AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His tight, fake smile pushes his stubble-covered cheeks up toward his eyes. “Not bad, not bad… Better now that I’m seeing you. Honestly, I’ve been keeping an eye out for you around town. I tried to call… You been busy?”
His eyes dart over to Brock.
“Hey, man,” Brock offers.
“I—yep,” I choke out. “Yeah, got really busy with the house project and everything.”
That’s not at all why I stopped taking his calls. The truth is, I didn’t feel any connection to Charles despite the fact that he is a perfectly fine human being.
I didn’t feel any chemistry.
Lizzy’s words flicker in the back of my mind: ‘You go for tame and passionless, but you deserve amazing. Your heart knows it.’
Tame and passionless.
Yeah. That description fits Charles without a doubt. When he held my hand during a movie we went to, I felt as though my palm was molded around a dead fish.
Charles’ eyes dart over to Brock again. He scratches the back of his head. The silence that hangs between the three of us reminds me that I’m the common element here—the reason the three of us are stuck on this path as though in a stalemate. I need to do some sort of introduction, but how?
‘Brock, meet the guy I went on three very unmemorable dates with.’
‘Charles, this is my boss-crush, Brock Benson.’
No way.
But the silence stretches. Without a solid plan in place, I dive in. “Brock, this is my friend, Charles.” I gesture as if Brock could possibly miss the fluorescent-yellow jacket currently blocking our way.
“Charles, this is Brock Benson. He owns Epic Elevate and?—”
The warm feeling of Brock’s arm moving around my shoulder catches me completely off guard and makes the sentence die in my throat.
What was I about to say?
Something about Brock’s podcast, I think. I make myself continue the sentence, but now my own voice sounds foreign in my ears. “And he produces the Epic Elevate Podcast. Have you heard it? I bet you’ve listened to it. Hundreds of thousands of downloads.”
It doesn’t even matter to me that I’m rambling about Brock’s credentials like a fool. All that matters is that he has his arm around me.
His hip grazes mine. His arm, hugging me, makes me feel incredibly safe and loved.
Zoey, who has retrieved her slobbery wet ball from the soupy wetlands around the pond, trots up to us. This time, she brings the ball to me. She presses it into my hand. I take it from her and lob it off into the woods beside us. All the while, I’m incredibly, almost painfully aware of how Brock feels at my side.
He is tall and strong. The feel of his side touching mine makes my body thrum and buzz. Head to toe, I feel energy I haven’t felt in years. I want to melt into him and turn so that all of me is pressed into all of him. I want to savor the feel of him right next to me on this leaf-carpeted path and not get distracted for even an instant.
Charles is talking now.
Something about the podcast—the episodes he’s heard. His demeanor has shifted, and I realize he probably thinks Brock and I are together. He’s no longer looking at me like a fish he hopes to hook on a line.
After a few half-hearted comments on the podcast, he backs up and whistles for his dog. The border collie bounds up to us, and Charles hooks her to a leash and tugs her along the path.
“Maybe I’ll see you around, Gwen,” he says coolly before delivering one last wary look toward the hulk of a man synched into my side.
Brock and I continue up the path. His arm is still over my shoulders.
“That guy wants you,” he says as Zoey runs up to us again. He shifts his arm away so he can reach for the ball and toss it.
It lands with a splash in the shallows of the pond. “You didn’t seem that into him. Figured I’d help you out.”
“I don’t think he’ll be calling me anymore,” I agree.
