“I’ve got her. Let’s go.”
28THE LITTLE DRESS
Dom
GettingLilly’s call was not what I expected tonight, especially not to pick them up from the bar. I was overthinking this whole thing with Riley, but seeing her all smiles and soft touches with the tatted bartender made my blood boil in a way it never has before. Her in that tiny little white dress, in contrast with her glowing, dew-kissed skin, her cheeks flushed with a rose tint, the same one she has when I make her come undone under my touch, over and over…
But what killed me was how she didn’t take her eyes off his. When Riley is holding your gaze like that, you feel like the most important person in the world, a look I thought she reserved for me. Clearly not. I’m not more special than any other person she talks to.
She’s passionate and attentive, and when you have her attention, you feel like you’re on top of the world. And she was looking at him the same way. Maybe not with the same glow behind her eyes, but with the same smile.
It hurt, and it brought back memories of a time when I wasn’tenough to keep my ex happy, which says I’ll never be able to keep the brightest girl I’ve ever known entertained and content.
Even if I wanted nothing more than to throw her over my shoulder for everyone to see she doesn’t belong to him, but tome.
I had to check myself, though, since that isn’t true either. She doesn’t belong to anyone. She belongs to herself and this land, and I’m going to have to be okay with that, even if it’s going to hurt like a motherfucker when we stop whatever we have going on between us.
“This is me!” Lilly shouts as we pull up to her cabin. The whole ride here has been filled with the two of them talking and giggling. They needed this, and I’m glad I was able to help them get home safely.
I reach to open the door. “Don’t. I got her,” Riley says, stepping out of the truck and walking her sister to her cabin.
I can’t help but think that in a few moments, she’ll be back without Lilly acting as a buffer between us. Riley disappears behind the blue door, so I wait.
I wait for my heart to beat without aching again.
I wait for my brain to catch up with the fact that I’m not good enough for her.
I wait for my body to stop reacting like it’s seeing water after years of insatiable thirst that only Riley has been able to quench every time I look at her.
We shouldn’t, we can’t, and we won’t.
Riley tiptoes out of her sister’s cabin, her glittery cowgirl boots leading the way onto the walking path instead of toward me. I step out and jog to her. “What are you doing?” I hold her small but strong arm in my hand.
“What does it look like I’m doing? Walking home. It’s a beautiful night, and I didn’t get all my steps in today.” She touches her wrist where her watch would usually go, except nothing is there.
“Let me take you. I’m driving to the cabins either way.”
“Nope, I’m good!” she shouts, snatching her arm free and attempting to step forward, but I hold her hand this time.
“Riley, I will throw you over my shoulder again if I have to. I’m not going to let you walk back like this.”
“It’s a fifteen minute walk. I’ll be fine.”
“But why? I have a perfectly good truck right there. Let’s go.”
“No,” she replies, covering her chest with her arms and standing tall but not turning away from me. “I’m trying really hard not to act like a spoiled brat, as you called me yesterday, but I’m also having a hard time understanding why you treat me so differently in front of people than when we’re alone. I thought we were friends.”
The word friend leaving her lips is more than bittersweet. It’s heartbreaking. Do I even have the right to call it that?
“Get in the truck, Riley.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she replies, stomping.
Her little bratty ass keeping me on my toes is a part of her I’ve come to like. “Please, get in the truck.”
She walks past me when I don’t reply, throwing the passenger side door open before I can. She slides in, slamming it shut, before I can get in myself.
She’s pissed, and I don’t blame her, but it feels like the coldest winter night in the middle of summer now that she’s shut me out. Like the sun disappeared, and now it’s all dark, gloomy, and sad.
