“Your grandpa doesn’t like me, huh?” I pull into my driveway and park under the shade of an old oak tree. “He’s never said a word to me, but he’s always glaring at me and shit,” I tell her, trying to make her feel less guilty than she looks right now.
“He doesn’t really like anyone, actually,” she says.
I give her a look and she says, “Fine, he doesn’t like you because you’re messing up the yard and he thinks it’s disrespectful to your dead grandfather.”
“Ah…” I look over at her grandparent’s house and I realize for the first time that although this place I inherited is all new to me, it holds memories for the man next door. He knew my grandfather and they were friends. I sigh and realize I have been kind of a dick. “Fair enough.”
Chapter 10
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but apparently when you tell someone to never call you again, that doesn’t mean they’ll listen to it. In my case, it means they’ll keep calling you a few times a day, and when you don’t answer, they’ll send you a good morning and good night text filled with smiley emojis just to push your buttons.
Really, I don’t know why The Ex does this. It’s insanely annoying and only makes me hate her more. Does she really think I’ll suddenly say, “Well she cheated on me and was a total bitch but she keeps calling and texting so I guess I’ll take her back?” She can’t possibly think that, yet here she is, texting me again.
I usually allow the anger and hatred of this woman to rise up in my chest when I see her name on my phone. Usually, I can roll my eyes and think about what a slut she is and then go on with my day. But something is off tonight. My phone keeps lighting up and here I am wishing it was lighting up because of Bayleigh. I wish I wasn’t alone here, with no one. I wish I had someone who could be my partner in every sense of the word. Someone who trusted me, who I could trust in return. Someone who wouldn’t make the nights be so lonely.
I light a fire in the fire pit as soon as it gets dark. I bought marsh mallows the other day thinking it would be fun to roast them, but now that just seems so stupid. Who roasts marsh mallows by themselves? That is definitely a friend activity. So I sit in my lawn chair and I watch the fire and I can’t stop thinking of her.
I glance up toward her house next door. The back of it is covered in shadows because the back porch light isn’t on.
“You out there?” I call out, knowing I won’t get a reply.
Only… I hear the creaking of someone stepping onto the balcony. A thin shadowy figure leans out. “Yes,” she says. “I just walked out…I wasn’t here long or anything.”
Thank you, God, for this stroke of good luck.
I wave her over. “Come on down. I could use the company.”
The shadow disappears and my heart sinks. But then a few minutes later, I see her tiptoeing from her yard into mine and my whole chest feels fluttery and excited. She sits next to me in the lawn chair I’d set out earlier hoping it would be hers one day.
I nod at her because I’m too nervous to say anything right now. Just being in her presence has got me all tangled up inside. She’s so ridiculously beautiful on a normal basis and now the shadows and flickers of the flame give her this romantic, angelic glow.
“This bonfire could use some marshmallows,” she says with a little smile.
My phone vibrates so I take it out of my pocket and see The Ex’s name on the screen. Although I do have a brand new bag of them in the kitchen, there’s no way I could eat right now. “I’ll remember that for next time,” I say, glancing down at the text.
I’ve been ignoring all of her hellos and what’s ups, but this text is different.
I could be five months pregnant right now and you wouldn’t even know, you asshole.
What the hell does that mean? Is it a threat? Is she being serious? Jesus, I can’t have a child with that bitch. I can’t stand the idea of seeing her ever again. This can’t possibly be real.
My thumbs fly across the phone screen, texting her back.
Get Luke and all the other guys you slept with to take a DNA test and tell me the results.
She writes back a few seconds later.
God, Jace. I’m not pregnant. I’m just saying you wouldn’t know even if I was because you’re being an asshole who won’t talk to me in person.
Relief floods over my entire body. Thank God. And then it hits me, like a ton of bricks: she only said that because she knew I’d reply to her. Fuck. I’m not making that mistake again.
I close my fist around my phone and try like hell to look like a normal human being when I glance back at Bayleigh.
“You okay?” she asks sweetly. “You’re being super quiet.”
I shrug even though I’d rather punch something because I can’t believe I was stupid enough to fall for The Ex’s shit. “I’m fine. I’m just…I don’t know.”
She leans forward, her hair falling into her face. “You might as well let it out. It’s not like you have anyone else to talk to,” she says with a grin. Then she glances at the phone in my hand and says, “Well, anyone who’s physically here.”
