I took a deep breath. “Right.”
She stepped closer to me, and I got a whiff of her perfume: green apples and sunshine. “About last night—”
“It’s cool, Debs. I was only showing you what Felix might do. Now you know and can be prepared,” I lied. Isolied. If we hadn’t been interrupted, I would have kissed her. I would have licked her bottom lip until she opened for me, and then I would have tasted her, tasted the Coke she was drinking. I knew I wouldn’t have stopped at one kiss either.
She retreated a step and gave me tight smile. “Wish me luck.”
Did I want to wish her luck? I was leaving the farm soon, but it also felt as though she was about to walk out the door right now with a piece of me. Was this how breakups were? We weren’t breaking up—we had never been a thing, but I didn’t want her to be with another man. At the same time, I wanted her to be happy, and knew I couldn’t stand in the way because of everything we were: twenty-seven years apart in age, she was my mother’s friend, I lived in Houston, and she lived in bum fuck Medina that was four hours away from H-Town.
I returned her tight smile. “Good luck.”
9
The clockabove the fireplace ticked for hours while I watched TV. Well, the TV wason,but I was staring at the clock. Lunch shouldn’t have taken as long as it was taking for Deb to return, but I knew what that meant. She was hitting it off with Felix cat.
Lost in thought, I didn’t hear Sarah’s bedroom door open, but I heard her grab keys from the bowl by the front door. I turned my head in her direction, and her face was stained with tears.
“I’m going to win him back.”
I sat up straighter. “What?”
“That jerk thinks that because we live over a thousand miles apart we won’t last, but he’s wrong.”
“Whoa.” I jumped off the couch and went to her. “Slow down and think about this.”
“I haven’t stopped thinking about it since he broke up with me yesterday.”
“You really think you can change his mind?”
Sarah stomped her foot. “We made it through freshman year. I think we can make it another three.”
I swallowed. I didn’t know this guy, but men didn’t break up with hot chicks for no reason. He had to have another reason other than them living apart because if a man truly loved a woman, he’d make it work. I knew this because that was what I’d done to Miranda, but this wasn’t my fight, and Sarah wasn’t my crazy to deal with.
“Okay, good luck.”
That was the second time I’d wished a woman who I’d tried to kiss good luck with another man.
Lord, help me.
* * *
I returnedto my clock watching after Sarah drove off. Luckily, this time around, it didn’t last more than ten minutes before I heard Deb pull into the garage. As I waited for her to enter the house, I gave myself a pep talk to be cool. Though if that Felix guy was with her, I knew I might lose my shit.
One …
Two …
Three.
Deb walked in, and I turned my head toward her, waiting and watching to see if she was alone. She was, and when she saw me, she sighed. “What kind of name is Felix?”
“What?” I furrowed my brow and muted the TV.
“I’ll tell you,” she said and moved to sit next to me on the couch. Not close enough though. “It’s the name for a dull guy.”
I cracked a smile. “He was boring?”
“Oh my God,” she groaned and rested her head on the back of the cushion. “Did you know that according toUSA Today, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Austwell was ranked the number one best place to go birding?”
