re so ornery today.”
I glance at her. I’ve missed her, even when I didn’t know what I was missing. “We stuck to first-date conversation. He asked me about my job. I asked him about his. He asked me about my relationship with you. I asked him about his relationship with you. And when he pulled into my driveway, we compared dick sizes and called it a night.”
“Who had the bigger dick?”
